Palestinians look to Hezbollah

Many Palestinians draw inspiration from Hezbollah

By Middle East correspondent Barbara Plett

Another demonstration stops traffic as protesters surge through the narrow streets and shopkeepers step out on to the pavement to watch.

Some of the chanting young men are waving the yellow flags of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

"Hezbollah, bomb Tel Aviv," they shout.

But this isn't Lebanon; it's the Palestinian town of Ramallah. Yet the Hezbollah fighters are clearly heroes here.

The Iranian-trained Islamic resistance movement got a tremendous boost in May when Israel hastily pulled out of south Lebanon after mounting losses in battles with Hezbollah.

The Palestinians especially took notice, because so far their negotiations with Israel have failed to end occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah is the only one who conquered the Israelis... There is no way except Jihad until we win

Palestinian protestor in Ramallah

"Hezbollah is an Islamic organization that was able to drive Israel out of South Lebanon," says a woman demonstrator.

"If we Palestinians work in the same manner, we can also kick the Israelis out. Our children, our people, and our fighters are learning lessons from Hezbollah."

Another protester agrees. "Our case is Palestinian, but the only solution is the way of Hezbollah," he says, a yellow flag in his hand and a child sitting on his shoulders.

"There's no other way, not the way of (Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak, not the way of (Jordan's King) Abdullah, not the way of any Arab leader.

"Hezbollah is the only one that conquered the Israelis and it has put in us the soul of Jihad: holy war. There is no way except Jihad until we win."

Hezbollah lends support

The feeling is mutual. Some observers say Hezbollah has deliberately identified with the Palestinian cause, partly because it needed to make a comeback after winning its own war.

Hezbollah fighters celebrate as Israel pulls out of South Lebanon

The group timed its capture of four Israeli hostages to coincide with the Palestinian protests.

Hezbollah television is picked up throughout the Palestinian territories, broadcasting messages of support from the group's leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, interspersed with images of stone throwing boys and menacing Israeli soldiers, held together by a stirring sound track.

> "The Islamic resistance is with you," Sheikh Nasrallah proclaims at one point. "We will not abandon you, your way to freedom is the uprising, if you don't have bullets you can beat them with knives!"

"Hezbollah showed that you can beat the Israelis by force, nobody had ever done that before," says Paul Salam, a political analyst in Beirut.

"Hence their involvement in the Palestinian crisis right now is very politically significant, because it says to the Palestinians yes, you opted for negotiations, but we did it a different way and we won: it puts the whole region possibly on a new track."

Palestinians face different struggle

At this point, however, Sheikh Nasrallah doesn't seem to be much more than an inspiration.

The Palestinians have adopted some Hezbollah tactics, such as roadside bombs.

But Hezbollah leaders have denied any military coordination, and the Israeli army says the Islamic group is in a different league than the Palestinian fighters.

Will guns replace stones in the Palestinian struggle?

"Hezbollah was very prepared, very well trained," says Major Olivier Rafowics, the army's spokesman for Israel's northern region.

"It worked in small groups with secret warfare, and was more military than what we are now meeting in the Palestinian street - we're talking about heavy weaponry such as mortars, katyushas, and hundreds of explosive devices, some of them very sophisticated."

Geography and circumstances also differ: Palestinians are not in a separate country with a rear base to fall back to - they live next to Israelis and have close economic links.

Shying away from total war

So although some Palestinian militias have taken up weapons, the protests still rely heavily on traditional methods such as stone throwing and civil disobedience. Hussein Shaykh belongs to the Fateh faction, which is taking a leading role in the clashes. Even he acknowledges that guerrilla war is not a viable long term option.

"I hope we will not reach the stage where the Israelis force us to enter a complete war," he says, "because our land and people are intertwined with Israel, so any armed confrontation would be very bloody and costly for both sides."

any armed confrontation would be very bloody and costly for both sides

Hussein Shaykh, member of Fateh

Palestinian officials say they are defending themselves from the Israeli army and demonstrating unhappiness with their situation, not trying to destroy Israel.

Hezbollah also is taking care not to upset the delicate regional balance by getting too involved.

But if the peace process deteriorates even further the conflict could move into uncharted territory, perhaps drawing Hezbollah and south Lebanon directly into the Palestinian struggle.