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Contradictory Space(s) of Resistance: Hizballah’s Mleeta Museum
Abstract
The centerpiece of Hizballah’s Museum of the Resistance is a crater made by an Israeli bomb. The Abyss displays spoils of war: a Merkava tank with its nozzle twisted into a pretzel, hundreds of Israeli military helmets, shoes, bullet casings, weapons, and the like. Along the 3000+ acre site, a visitor is greeted by life-size mannequins of resistance fighters and martyrs, Hizballah weapons, actual bunkers and tunnels used during the resistance, with signs in Arabic, English, and occasionally Persian. Before dropping off the visitors at the gift shop, the tour guide boasts the development of a hotel and amusement center, hoping to make Mleeta a premiere tourist destination; and in a deadly serious tone, mentions that in the next war, Mleeta will be the first place Israel bombs. This paper draws on recent scholarship on Hizballah (its role as a ‘state within a state,’ its jockeying in the Lebanese political landscape, its expanding media reach and rhetorics) and focuses on Hizballah’s occupation of contradictory space(s) of resistance. Combining a cultural geography, political economy, and visual analysis of the museum, the paper problematizes the contradictions of what Hizballah is in ‘resistance’ to. Mleeta is a commemorative space that functions as an act of resistance to certain dominant structures, ranging from Israel to the Lebanese political landscape, from Hariri to Western imperialism. The multi-million project funded by Iran positions itself as a national commemorative space, yet appeals to sectarian divisions; it is located on a site used during wars with Israel and is a target. Mleeta is also a space of popular culture and architectural ‘choreography’ that echoes the (global and economically neo-liberal) trend of intermingling consumerism, war memorabilia and tourism. Beginning with these contradictions, this paper explores how Mleeta is shaped by and produced through various forms of resistance and hegemonic power by analyzing how the space itself is constructed as a space of resistance AND a site for consumption. But the paper also positions Mleeta in wider spatialities including Iran, Palestine, Beirut, the Civil War, the IDF, military technologies, visual displays, and circuits of capital. Finally, Mleeta’s contradictory construction of resistance is theorized as a political, economic, symbolic border-zone. By further expanding on the relationships between culture and politics, consumerism and memory, visuality and materiality, surveillance and concealment, which the museum occupies, the paper addresses (resistant) spatialities and visualities in today’s geopolitical landscape.
Discipline
Communications
Geographic Area
Lebanon
Sub Area
Cultural Studies