Lebanon school cuts pages from book critical of Hezbollah
Junior high textbook 'Modern World History' printed in U.S., which has branded Hezbollah a terrorist group.
By The Associated Press Tags: Hezbollah Lebanon Israel newsA leading school in Lebanon was forced to remove pages from a history book said to describe Hezbollah as a terrorist organization after a cabinet minister from the militant group complained, a state news agency reported Tuesday.
Hezbollah, which has fought Israel for more than two decades, is considered a resistance movement in Lebanon and rejects being labeled a terrorist group.
The Lebanon-based organization is active in the country's politics and holds one seat in the cabinet and 11 in the 128-member parliament. Hezbollah also provides social services and runs schools and clinics.
The textbook has been used for seven years by Beirut's International College, a secondary school, said its president, John Johnson, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The book, Modern World History, is printed in the United States and is taught to 8th grade students, the daily As-Safir reported.
The U.S. has branded Hezbollah a terrorist group.
On Sunday, Labor Minister Mohammed Fneish, a Hezbollah member, complained about the book and called on the Education Ministry to take action against schools teaching it and remove it from the approved curriculum.
The education minister met with the school's president Tuesday to discuss the book, the state news agency reported. It quoted Johnson as saying the pages concerned were removed from the book.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said the book described Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad as terrorist organizations.
The National News Agency quoted Johnson as saying during Tuesday's meeting that the school does not have a particular political position and does not teach the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The International College was founded in 1891 in Smyrna, Turkey, and moved to Beirut in 1936. It shares its main campus with the American University of Beirut. It has 4,200 foreign and Lebanese students, including 800 at a second campus north of the capital.
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He had foresight to cut those offending pages out of the books quickly. It was either that or see the school get blown to smithereens by Hezbollah bombs, a logical scenario from the group to prove it's not a terrorist organization!
So firing 4000 Katyusha rockets at civilian targets is not considered a terrorist organization in Lebanon? Just goes to show who's running the show in Lebanon: Iran, via its proxy Hizbollah. If the Lebanese government was truly in control, the Lebanese army would be stationed at the border, not Hizbollah. So to you Lebanese - how does it feel living in a puppet "nation" with the Iranian mullahs' hands up your butts?
Israel may be a threat to Lebanese security, but Hezbollah is the danger that many people ignore. In fact, they are a propaganda machine that focuses on misleading public opinion. Today, the Party of God is above the law and has its own media network, airport security and a private militia. That includes spies even businessmen, like the corrupt Ezz-al-Din [the Imad Mughniyeh of finance]. It is a party that the Lebanese cannot question under the law. Or risk another civil-war in the streets of Beirut. Actually, Hezbollah splits the Lebanese-state from within. On the ground, Hezbollah weapons placed in civilian neighborhoods destabilize Lebanon instead of supporting the unification. So who is the danger to Lebanon and the region.
And this is worse than removing the textbooks that have a sentence that contains the word 'Nakba" how exactly?
anyone that resist occupation is a terrorist group to the other side!
We have them here in Texas, they are hard at work in Israel and busy in Lebanon. They don't want children's little minds polluted with the truth. Quick, down the memory hole!