Channels of Resistance in Lebanon: Liberation Propaganda, Hezbollah and the Media

Reviews / Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 5 (2012) 361–370 365 Channels of Resistance in Lebanon: Liberation Propaganda, Hezbollah and the Media. Zahera Harb. I.B.Tauris, 2011, 256 pp. ISBN: 978-1-84885-121-4. The television industry in Lebanon is a complex phenomenon, particularly when viewed in comparison to its Arab competitors. Yet little has been written about it and the literature that is available fails to address the many developments that mark its history and performance. Moreover, there are few studies that address Lebanon’s broadcast media culture in relation to the Lebanese-Israeli conflict and, particularly, to the pivotal role it played in facilitating the withdrawal of the Israeli army from south Lebanon. Zahera Harb’s book, Channels of Resistance in Lebanon: Liberation Pro paganda, Hezbollah and the Media (I.B. Tauris, 2011), is an excellent contri- bution to this discussion and fills a major gap in the field. Drawing on her extensive experience as a broadcast journalist as well as on her academic background, Harb provides a compelling study of the ways in which Lebanon’s broadcast media coverage registered and, more importantly, contributed to, ‘achieving liberation’ (2). Taking as case studies Lebanon’s national television station Tele Liban and Al-Manar TV, the television station affiliated to the Lebanese Islamic- Shia party Hezbollah, Harb argues that the performance of these two channels falls under the framework of what she calls ‘liberation propaganda’: propaganda that derives its impetus from establishing national solidarity and loyalty toward the government and resistance groups in their struggle against foreign occupation (20–21). As Harb investigates the ways in which these two channels covered major events related to the conflict and analyzes the press commentaries that ensued from this coverage, she also tells her own story and the story of fellow Lebanese journalists. Harb herself was a key media figure who covered some of the most dramatic and traumatic events in this conflict, such as the Qana massacre of 1996. Thus, her book is a powerful account of Lebanese broadcast journalism and its modes of resistance against the Israeli occupation. Channels of Resistance in Lebanon is divided into seven chapters. The first three chapters introduce and identify the theoretical framework of the study by focusing on the various definitions of propaganda offered by such scholars as Philip Taylor, Gerhard von Glahn and F. C. Bartlett and by highlighting the ethnographic nature of the investigation. In addition, Harb dis- cusses the various forms of ethnography that she draws on to contextualize her analysis of the techniques and structures of ‘liberation propaganda’. In chapters 4 and 5, Harb gives a brief overview of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Lebanese-Israeli conflict, highlighting key events and dates that mark © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2012 DOI 10.1163/18739865-00503015 366 Reviews / Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 5 (2012) 361–370 their history. The remaining chapters offer a fascinating historical and critical reading of the performance of the Lebanese media, particularly Tele Liban and Al-Manar. Harb moves very deftly between academic analysis and journalistic insight in a manner that offers the reader a comprehensive picture of the performance of these Lebanese media outlets. Possibly one of the most interesting and groundbreaking aspects of the book is the section on Al-Manar TV. Drawing on an impressive number of personal interviews with key figures in Hezbollah and Al-Manar TV, Harb narrates the story of the station’s first transmission from a ‘small apartment in the suburbs of Beirut’, (108) to its gradual progression into a media outlet that soon became identified as a ‘national resistance channel’ (112). By means of a strategy of recording firsthand the struggle unfolding in the south of the country, Al-Manar—according to Harb—achieved a propaganda status that was able to disorient the Israeli enemy, unsettle Israeli society and garner support internally. This media strategy worked in tandem with the military struggle of Hizbullah’s resistance fighters. As Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah affirmed on the eve of the liberation celebrations in May 2000: ‘If it was not for Al-Manar, the victory would have not been achieved’ (quoted in Harb, 189). In addition, Harb analyzes key incidents in the Lebanese-Israeli conflict prior to the liberation to highlight how Al-Manar undertook its media cam- paign. These include coverage of the exchange of martyrs and detainees, the killing of Brigadier-General Eretz Gerstein (head of Israeli forces in south Lebanon), and the Beir Kalab operation, which saw resistance fighters attacking Israeli and SLA positions in the occupied zone of south Lebanon. In all this, the various ‘media traps’ that Hezbollah and Al-Manar TV adopted are brought to light, while the cameramen who accompanied resistance fighters on their missions and recorded key operations becomes a central figure in the military struggle. Perhaps, as Harb writes, the most compelling proof of the powerful role that Al-Manar TV played in launching ‘psychological warfare’ against the Israeli army is the Israeli bombing of its Beirut headquarters in the July 2006 war. Even more, the unprecedented support of most Lebanese TV media stations to keep Al-Manar TV on air attests to the significant position this TV station occupied vis-a-vis discourses of national resistance. Channels of Resistance in Lebanon is a well-informed and original book that sheds new light on the performance of Lebanese media outlets in relation to the Lebanese-Israeli conflict and the liberation of south Lebanon. It is also the story of broadcast journalism during the years leading up to .

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