On July 12, Hezbollah’s Trade Union Department in the Beqaa region conducted a tour for union leaders at the “Jihadi Site of Baalbek” to mark 19 years since the “victory” in the Second Lebanon War (2006). Hezbollah’s General Trade Union Department was established in 1996 and operates under the Executive Council. Sub-departments within the General Department are divided according to geographic regions. The main role of the department is to guide Hezbollah representatives within various professional unions (e.g., the Bar Association, the Medical Association, etc.) to ensure they best represent Hezbollah’s interests.
Make no mistake: although the organizations operating under Hezbollah’s Executive Council are professional, structured, widely deployed, and serve a broad population in Lebanon, they are not formal institutions of the Lebanese state. In fact, they compete with the state’s parallel formal institutions. This competition has effectively led to the decline and growing irrelevance of Lebanon’s official institutions, undermining the country’s stability and sovereignty.
Within Hezbollah, there is no separation between military and civil activities, this is the essence of the “Resistance Society.” All civil organizations operating under the Executive Council actively support and assist Hezbollah’s military operations in their day-to-day activities.
Symbolically, this was reflected during the tour, when the head of the trade unions, Shafiq Qassem Shahada, emphasized that the resistance is a natural extension of the workers’ struggle for their rights, and not separate from it.
One Response
Dear Tal,
Thanks for the expose on this corruption.
Hezbollah terror unions must be totally defunded. Hezbollah is evil and corrupted to its core. It must be totally defeated and removed. It is a cancer of society that must be extracted to prevent the death of society itself!