January 27, 2021 Share
When Lebanon’s financial meltdown began in late 2019, Hassan Shoumar was locked out of his dollar savings like everyone else in the country as banks clamped down with capital controls.
But the young engineer had an alternative. He could still pull out the dollars in his account at the al-Qard al-Hasan Association, the financial arm of the militant Hezbollah group.
Shoumar had kept an account at the association for years, ever since he had taken a loan from it to pay university fees. Unlike Lebanon’s commercial banks, the accounts at the association didn’t earn interest. But the 28-year-old Shoumar didn’t care about that.
Bassem Mroue January 26, 2021 - 10:08 PM
BEIRUT - When Lebanonâs financial meltdown began in late 2019, Hassan Shoumar was locked out of his dollar savings like everyone else in the country as banks clamped down with capital controls.
But the young engineer had an alternative. He could still pull out the dollars in his account at the al-Qard al-Hasan Association, the financial arm of the militant Hezbollah group.
Shoumar had kept an account at the association for years, ever since he had taken a loan from it to pay university fees. Unlike Lebanonâs commercial banks, the accounts at the association didnât earn interest. But the 28-year-old Shoumar didnât care about that.
17/01/2021
Photos reportedly taken inside a branch of the Al-Nour Depot chain (Lara’s Twitter account, October 5, 2020)
Photos reportedly taken inside a branch of the Al-Nour Depot chain (Lara’s Twitter account, October 5, 2020)
Bint Jbeil branch of the Al-Qard al-Hasan Association (Bint Jbeil local news website, December 27, 2012)
Crowds of customers at bakeries in the Tyre area, after the bakery owners announced that they would stop selling bread to stores and supermarkets (Ya Sour, June 27, 2020)
Photos reportedly taken in a branch of the Al-Nour Depot chain (Lara’s Twitter account, October 5, 2020)
Overview
For over a year, there has been a severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon, whose end is not in sight. Underlying the crisis are
11/01/2021
The 2012 race between the outposts of Ali al-Taher ridge east of Nabatieh. The race was held to commemorate the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon. It ended in the reenactment of the waving of Hezbollah’s flag above the IDF’s Dlaat outpost on the Ali al-Taher ridge, on October 29, 1994 (Al-Khiyam website, May 31, 2012).
Race organized by the Sports Mobilization in Nabatieh, in which participants ran to the IDF’s Dlaat outpost to remove the Israeli flag and hoist the Hezbollah flag (Nabatieh’s local news website, June 2, 2012).
Findings of the study
This document is the second in a series of studies aimed to examine the scope and conduct of Hezbollah’s civilian institutions and the extent of their influence on the local population. As a case study, the ITIC chose