Lebanon: Mleeta Tourist Landmark of the Resistance
Mleeta Tourist Tourist Landmark of the Resistance is not really a tourist landmark, but more like a war museum glorifying the guerrilla resistance and fighting of Hezbollah against Israel in southern Lebanon during 1990s (before Israel unilaterally withdrew), as well as during the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006. This highland was one of the Hezbollah bases during the wars. The site has a central monumental display of some ruined Israeli tanks and trucks and several dozen helmets. Beyond this, there is a series of sunk trenches you can walk and several underground tunnels with command bunkers, gun turrets, prayer caves, etc. All around, there are camouflaged fighter mannequins with some weaponry. There is also an area with various guns, missiles, drones, and so on that Hezbollah fighters used. There is a spectacular panoramic viewpoint of the southern Lebanon below to horizon. There is also a large central hall of a museum with a pile of ruined weapons and a lifesize figure of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Various displays praise the Hezbollah supposed “victory” in the “divine war” in 2006. Despite the heroic spin on the events, the reality is that while Israel didn’t accomplish some of its military goals, the Hezbollah suffered casualties at 4x the Israeli army and was actually removed from the southern Lebanon and replaced by the UN peacekeepers. But one can always spin the history to one’s own truth.
