 BEIRUT - Hezbollah handed out sums of $12,000 in cash on Friday to families whose homes were destroyed by Israeli air strikes in southern Beirut, drawing praise from the homeless who say the government has long ignored them.
“This shows just how much the party cares for the people,” said Ayman Jaber after collecting a bundle of dollars wrapped in a tissue from one of several Hezbollah centres overseeing the compensation scheme. ”People already had faith in Hezbollah, this will strengthen their faith,” Jaber said.
| Are those folks just rubes, or are the Hezbies really smart? |
| “Hezbollah has not said how it is financing the scheme, which appears likely to cost at least $150 million and was launched just days after a U.N. truce ended the 34-day war with Israel...” |
Hezbollah has pledged to give enough cash to rent and furnish an apartment for a year to the homeless from 15,000 destroyed dwellings. An unfurnished two-bedroom apartment in the southern suburbs can be rented for $300 a month. Hezbollah has not said how it is financing the scheme, which appears likely to cost at least $150 million and was launched just days after a U.N. truce ended the 34-day war with Israel.
| A wire-transfer from Teheran, maybe? |
Hezbollah is firmly in control of the capitalÂ’s southern suburbs, policing the streets and deploying men to start cleaning up. In some places, building after building have been reduced to rubble. Posters in the area claim victory for Hezbollah, and some homeless Shias said that was more important to them than the compensation money.
| But they still took the money. |
Hezbollah asks the homeless to produce property deeds and an identity card to claim the cash. It regularly advertises the procedure on its al-Manar television station, telling people where they should go and offering contact numbers for help. A Hezbollah official at one centre said 120 families had received $12,000 each within the first two hours of the operation on Friday.
Hezbollah rebuilt homes destroyed during a war with Israel in 1996. ”They rebuilt 5,000 homes. But this is unprecedented,” Hezbollah expert Amal Saad Ghorayeb said. |