Photos of Hezbollah Propaganda
Damascus, Syria

These were photos taken inside the bus that transported me from Beirut to the border with Syria (2000 Transport and Tourism). Mixed in with the ridiculous Hezbollah propaganda (containing their goofy-looking leader, Hassan Nasrallah) are photos of a young child, presumably the driver's son. Note the rather disturbing imagery of Israeli helmet headshots.

Hezbollah (literally "party of God") is a Shi'a Islamist political and paramilitary organization based in Lebanon. Hezbollah is now also a major provider of social services, which operate schools, hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands of Lebanese Shiites, and plays a significant force in Lebanese politics. It is regarded as a resistance movement throughout much of the Arab and Muslim world. Many governments, including Arab ones, have condemned actions by Hezbollah while others have praised the party. Six Western countries, including Israel and the United States, list it in whole or in part as terrorist.

Hezbollah receives its financial support from Syria and the donations of Lebanese and other Shi'a. It also receives financial and political assistance, as well as weapons and training, from the Islamic Republic of Iran. The US estimates that Iran has been giving Hezbollah about US$60-100 million per year in financial assistance.

In the 1980s Hezbollah waged an asymmetrical guerrilla war against Israel. At the beginning, it had used suicide attacks against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and against Israeli targets outside of Lebanon. Hezbollah is reputed to have been among the first Islamic resistance groups to use tactical suicide bombing, assassination, and capturing against foreign soldiers in the Middle East. But gradually, Hezbollah turned into a paramilitary organization and used missiles and other type of rocket launchers and detonations of explosive charges instead of capturings, murders, hijackings, and bombings.

From the inception of Hezbollah to the present, the elimination of the State of Israel has been one of Hezbollah's primary goals. Some translations of Hezbollah's 1985 Arabic-language manifesto state that "our struggle will end only when this entity [Israel] is obliterated". In an interview with the Washington Post, Nasrallah said "I am against any reconciliation with Israel. I do not even recognize the presence of a state that is called 'Israel'". In March 2009, in a speech marking the birthday of Muhammad, Nasrallah said, "As long as Hezbollah exists, it will never recognize Israel."