Terrorist Organization: Hezbollah

Purpose: Lebanese NGO Green Without Borders plants trees, creates public parks, and fights forest fires. But the benignly named outfit also has another mission. Working with Hezbollah’s construction arm Jihad al-Binaa and with the militant group’s allies inside and outside the government, GWB openly seeks to advance the “southern Green resistance” against Israel. To this end, it provides direct cover for Hezbollah’s operational activities, from harassing UN patrols, to carrying out missile attacks on Israel, to obstructing UN cameras at the border with deliberately placed trees;

Founded in: Lebanon;

Headquarters: Beirut, Lebanon

Activities:
Green Without Borders (GWB) was established in 2013 with the ostensible purpose of protecting Lebanon’s natural environment, including reforestation activities. In reality, it has served as a cover for Hizballah’s activities in southern Lebanon along the Blue Line, where GWB has outposts manned by Hizballah operatives in more than a dozen locations. These outposts, which are manned by Hizballah operatives, serve as cover for Hizballah’s underground warehouses and munitions storage tunnels. These installations have impeded United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeepers from fulfilling their UN Security Council (UNSC) mandate to monitor the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1701 and have prevented oversight of these outposts. Under the cover of GWB outposts, Hizballah members conduct weapons training at firing ranges, patrol the surrounding area, and maintain containerized housing units 25 meters from the Blue Line. Alleged encroachment on private property by GWB and Hizballah and propagandizing by GWB have also caused well-documented clashes with locals.

Since 2013, GWB has used its resources to support Hizballah activity at GWB outposts and has also publicly partnered with the Hizballah’s construction arm, Jihad al-Bina, which was designated by OFAC in 2007. Collaboration between GWB and Hizballah is widely reported in the media, including by official Hizballah media outlets.

GWB is being designated pursuant to Section 1(a)(iii)(C) of E.O. 13224, as amended, for materially assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Hizballah.

The Lebanese NGO Green Without Borders plants trees, creates public parks, and fights forest fires. But the benignly named outfit also has another mission. Working with Hezbollah’s construction arm Jihad al-Binaa and with the militant group’s allies inside and outside the government, GWB openly seeks to advance the “southern Green resistance” against Israel. To this end, it provides direct cover for Hezbollah’s operational activities, from harassing UN patrols, to carrying out missile attacks on Israel, to obstructing UN cameras at the border with deliberately placed trees.

In this illuminating Policy Note — complete with detailed border maps and satellite imagery — Matthew Levitt and Samantha Stern tell the story of GWB and explain why the mandate for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon must be reworked after the secretary-general’s next report in July. The sovereignty of an economically battered Lebanon and the stability of the wider region depend on a renewed effort to address all facets of Hezbollah aggression.

Hezbollah has established an observation post near the Lebanese border with Israel under the cover of the Green Without Borders environmental organization, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee tweeted on Wednesday.

Members of Hezbollah operate at the site while disguised as activists from Green Without Borders, according to Adraee. The IDF spokesperson shared photos of a number of Hezbollah operatives at the site, saying that the observation post violated UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

The IDF has accused Green Without Borders of serving as a cover for Hezbollah in the past.

In 2017, then head of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate, Herzi Halevi, stated that Hezbollah had established outposts marked with the logo of Green Without Borders along the border. According to the IDF, the organization is partially funded by Hezbollah.

Shortly after the IDF made the claim in 2017, the UN rejected the report, saying that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had observed Green Without Borders planting trees over a period of two years, as is their stated objective. “UNIFIL has not observed any unauthorized armed persons at the location or found any basis to report a violation of the resolution,” said UN Associate Spokesperson Eri Kaneko at the time.

In September 2019, Hezbollah fired several anti-tank missiles toward an IDF base and military vehicles near Avivim. A technical investigation by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) found that the anti-tank missiles had been launched from an area controlled by the Green Without Borders organization.

While UNIFIL requested that the Lebanese Armed Forces facilitate access to the relevant Green Without Borders sites in September 2019 and the Lebanese military confirmed that it would do so, UNIFIL was only granted partial access to the sites and denied the use of necessary technical equipment.

In August 2017, Green Without Borders head Zouheir Nahle told The Daily Star that the trees the organization plants are “the shade of the resistance” and a “veil on the eyes of the enemy.” Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah stated in 2010 that planting trees was helpful to Hezbollah as operatives could use the trees to hide.

A report by the Washington Institute think-tank featured a map showing the locations of 16 Green Without Borders positions along the entire Lebanese-Israeli border.