Why US sanctions won’t affect Hezbollah’s popular support
US sanctions on the Lebanese Hezbollah group appear to have affected the party’s various wings financially, including the construction association known as Jihad al-Binaa, but popular support and projects are still going strong.
It does everything from beekeeping to reforestation to offering advice on optimum storage of avocados — but is also designated as a terrorist organization by the US government.
Jihad al-Binaa has provided Lebanese communities with wide-ranging services in agriculture, training and construction since it was founded in 1988 as the development association of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed political and military group.
“As well as military work, Hezbollah has since the beginning been concerned with political, cultural and healthcare issues,” Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah told a mostly male, middle-aged audience at an event July 26 for Jihad al-Binaa’s 31st anniversary. He spoke via video link shown at a mosque in Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The anniversary — with the slogan “We carry on” — was widely advertised on pro-Hezbollah messaging channels and social media networks. It comes at a time when the “Party of God” — the group's literal translation in Arabic — faces greater-than-ever pressure from US sanctions, and as it wants to remind support bases of its legacy, analysts say.
