Hussein Naboulsi

Interview with Hussein Naboulsi, political officer and director of foreign media relations of the Hezbollah Party in Lebanon 

Haret Hreik, Beirut Southern Suburbs, 06/10/2005

 

Question: Which is the local perception of Hizbullah, how local people see Hizbullah?

Answer: You know, you have to see it in that way. When we begun in 1983-1984 there was no knowledge about Hizbullah. Who those people are? What kind of ideology do they have? Purposes? Whatever. Things begun to go bigger and bigger until even like we begun to talk to people, what we want, who we are. Especially in 1985, when we made the so called “Open Letter”. In that open letter we explained who we are and our goals to people, and people begun to know our values, how we think, whatever. Hizbullah was absorbing new recruiter so fast that people adopted the ideology and principle of Hizbullah, especially that Lebanon, at that time, was in turmoil and Civil War and our focus was only against Israel so our main work was resistance in Southern Lebanon.

During the Civil War there was no government so we took the job of the government in terms of providing services to the people, even like collecting trash garbage from the city, supply people with drinking water. Things begun to change bit by bit until we reach a time when we have the majority in the Shia Community, and we have the respect of all the other community in Lebanon. Now we have reached the highest level of respect, trust, credibility, everything; we are now in the golden days.

Q: What do you think has been the most important change from being a movement that was an underground resistance movement to be a public political party?

A: There was a need in the past because Lebanon was occupied. Huge part of Lebanon was occupied, and during the occupation you were not able to work publicly, you had to work secretly, there was Civil War, people fighting each other, there was no other work to do before than to liberate your land. We focus on that perspective, it was a necessity to work secretly, even our name cannot be known, even to each other, because we really work secretly. After the first withdrawal from Beirut we begun to declare our identity to people

Before that, we were nothing, even people did not heard about Hizbullah, from 1982 to 1984 it was always secret work because the situation at that time forced to work in that atmosphere, otherwise you will be captured and arrested.

After this, Hizbullah begun to go bigger and bigger, we begun to build our new construction on a solid ground, and people begun to know us, we became part of the society, we begun to be known. New needs begun to appear, we built school, hospital, we talk with people that were in need. There were no services at all, so we begun to build these services, even like institution for the war wounded and for the families of martyrs. This until 1992, this year we decide to enter the parliamentary elections, we participated in the first parliamentary elections, the second and the third, and in the third we really won the majority in the Shia community. We dominated all the municipality in the Bekaa and in Beirut and 65% in the South. That means that we were the majority within the Shia community and people do not vote for you for nothing, there must be a need, a purpose, something that drive people to vote for you, and if you are not faithful, loyal, honest, if you do not proof that you are really sacrificing for that people they will not vote for you. And we receive the vote of the Shia but also of the Sunni in Saida (Sidon) and of the Christians in eastern Saida proving they are supportive and loyal through their vote in the parliamentary elections.

Q: Do you think that the fragmentation of the society during the Civil War could help somehow the party to be more effective in one community?

A: I believe that Lebanon is made of many sects. Lebanon is not a country of one type of people, there are seventeen sects where we are the majority. But I will tell you something, no, this was not the issue. People were looking for a government because government was not meeting their needs before the Taif agreement, before the war the Shia were left to the open air, no service was provided to people, the aid used to go in one direction, other people were neglected in the Bekaa and in the South. We looked around and saw people need some help, that’s what we did. We did not do this for political goal at all; we did this for humanitarian purpose, clear humanitarian purpose, otherwise it will appear as all we want was political gains. But we could get political gains from different perspective, here we pay, we pay a lot, we sacrifice a lot, we make a lot of efforts, we can make political gain but we never talk that way at all.

Q: Do you think that what during resistance was a legitimacy provided by armed activity could shift to a legitimacy provided by social welfare in the parliamentary competition?

A: Our fight against Israel was not based on political reasons, it was based on religion. It is our duty according to religious principles that we have to defend ourselves, so we have done it for a religious background not for a political one, and we have sacrificed eighteen hundreds martyrs in the fight against Israel. It was a real fight that at the end leads to the liberation of the South Lebanon. When we took the initiative to enter the parliamentary world it was first of all because were the first parliamentary elections after the Taif agreement, second we sought the need to be present in the Parliament to express the need of the people instead of be outside and speak while no one will hear us. That was a very clever decision to enter the Parliament and many people talk of the Lebanonisation of the party. With the Lebanonisation we enter the Parliament and now we are part of the game. We have the Labour Minister and the Energy and Water Minister. I think all our practices and behaviour is not aimed to have political gains otherwise we will have felt just as other parties in Lebanon had felt. Wherever you go in Lebanon even those who do not agree with us at a political level, they respect us, they respect our principles, they know we are people with a lot of value. I think what we are doing is to serve Lebanon people from different sides, to prove it I can say that we are religious yes, but we are not sectarian, we also help in building some churches. Even geographically Lebanon have Shia living in some areas, Sunni living in some other, Christians in other, there is no real integration except in downtown (Beirut city centre) where people get together from different sects. Despite that, all our political practices prove that we are not sectarian at all and we are not seeking any kind of political gain. I think the best way to reach your goal is to enter the people’s heart, once you enter the people’s heart you win otherwise you are a big loser.