On a visit to Hizbullah's museum of resistance in south Lebanon, Raed El-Rafei discovers a new resort for resistance tourism The teenage boy positioned himself behind a rocket launcher nestled in a group of oak trees. Pulling a face, he asked his friends, all wearing blue shirts and white neckerchiefs, to take photographs. A member of Hizbullah's Imam Al-Mahdi scout order, the boy and his fellow scouts were touring the Lebanese activist organisation's Museum of the Resistance, which opened in south Lebanon last week. They posed in front of missile launchers displayed at this large complex of buildings and open-air spaces that showcase Hizbullah's weapons and arms captured from the Israeli army, as well as a cave dug out of the mountainside, all dubbed a resort for "resistance tourism". Perched on a hill in Iqlim Al-Toffah in south Lebanon at more than 1,000 metres above sea level, the museum, referred to as Mleeta, the name of the town where it is built, also offers an insight into the environment in which Hizbullah activists have lived and planned their attacks. However, the modus operandi presented at the museum seems rather old-fashioned and does not reveal much about the capacity and tactics of the organisation today. According to Hizbullah, the museum was designed to commemorate the organisation's long years of struggle against the Israeli army, especially between 1982 and 2000 when Israel occupied large swaths of south Lebanon. From this rocky mountain dominating vast areas of the south of the country and shielded by lush vegetation, Hizbullah fighters drew up their military plans and prepared themselves to slip into occupied zones in order to launch attacks against the Israeli military and its Lebanese allies, the Lahd militia. "One of our top responsibilities is to safeguard the history of the resistance," said Hizbullah's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, addressing politicians, diplomats and dignitaries at the museum's opening ceremony last week. "Nations and peoples celebrate history and teach it to new generations... The museum of Mleeta is one effort to preserve history and convey an image of our past," he added, speaking through a screen erected for the occasion because he could not appear in public for security reasons. The inauguration of this permanent exhibition centre, which presumably cost millions of dollars and was financed with Iranian money, was timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Israel's retreat from south Lebanon on 25 May. However, Hizbullah's desire to mark the occasion with a grand project that flaunts its military capabilities and past achievements comes as the region reaches its highest level of tension since the summer 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, which killed more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and destroyed Lebanese buildings and infrastructure. Last month, Israel accused Syria of supplying the Lebanese organisation with surface-to- surface Scud missiles capable of targeting positions inside Israel. Damascus denied the claims, and Hizbullah refused to respond to them. On Sunday, Israel said it had started five-day military exercises to prepare responses to any rocket strikes on Israel, with sirens due to ring out across the country on Wednesday as Israelis head for shelters. In response, Hizbullah officials said that thousands of its fighters had been put on a state of "high alert." Although all the parties are said to be trying to prevent a flare-up in the region, uncertainties regarding Iran's nuclear programme and Israel's future response to it are stoking fears that Lebanon could once again become the site of a battle between Iran and Syria, on the one side, and Israel and the West on the other. Mleeta, the resistance tourism complex, was designed to give a boost of confidence to the inhabitants of the southern Lebanese towns and to reassure them of Hizbullah's power as the prospects of a future war continue to loom on the horizon. One of the first stops on a visit to the museum is the "Abyss", a spiral structure that showcases real destroyed Israeli artillery and reconstructed Israeli weapons. As visitors move through this structure, they are invited to experience the defeat of the Israeli military, Abu Abdallah, a tour guide, explained. Mixing symbolic forms with authentic war relics, the structure is highlighted with a tank hitting a wall coloured gold and representing "Israel's incapacity to overcome the resistance." The wall also bears the signature of Imad Mughniyeh, Hizbullah's military commander who was assassinated in Damascus in February 2008 and has been described as one of the main architects of the Mleeta project. In the centre of the museum is a reconstruction of the latest model of the Israeli Mirkava tank, its gun tied into a knot to symbolise the impotence of Israel's army. After the Abyss, the next stop on the tour is "the pathway", which takes visitors along a road and explains how Hizbullah fighters carried ammunition, loaded rocket launchers and hid from Israeli air strikes. Models of fighters performing first-aid on their wounded companions or charging Katyusha rocket launchers are displayed, along with Raad missiles, different calibres of mortars and a motorcycle used to move provisions. "It was not easy," said Abu Abdallah. "The fighters were constantly watched and hit from the air by enemy jets." On one side of the museum there is a small shrine dedicated to the memory of Abbas Al-Moussawi, Hizbullah's former leader, who was assassinated by Israel in 1993. According to Abu Abdallah, Moussawi regularly came to Mleeta "to supervise operations and pray for the souls of the martyrs." At one point on the pathway, a small opening in the mountainside leads into "the cave," a 200-metre tunnel dug by thousands of militants over a three-year period and used to hide weapons. Inside the tunnel lie a kitchen, a rest area and an operations room complete with maps of the region, a computer and telecommunications devices. Next on the visitor itinerary through the museum is "the line of fire," which shows how Hizbullah improved its weapons and tactics through the display of various types of old and new anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. There are also model monitoring posts representing the deployment of special forces. The line of fire exhibit also showcases the Matyuka, a Soviet-made wire-guided missile for use against armoured tanks, which was described by Abu Abdallah as one of the most advanced weapons then possessed by Hizbullah. Abu Abdallah looked at the young scouts as they posed with the weapons. "Would you like to become resistance fighters one day," he asked them. The boys all nodded in agreement before turning to pretend to load another missile launcher.
