Source: Daily Star, 18-7-2007
SOUTH LEBANON: Thousands of billboards with taglines praising the resistance against "Israel" were recently posted on highways and roads in the South, adding a bit of color and liveliness to the war-ravaged area. The billboards are part of Hizbullah`s campaign to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 2006 summer war.
Billboards, live 3D displays, and pamphlets, all with yellow as the major theme, praise Hizbullah`s accomplishments during the 34-day war and the "Divine Victory," while mocking "Israel's" performance.
One of the billboards depicting military vehicles carrying rockets used by Hizbullah during a summer war reads: "More than 20,000 rockets."
The tagline is a clear reference to a speech delivered right after the war by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, when he announced that "Israel" had failed to weaken his party`s military power during the war it launched and that the party had started to rebuild its military arsenal.
The intensified Hizbullah ad campaign is seen by many as the alternative to suspended festivities in commemoration of the war.
Reconstruction, political messages to internal as well as external forces, in addition to classic slogans also figure among the main themes of this year`s war commemoration. "We will cut [off] the hand of anyone who [dares] confiscate the arms of the resistance," one of the billboards reads.
The village of Maroun al-Ras, which witnessed some of the fiercest battles between the "Israeli" Army and Hizbullah fighters was also showered with posters and billboards mocking the defeat of "Israeli" soldiers.
Seventy-year-old Abdullah Firas from Maroun al-Ras said billboards and posters were essential, "so as to have `Israelis` become aware that we are more motivated than before and we are willing to fight them for thousands of years to come."
Other organizations operating in the South, such as the Hariri Foundation, erected banners and billboards on all Southern highways which were bombed during the conflict, calling for "building of bridges of trust and communication among the Lebanese."
The ruling majority in Parliament, led by MP Saad Hariri, has been calling for the resumption of national dialogue sessions to end Lebanon`s worst internal political crisis.
On the newly renovated Zahrani highway bridge, however, Hizbullah set up a life-size picture of Lebanese detainees (hostages) in "Israeli" prisons.