Amal Movement

In 1974, the Iran born Imam Musa Sadr founded the Movement of the Dispossessed, an organization for the emancipation of the Shiite population. When the 15-year civil war broke out in 1975, Sadr launched a military wing of the organization: the Amal Movement. Amal means hope in Arabic and it is the acronym for Afwaj al-Muqawamah al-Lubnaniyah, which means Lebanese Resistance Brigades. The first members of Amal were trained by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) of Yasser Arafat, but because Sadr refused to support the Palestinians he did not disagree with Syrian intervention. Amal was not very popular in the first stage of the war. The more radical Shiites joined the PLO or their Lebanese leftist allies.

The end of the 1970s was the turning point for Amal for three main reasons: the Shiite population felt a growing discontent with the Palestinian militants, in 1978, Sadr mysteriously disappeared while on a trip to Libya and in 1979, the Shiite Islamic Revolution in Iran toppled the pro-American monarchy, according to a long take out in An Nahar on August 17 and 18.

After Amal was led for two years by Hussein Husseini, who became the speaker of Lebanon's parliament between 1985 and 1992, Nabih Berri, who succeeded Husseini at the head of the legislature and still holds the post, became the new leader. He was not a cleric like Sadr, but a modern Western lawyer who was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and later studied in Beirut. He made a career in the United States and worked for the Belgium air company Sabena.

The PLO was not charmed by the success of Amal and tried to break its power with force, but the only result was that the Lebanese movement became more popular among the Shiite population. At the beginning of the 1980s, the movement was among the most powerful and best-organized militias in Lebanon.

Clashes with Palestinians

When the Israeli Army invaded Lebanon in 1982, Amal was involved in clashes with the PLO. The movement's members as well as most of the Shiite population in the south welcomed the invaders with roses as they drove the Palestinians out of their area. But Amal fighters in Beirut supported the Leftist National Movement and clashed with the Israelis.

During this time, Amal lieutenant Hussein Mussawi broke away from Amal and founded the Islamic Amal, a radical movement supported by Iran. Members of the new group were trained and armed by the Pasadran, Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In March 1983, six soldiers of the Lebanese Army were killed and the Islamic Amal claimed responsibility. On this occasion, Mussawi called for the establishment of an Islamic state in Lebanon.

An increasing number of anti-Israeli resistance actions in 1983 were executed by small groups of radical Shiites. In reaction to losing support to the radicals, Amal became more actively involved in resistance attacks against the Israeli army. In the beginning of February 1984, Amal attacked a Lebanese Army position in the center of Beirut. The attack escalated into a total war in Beirut and its predominantly Shiite suburbs.

Amal, in cooperation with the predominantly Druze militia of Walid Jumblat and other Islamic and leftist militias, drove the Army out of Beirut. Most soldiers of the Army's Sixth Brigade were Shiites and joined Amal. The day after the victory of Amal, the US Marines of the Multinational Force were withdrawn. The troops, who included British, French and Italian nationals, had arrived in late 1982 on a peacekeeping mission following the end of the Israeli invasion.

Hizbullah Is Born

This same month, the radical Shiite organization of Hizbullah announced its existence, and because of the behavior of the radicals, Beirut fell into chaos. As from the Spring of 1985, clashes erupted every now and than between the moderate Amal and the radical Hizbullah. But sometimes there was some cooperation between the two organizations.

In June 1985, a Hizbullah group called the Islamic Jihad hijacked TWA flight 847. When this plane landed for the third time at Beirut airport, Amal supported the terrorists. Amal members secured the airport and most of the hostages came under its responsibility. Berri conducted the negotiations and the hostages were released after Israel released about 700 Lebanese prisoners.

Amal kept on fighting against the Palestinians, because they were afraid of a comeback of Arafat's Fatah militia. Amal fighters were supplied with T-54 tanks by Syria, but they were unable to defeat the Palestinian militia.

South Independent from Beirut

The Amal organization in South Lebanon operated independently under the direction of Daoud Daoud, who was very popular. Amal leaders insisted that other resistance groups coordinate their actions with them, but the claim was ignored by a number of militias, including Hizbullah, the Communist Party and radical Palestinian groups.

In February 1988, Amal lost total control over South Lebanon when Hizbullah, in the area of Tyre, kidnapped Lieutenant-Colonel Higgins, an American national working with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). In April, Daoud led an offensive against Hizbullah in an attempt to drive back the radicals. Daoud was killed in September in an ambush. Some blamed Hizbullah for the operation, but others said Berri ordered it to get rid of a growing rival. More than 150,000 people attended his funeral.

In early 1989, the PLO and Amal made up an alliance and both of them launched a combined attack against Israel's "security zone" in southern Lebanon. In 1984, Berri became Minister of South Lebanon, with the support of Syria and remains, even up to now, as one of Syria's main allies in its smaller neighbor.

Elections

In July 2002, the final stage of Amal's yearlong electoral process took place in the Nabatieh village of Mseileh, where Berri owns a luxurious villa. Voters elected a range of figures to the party's top positions. The elections were held following four days of debate among over 600 participants in Amal's 10th General Conference, which produced amendments to the party's by-laws, a set of recommendations reiterating the movement's positions on local affairs and a reading of regional and world events. While the unprecedented elections, which began over a year before at the local level, brought new officials to replace previously appointed ones, elections to the party's top positions did not offer surprises.

Berri was reelected to the movement's presidency unopposed. Bint Jbeil MP Ayoub Humayed succeeded as head of the politburo. Water and Energy Minister Mohammed Abdel-Hamid Beydoun, who a year before fell out with two other Amal leaders with Berri, retained his position as the party's vice-president, even though a newly amended party by-law stated that the head of the politburo would automatically become vice-president.

In all local and general elections held since the end of the civil war in 1990, Syria mediated electoral alliances between Amal and Hizbullah, thus helping the movement make some gains at the expense of its more popular rival.

But in the local elections this year, no such alliance was reached, causing Amal major defeats. Observers believe that the Syrians wanted to let Hizbullah show its real popularity while Washington was pressuring Syria to end its support of radical Lebanese and Palestinian movements and to decrease its role in Lebanon.