How Hezbollah uses Lebanon’s schools to indoctrinate the next generation

For decades Hezbollah has been exploiting Lebanon's fractured political system to dominate the country's south, but it has also stepped into the place of the Lebanese state and usurped its position as the provider of education and social welfare.

In particular, Hezbollah has opened private educational institutes in the country that cater to its Shia constituency. However, rather than provide a quality education to improve the lives of its base, Hezbollah has instead developed its education sector as an "ideological and doctrinal incubator," which according to The Beiruter, can be described as "educational mobilization."

These educational institutions vary from basic elementary schools all the way to higher education institutions like the Al-Mustafa International University. Their goal is to create a "Resistance Society" capable of supporting the development of a theocratic Shia government similar to Iran's, which necessitates total control over education.

The two primary educational institutions used by Hezbollah are the Al-Mahdi and Al-Mustafa networks, which operate schools throughout the Shia community, particularly targeting working- and middle-class Lebanese Shia. Both networks operate outside of the Lebanese Ministry of Education, meaning they have different programs and educational goals from those of state schools, according to the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA).

The Al-Mustafa network predates Hezbollah, having been founded in 1974, but remains extremely close to the party and largely operates according to its standards. It is considered to have a more ‘rigorous’ educational reputation. The Al-Mahdi network was founded by Hezbollah's Educational Unit in 1993 and remains interwoven in the party's apparatus.

"While Al-Mahdi schools have mass reach, Al-Mustafa schools focus on quality and elite education," The Beiruter reported. Before his ascension to the leadership of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem was the spiritual supervisor of both networks, indicating the importance Hezbollah places on these institutions.

The JCFA identified four core pillars of both educational networks: Ideological Monopolism, the Cult of the Martyr, the Militarization of Childhood, and the Dehumanization of the Other. These four pillars allow Hezbollah to mould the future Lebanese Shia into a "disciplined, ideologically uniform base" that will support Hezbollah without question.

Although the schools are private, Hezbollah offers substantial subsidies to working-class Lebanese. However, due to Hezbollah’s recent financial difficulties, it has begun restricting these subsidies and requiring payment in US dollars to offset financial losses from Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

One element key to Hezbollah's dominance is the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts. The al-Mahdi scouts are one of Lebanon's largest youth movements, comprising nearly 100,000 members. According to the JCFA, "Unlike mainstream scouting that focuses on civic duty and nature, the al-Mahdi Scouts integrate paramilitary training." Children as young as eight are organized into tribes and wear military-style uniforms. The scouting organization acts as a vetting system to give Hezbollah a sense of who should be recruited into Hezbollah's militias. The JCFA notes that "By the time a young man enters Hezbollah's military ranks (16/17), he has already undergone years of ideological conditioning, physical discipline, and loyalty oaths."

"The educational system accomplishes what researchers call the 'militarization of the imagination.' Standard schools try to shield children from political violence; Hizbullah’s schools actively normalize it," the JFCA says. "By the time a teenager is old enough to be recruited into the armed wing, they don’t see themselves joining a militant group; they see it as the natural, honorable graduation from their childhood."

Since 2020, the educational system has been under what The Beiruter described as a "financial and legal siege," as the sources of funding for the system have come under direct attack by US sanctions. The five major sources of funding have come under increased scrutiny in the past few years. Funding from Iran has dwindled as it is needed to defend against US and Israeli strikes in the country, while Hezbollah's own financial portfolio has collapsed in the face of military attacks on Hezbollah’s bank, the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association. The fall of Assad also severed Hezbollah's connection to the illicit drug trade which had allowed it to profit from the Assad regime’s Captagon trade, primarily by trading Captagon for South American cocaine through Italian and Albanian criminal organizations.

Recent IDF operations in Lebanon have uncovered an increasing number of weapons caches and armories hidden in Shia schools throughout Lebanon as well as ideological indoctrination material, including 130 weapons such as Kalashnikov rifles, handguns, and anti-tank missiles, at a school in the Bint Jbeil area.

"There is no expectation that the education system in southern Lebanon will educate children to love Israel. However, the basic requirement is that the education system not be used as a tool for incitement, training for terrorist activity, or harming Israeli civilians," the IDF said following the discoveries in southern Lebanon.