Iraq: Cash and Sympathy for Lebanon

Despite the continuing bloodshed at home, the conflict in Lebanon has had a major impact in Iraq, with fundraising efforts to provide humanitarian aid – and some expressions of support for the Hezbollah militia.



Lebanon has dominated news reports and comment in the Iraqi press and broadcast media, as it has in most of the Arab media. There is sympathy for Lebanese civilians who have suffered in Israeli attacks, and outrage at what many believe is a renewed occupation of Lebanon.



Iraqi president Jalal Talabani – a Kurd - donated 100 million dinars, about 67,000 US dollars, to Lebanon last week, and he was followed by vice-president Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a prominent Shia Arab leader, who gave 33,000 dollars.



Mahdi’s donation came from the Shaahi al-Mihrab foundation, which is run by the powerful Shia party he belongs to, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, SCIRI. The campaign, supported by SCIRI’s Furat satellite TV channel, has raised a total of 180,000 dollars for aid to Lebanon.



Beyond concerns about Israeli incursions and the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, reactions among Iraqis have been shaped in part by who they are and where they stand politically.



Under Saddam Hussein, official Iraqi ideology was hostile in the extreme towards Israel, and such attitudes are still prevalent among some Islamic leaders there – not to mention the insurgents.



Hezbollah finds natural sympathisers among Shia Muslims, in a country where this community forms a substantial part of the population, like Lebanon but unlike most Arab states.



But the Lebanese militia also enjoys more widespread respect because it is credited by many Arabs with forcing Israeli troops to pull out of southern Lebanon in 2000. In the minds of many, that makes it the only Arab force to have won a victory over Israel.



"Of course I support the resistance in Lebanon," said Maha Mohammed, a 34-year-old civil servant who has heeded Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's call for prayers for victory. "Hezbollah has done what Arab [countries] were unable to do, with all their capacity."



Adnan Hasan, a 50-year-old senior government employee, said he relates to the Lebanese people because like Iraqis, they are under occupation.



"Even though I am a Sunni – at least that's how I'm identified these days -- I strongly support the Hezbollah resistance, because it is standing up to the occupier, the Israeli enemy," said Hasan.



Other Iraqis interviewed by IWPR – including Kurds who, although mainly Sunni, often identify with Israel as minorities in an Arab-dominated region – said their sympathies lay with Lebanon in the current conflict because Israel was targeting civilian areas.



Some of the most open expressions of support for Hezbollah came from supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the young hard-line Shia cleric. Sadr was the first leader to call for support for Hezbollah, and his followers have held demonstrations in Baghdad and in some southern provinces.



While the Sadrists have no official links with Hezbollah, both regard themselves as Shia resistance movements in conflict with occupying forces - and both have ties with Iran.



"We are with Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah with our hearts and minds," said Mohammed Hamza, a 26-year-old Sadrist. "If we had a chance – and if the situation was secure in Baghdad - you’d see that we’d be the first ones in there lending them our support."



Shia militias including Sadr's Mahdi Army are under pressure to disband from the Iraqi government and the United States.



Hana Mohammed, a 52-year-old bank employee, voiced a commonly-held view that both the US and Israel want to see Shia movements, in particular, disarmed because they are such a potent force in the region.



Mohammed said that if Israel defeated Hezbollah, this would automatically "lead to the disarming of Iraqi militias, including the Mahdi Army".



Yet even among Shia groups, there are some who feel that Iraq can ill afford to be raising funds for Lebanon when it cannot look after its own people.



Samira Amin, a member of parliament for the United Iraqi Alliance, the country’s largest political bloc, which is Shia-led and includes SCIRI, said she supported "a powerful stand to show Arab and Muslim unity".



But she added, "Of course we give our moral support to Hezbollah in resisting Israel, but I don't agree with giving material support, in view of the current situation in Iraq.



"We have camps for internally displaced Iraqis where there are not even the most basic services. There are families living way below the poverty line. No one has thought to donate money to improve their living conditions."



Hind al-Saffar is an IWPR trainee journalist in Baghdad.