Hezbollah, Iran built parallel schools to radicalize Lebanese youth: Report

Hezbollah and Iran have systematically exploited gaps in Lebanon's education system to create parallel school networks dedicated to indoctrinating the next generation of Shiite youth, a new report by Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah for the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs reveals. These institutions are designed to cultivate future 'martyrs and elites' aligned with their cause.

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Hezbollah and Iran took advantage of a gap in Lebanon’s education system to create schools that can indoctrinate the next generation of martyrs and elite in their cause, according to a new report by Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah published in the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.

While Shiite leaders initiated educational reforms during earlier periods, significant changes accelerated after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. This led to the transformation of Shiite educational networks into institutions promoting pro-Hezbollah and pro-Iran ideologies. The report highlights that many Shiite communities, particularly in rural areas, continued to rely on traditional religious scholarship, where basic literacy and Islamic studies were central.

Hezbollah and Iran's investment in education began early in their movements' histories. The Imam al-Muntazar Hawza for Islamic Studies, established in Baalbek in 1979 by former Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyid Abbas al-Musawi with direct support from Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and the Islamic Republic, received substantial funding from Iran. The opening ceremony was attended by the Iranian ambassador in Damascus, and Iran contributed $35,000 and 10,000 Syrian liras toward its construction.

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The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran ultimately shaped Shiite educational networks in Lebanon into pro-Hezbollah and pro-Iran institutions of radicalization.

Schools operating outside the state system proliferated in Lebanon's South after the fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty and the 1982 Lebanon War. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards capitalized on the disruption of secular ideologies among the Shiite community. Throughout the 1980s, Iranian funding channeled into Shiite religious schools, accompanied by rhetoric about "Hezbollah's students" and "Educational Mobilization." By 1987, 198 schools in West Beirut and its suburbs received Iranian funds. The report suggests these mobilization schools were specifically created to prepare students with skills for the modern economy and the ideology to advance Hezbollah's interests, potentially laying the groundwork for a coup against the Lebanese state.

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Mobilization schools were specifically created to prepare the ground for a coup against the Lebanese state, according to the report, and students were prepared both with the skills needed for the modern economy and the ideology to further Hezbollah’s interests.