As-Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah (born 31 August 1960) is the third Secretary General of Hezbollah. Early life and education: Hasan Nasrallah was born the ninth of ten children into a Shia family in Bourj Hammoud, Matn District (an eastern suburb of Beirut) on 31 August 1960. His father, Abdul Karim, was born in Bazourieh, a village in Jabal Amel (South Republic of Lebanon) located near Tyre. Although his family was not particularly religious, Hassan was interested in theological studies. He attended an-Najah school and later a public school in Sin el Fil (Christian area) Beirut. In 1975, the Lebanese Civil War forced the family to move to their ancestral home in Bazourieh,] where Nasrallah completed his secondary education at the public school of Sour (Tyre). Here he joined the Amal Movement, a Lebanese Shi'a political group. Nasrallah studied at the Shi'a seminary in the Beqaa Valley town of Baalbek. The school followed the teachings of Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, who founded the Dawa movement in Najaf, Iraq during the early 1960s. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had Sadr executed in 1980. After a period of Islamic study in Najaf, Iraq, Nasrallah returned to Republic of Lebanon in 1978 when Iraq expelled hundreds of Lebanese religious pupils. He studied and taught at the school of Amal’s leader Abbas al-Musawi, later being selected as Amal's political delegate in Beqaa, and making him a member of the central political office.
Early activities
He joined Hezbollah after the 1982 Israeli invasion of LebanonHe became noted for his sharp and fiery sermons. In 1987, Hasan Nasrallah traveled to a seminary inQom, Iran to further his religious studies. He went back to Lebanon in 1989.
Despite his ongoing commitment to Hezbollah, in 1989 Nasrallah resumed his efforts to become a religious jurist by returning to the Iranian city of Qom to further his studies. Nasrallah believes that Islam holds the solution to the problems of any society, once saying, “With respect to us, briefly, Islam is not a simple religion including only prayers and praises, rather it is a divine message that was designed for humanity, and it can answer any question man might ask concerning his general and personal life. Islam is a religion designed for a society that can revolt and build a community.”
In 1992, He became Secretary general. In September 1997, his eldest son Muhammad Hadi, was killed in battle with Israeli soldiers, after a Navy commando unit operation in which 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in Jabal al-Rafei in the South of Lebanon.
Some of his quotes:
On 26 May 2000, after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon Hasan Nassrallah said: "I tell you: this "Israel" that owns nuclear weapons and the strongest air force in this region is more fragile than a spiderweb
On 30 November 2009, while reading the party's new political manifesto, Hasan Nasrallah declared "Our problem with [the Israelis] is not that they are Jews, but that they are occupiers who are raping our land and holy places.
In a television interview with Julian Assange on 17 April 2012, Nasrallah said that Israel “is and will be an illegal state… It was established on the basis of occupying the lands of others.” He added, “If I occupy your house by force it doesn't become mine in 50 or 100 years.” While “Hezbollah does not want to kill anyone”, the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he argued, was to establish a democratic state on Palestinian land where Muslims, Jews and Christians live in peace but that the US “won't let people listen to Hezbollah.
Edited by: Hadi Kaafarani
