The extraordinary work of delivering basic services in Lebanon
Source: Daily Star, 5-10-2006
The general manager of Jihad al-Binaa, Hizbullah`s construction wing, discusses his organization`s efforts to develop a `resistance society and community`
By Lysandra Ohrstrom
INTERVIEW
BEIRUT: At Jihad al-Binaa`s makeshift headquarters at the Mehdi School in Bir Hassan, volunteers with children in tow buzz through colorful classrooms in preparation for the fall term. The school has housed Hizbullah`s construction wing since "Israel" destroyed its Dahiyeh offices this summer (though Jihad al-Binaa will have to decamp again soon when the already delayed academic year begins on October 9).
For now, sophisticated building schematics are scrawled on a blackboard and coded maps of damaged areas are scattered amid pastel construction-paper cut-outs and discarded crayons.
At the Mehdi School there is scant evidence of the militancy so often ascribed to Hizbullah by the international media, in large part because Jihad al-Binaa, a self-described development association, is the embodiment of the social obligation implicit in the term jihad.
Jihad al-Binaa has been providing basic services - usually the domain of a strong central government - to both the Muslim and non-Muslim populations in the neglected regions of the Bekaa Valley, South Lebanon and the Dahiyeh for more than 20 years. As such it is one of Lebanon`s oldest non-governmental organizations.
Jihad al-Binaa`s general manager, Kassem Aleik, says the organization focuses on providing services and developing the "resistance society and community." It also coordinates volunteer work and supports educational initiatives and the agricultural sector in Lebanon`s predominantly Shiite districts.
Opponents dismiss Hizbullah`s social welfare network - of which Jihad al-Binaa is an integral part - as real politik, nothing more than a brainwashing mechanism used to shore up the party`s political base. Others see it as an altruistic commitment to the well-being of Lebanon`s historically marginalized Shiite community. Regardless of where one falls on the spectrum of political opinion, it is safe to conclude that in 1985, when Jihad al-Binaa was founded, the Lebanese state was either unable or unwilling to develop infrastructure or provide services like running water, trash collection and electricity to the inhabitants of the country`s poorest, most rural communities and Southern villages that suffered most from the "Israeli" occupation.
As the current Lebanese government falls into a new round of political squabbles at the outset of another phase of post-war reconstruction, Hizbullah is once again filling a void.
"The nature of our work changes during times of war and of peace and nowadays our work is different than in the past," Aleik says from the desk he will be forced to vacate when the principal of the Mehdi School reclaims her office. "Before 1992, when there was no government, we worked like a municipality or one of the ministries of service."
This is not the first time Jihad al-Binaa has picked up the pieces after an "Israeli" assault.
Its first task was to restore buildings in Bir al-Abed that were targeted during an attempt to assassinate Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in 1985. The deputy secretary general of Hizbullah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, in his 2005 book "Hizbullah: The Story from Within," estimates that Jihad al-Binaa has restored at least 17,212 homes, shops and public utilities in South Lebanon and the western Bekaa Valley that were damaged during the "Israeli" campaigns of 1991, 1993 and 1996.
"In 1993 we did all the [rebuilding] work, both infrastructure and upper-structure," Aleik explains. "But in 1996, as is the case now, we are working on shops and houses, since infrastructure is the responsibility of the government."
Less than three hours after the cessation of more recent hostilities on August 14, Jihad al-Binaa deployed 100 engineers to villages and the southern suburbs to begin conducting a damage assessment of residential units, says Aleik. It was completed in three days, and temporary shelter has been found for the residents of the 15,000 homes that were reduced to rubble.
Jihad al-Binaa engineers have also completed a second assessment of the partially damaged residential units, and started the restoration of 70,000 salvageable homes. All of the work has been authorized by municipal leaders and is being done in coordination with Khatib & Alami - the consulting firm contracted by the Higher Relief Council (HRC) - according to the technical standards dictated by the Order of Engineers and Architects.
Aleik says a third study, conducted by 1,000 volunteer engineers, on the destruction of commercial enterprises is 75 percent complete. The HRC has yet to release the report it contracted Khatib & Alami to do, and the firm declined The Daily Star`s request for comment on the grounds that the government had asked them to keep the survey confidential.
Jihad al-Binaa also refuses to release the complete results of the damage assessments. Aleik only smiles when asked if the government has asked Hizbullah to keep its surveys under wraps.
While Jihad al-Binaa is coordinating with the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) along with municipal leaders in the Dahiyeh on a proposal for an urban planning scheme to guide the rebuilding of the area, which he expects will be submitted to Cabinet "soon," Aleik says the state has been "late in the relief effort." He attributes the delay to bureaucratic morass and political bickering.
"Hizbullah is trying to pressure the government to make decisions, because we believe their first priority must be the reconstruction," Aleik says. "We gave people money to ease their suffering because they can`t take the government`s delays."
Aleik says he believes the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is purposefully obstructing the reconstruction process because it wants to undermine Hizbullah by proving that the party is not capable of rebuilding the South on its own.
"Siniora is a servant to the US Embassy and his government does not take independent decisions," Aleik says. "It obstructs all policies that facilitate the reconstruction so people can return to their homes in a suitable time frame."
Whether or not Hizbullah is currently capable of mounting an independent reconstruction effort, it is tough to dispute its role in the development of South Lebanon. Even the familiar refrain of Hizbullah`s detractors - "the party functions as a state within a state" - is testament to the scope of its activities.
The United Nations` Economic and Social Commission for West Asia called Hizbullah "one of the best-equipped organizations in the country" in a report on rural community development from 1988 to 1994. In the 2005 book, "In the Path of Hizbullah," American University of Beirut political science professor Nizar Hamzeh writes that Jihad al-Binaa`s development projects "not only provided a response to emergency needs, but were very much needed by Hizbullah as infrastructure for the flow of its social services."
According to Jihad al-Binaa`s estimates, between 1988 and 2002 the organization was responsible for the construction and/or renovation of 35 schools, 9,643 homes, 800 shops, five hospitals, eight infirmaries, 100 mosques, eight cultural centers and almost 11,000 agricultural cooperatives in South Lebanon, the Bekaa and Beirut.
Irrigation networks installed by Jihad al-Binaa satisfy around 45 percent of the Dahiyeh`s water needs. Its electricity department has manufactured and installed more than 20 power generators in the South and the Bekaa, and according to Hamzeh, has even provided maintenance for the government`s power networks in these two regions.
Hizbullah refuses to disclose the source of its funding, but Hamzeh estimates that Iran donates $1 billion annually to support its social welfare programs, and the rest of the budget comes from zakat, private donations, and business investments.
Aleik is similarly elusive on this subject, but acknowledges that charitable donations from abroad increase "more and more every day," despite the threat of sanctions.
"They have no effect on our network," Aleik says of whether or not US government`s efforts to crack down on banks suspected of financing "terrorist activities" have impacted the flow of donations to Hizbullah.
"We have our own system and can get money from anywhere without the US knowing. We are not going to register on the New York Stock Exchange just because America demands it. If someone from the White House wants to donate to us he can, without the US ever knowing," Aleik insists.
To drive home his point, he quotes a saying of Imam Ali which translates roughly as: "If a person wins the same amount two days in a row he is a loser, since every day must be better than the last one."
As he signals the end of an interview, he adds: "You know I went to school in America, I got my civil engineering degree in Michigan.``