The Enemy Becomes You
I’d wondered for a long time about Hezbollah’s tree-planting program. Once when I spent the day with a Mahdi Scout troop the boys planted a bank of cypress trees as a windbreak by a Khiam playground, but I hadn’t encountered a lot of arboreal work.
In fact Hezbollah plants trees big time; Hassan Nasrallah appeared in public on Saturday for the first time in years to plant what the party claimed was its millionth sapling in the Dahieh, Beirut’s southern suburb. When it comes to symbolism (and institution-building), Hezbollah has openly borrowed from Israel and the early Zionist movement. Tree-planting and reforestation have been tremendously effective in Israel, both from a practical standpoint and as a way of cultivating popular attachment for the land. No simple is more apt (or as compelling, perhaps) as a little sapling taking root, firming up, and growing into a tree. It seemed like a no-brainer that Hezbollah would incorporate tree-planting into its tactical canon.
I first noticed the story reported by Alistair Lyon of Reuters, then quickly found links to the report on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar website, which broadcast the planting near Nasrallah’s house.
Jihad al Binaa, or the Holy Struggle for Reconstruction, spearheaded the urban tree-planting campaign over the last few months, Nasrallah said on Al-Manar:
“We wanted to plant this tree in this particular place, near our residence in Haret Heriek, which was destroyed during the 2006 war, to address every citizen and say: If every Lebanese plants a tree next to his house and pledged to take care and preserve it, imagine how our country would look like.”
Indeed. Lebanon could use more trees, and the congested confines of the unplanned, overcrowded Dahieh in particular could use anything to improve quality of life.
