Mleeta, The Hezbollah Resistance Museum

So on Tuesday, the new public holiday of Resistance & Liberation, I went down south to check out this new Resistance Museum I had read about in the paper. Well, you can’t miss it; the signs – Resistance Tourist Landmark – start somewhere way back in Nabatiya. The Mleeta museum is a larger version, or actually, a very large version of the Spider Web Exhibition that Hezbollah organized some years ago in the southern suburbs. In Mleeta, they’ve perfected the art; it’s a genuine war museum. With a website (but the English pasrt is still under construction).

The Abyss; the original 'dead zone'

The museum is situated on the hill of Mleeta; a hill that is apparently quite significant in Hezbollah history. This is where, back in the early 80’s, Imad Mugnieyhe  and Abbas Moussawi, started training the very first Muqawameh (resistance) people. The area was occupied by the Israelis in 1982, who started a slow withdrawal in 84-85 until they formed their so-called ‘Security Zone’. Mleeta was right outside this zone, and had a good view on the ridge where the Israelis had set up their fence. Both men have since then been blown up.

Some visitors with very gung-ho kids

Another thing I learned about this hill,  is that it was a so-called ‘dead zone’. Israeli planes apparently leave base only with ammo on board when they have a planned target. Sometimes, they cannot see or find the target, but they do not want to take the bombs back to base and land with them. So they have to drop their bombs in an area where it cannot hurt anyone. This is not done for humanitarian reasons but because of strategic rationale. Any civilian you hit is a reason for the other side to retaliate. Mleeta was one of these zones, so in this hill there’s this huge pit created by years of ‘left-over’ bombs.

"Are you done now? Can we get down?"

The Israelis never intended this, I am sure, but if their invasion into Lebanon in 1982 left one lasting legacy, it is a very powerful and persistent resistance. One so well organized and huge that today - some 28 years after the invasion into Lebanon, and some 10 years after their withdrawal – these couple of men have transformed it into a vast organization with a political party, a permanent army, a large social network (schools and clinics), a media apparatus (radio station, TV, public relation offices for local and foreign press and a number of web sites), a boy-scouts division from which they draw future martyrs, logistical skills that are awesome (they can organize and discipline a crowd like no other in Lebanon), and a intelligence division that is quite sophisticated.

Posing for papa with an Israeli helmet on your head.

All that was missing, is some history. And now, they’ve got that too, with an entire museum. They have built an entire theme park around the spoils of war, intelligence and victories they have gained from their enemy over the years. Now all of this is open to debate; it has come at a huge price, but I am not going to enter into that discussion. Whatever your opinion, this museum is something else.

Checking out Israeli ammo up close

This dead zone’ pit has been filled with all sorts of Israeli military equipment that Hezbollah has gathered over the years. Entire Merkava tanks are lying there. There’s a hall where the complete IDF structure has been posted, all 8 division, complete with who’s the general running it, how many people are in it, what subdivision are stationed where and with what material. Those Hezbollahs are busy bodies, checking the wires on a daily basis for updates. “The Israeli press is open, so we can follow exactly what, where and how,” explained one of the guides. “In order to defeat your enemy, you have to know him, and we know them very well.” He knew how to read Hebrew, but that was as far as he was willing to go. Hezbollahs do – as a rule - not share information with outsiders. Not ever. Everything has to be approved by the main office. And the main office approves almost nothing, since one of their guys once said that the PLO was finished once they let outsiders in on their affairs.

Trenches

Anyone you’ve ever met, who claimed he was working with Hezbollah, is - what we call in the trade - a Wholla (Wanna-be Hezbollah). A real Hezbollah would never say that. They don’t talk. They hate small-talk. One of the guides at the museum spoke perfect American. How come? Well, he’d been living in Dearborn, MI, for a number of years. If you are unfamiliar with Dearborn, it’s where the rest of (shi muslim) Lebanon is living. Rima Fakih, the Lebanese Miss America, is also from Dearborn. Well, our guide was not familiar with the Fakih family, and most definitely not with Miss America. “If you say so,” he replied.

Inside the mountains they dug an entire tunnel system with rooms

Around the hill, you get access to the original Muqawameh base; the thing was dug into the hill, with tunnels running all over the place. They could keep people underground for as long as two weeks. And from this base the moved into the Security Zone, as the Israeli called the occupied area.

Another vehicle

Would I recommend you go and see it? Yes. Admitted, the entire display has a slight ‘Disney’-like quality it, with little signs at every piece of artillery or bomb. The English is stilted, translated from classical Arabic - is a very flowery and poetic language - into the more business-like oriented English, and that just doesn’t read quite well at times. It’s a little kitsch at times, and the symbolism of the display is so thick it almost smothers it. The ratio of veiled ladies versus non-veiled ladies was something like 999:1 (there was quite a large contingent of mullas visiting as well, but I was told that was because of opening day)

A Hezbollah soldier somewhere in the bushes (no, not a real one)

However, you’ve got to hand it to these guys. The Lebanese have yet to come up with a real monument to commemorate 15 years of civil war and they’re still fighting over what should be written in the school history books (and thus all parents only teach their view, which ensure we will perpetuate the reasons for conflict).

But these Hezbollahs have managed to get an entire museum in place. So, if you have nothing to do, check out this Mleeta museum. Whether you’re a Hezbollah fan or foe; I think you’re going to be surprised either way.

And I suggest you do it really fast too, because my guess is that the next time the Israelis drop a bomb on Lebanon, this museum is the first one to go.

The Security Zone. This is the road between Nabatiya and KfarKila; the place is pristine, because the zone was virtually empty of inhabitants for quite a number of years.