'Hezbollah-land' Attracting Jihad Tourists

MLEETA, Lebanon, JULY 19, 2010. -- On a hilltop where Hezbollah once launched its attacks on Israeli troops, families now picnic next to an abandoned Merkava tank. A 3-year-old boy beamed as he walked in, carrying a plastic assault rifle that was practically his size.

At Hezbollah's "Museum for Resistance Tourism" on the mountain stronghold of Mleeta, war is celebrated, glamorized, and fashioned into an interactive display. In Hezbollah terminology, war is constantly referred to as 'resistance,' or moqawama in Arabic – a word that has become synonymous in Lebanon with Hezbollah.

The Mleeta experience starts with two promotional films, one about the making of the museum, another on the history of Hezbollah, featuring battle footage and a version of history that casts Israelis as the ultimate bad guys. The message is reaching packed crowds of Lebanese and foreign visitors. Museum officials say they've had over 300,000 visitors since opening in May, many from Egypt and the Persian Gulf.

Our tour guide, a high school biology teacher named Rami, walked us through the exhibits. In one building he pointed to small arms left behind by Israeli forces, now stacked in stylized pyramids. Outside, a sunken terrace titled "The Abyss" holds the debris of Israeli tanks and equipment, arranged around what is meant to be a tombstone, emblazoned with the Hebrew acronym for the IDF.

"Mleeta is where Hezbollah had its base, a kind of base where most of the missions done against the Israeli bases were planned," said Rami. He said the motive behind the million-dollar museum was to "give information...a closer look at the way Hezbollah used to fight the Israeli enemy."

Rami has a ready answer when asked if the museum advances terrorist propaganda.

"I believe it's our right to have our own propaganda. The important thing is that this is the sincere and true propaganda."

Despite its militant edge, the museum is part of an effort to soften Hezbollah's image. It's designed to be the centerpiece of a massive tourist development - dubbed "HezbollahLand" in the global press – capped with an aerial tramway offering scenic rides from Mleeta to an abandoned Israeli base on a nearby hill.