Nasrallah from Mleita : on the making of memory and the making of life in South Lebanon

On Friday, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah addressed (through video-link) an audience in the inaugural ceremony of the Mleita Tourist Project near Ghandouriyé and Qantara in the Caza of Bint Jbeil. The project, according to Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah's speech comes in line with Hezbollah's desire to document the history of the resistance and "preserve the memory of the nation."

" Mleita : The story of a land [told] to the sky "

In his speech, Nasrallah made reference to the similarity between this project and similar ones in the futures on the one hand, with Holocaust monuments and museums worldwide.

The inauguration of the monumental project took place on May 21, on the tenth anniversary and at the same site of first Israeli redeployment in South Lebanon days before the full retreat of the Israeli army and the SLA to the internationally-recognised "Blue Line" dividing French-Mandate Lebanon and British-Mandate Palestine on May 25. The inauguration comes as part of South Lebanon's celebration of the tenth anniversary of its liberation from the 28-year-long Israeli and SLA occupation.

However, taking place only two days prior to the municipal and local elections in South Lebanon, the second half of Nasrallah's speech inevitably touched upon the issue giving some direct "advice" to Hezbollah's supporters.

After listening to his speech for the fourth time, I can only help but wonder if it was an open war declared by Hezbollah's secretary-general Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah on the primordial and familial nature of "municipal politics" in South Lebanon. Was his calling upon Hezbollah's audience to vote for the "Loyalty-Development" electoral lists ONLY a symbol of yet another battle in which the national-partisan political society overtakes another bastion of "civil" (if familial/primordial qualifies as such) society?

Hezbollah also drew comparison between the "electoral parades" that will take place on the northern (Lebanese) side of the "Blue Line" and the military drills that will take place on the southern (Israeli) side saying that "while we celebrate life and make it through elections, they will send their people into bomb shells and practice the making of death." According to Nasrallah, "this time, we are not afraid of their aggression, whereas they are afraid of our strength" in reference to the perceived "balance of terror" or deterrence which Hezbollah is believed to have achieved vis-à-vis Israel in the aftermath of the July 2006 war.

You can watch Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah's speech or read the transcript (in Arabic) - both available from Al-Manar TV website. More Photos of Melita are available here.