In response to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and the expansion of its genocidal assault on Gaza into a regional conflict, the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) is calling for increased solidarity actions including through stronger boycott campaigns.
WFDY notes that the attack on Lebanon “confirms [Israel’s] aims of dominating the resources of the region.” The organization says that this expansion of the war, combined with normalization agreements, is part of US-led imperialist plans for West Asia.
“All this serves one purpose: the expansion of the occupation and the establishment of a ‘New Middle East,’ a region that would serve as a bridge between East Asia and Europe for the export of goods by global corporations. At a time when the US is trying to regain its global economic and political domination which is being challenged by rival forces opposing its hegemony, and when the occupation is imposing its policies to implement its project in the region, it has become imperative to confront these imperialist projects which are built on the blood of the anti-imperialist peoples of the region.”
This turns the Lebanese front from a front supporting the Palestinian people and the resistance to a front defending Lebanon and thwarting the imperialist project in Lebanon. This is happening in the midst of the steadfastness of the resistance, which is striking hard blows against the occupation, and with the continued American support for the occupation.
Within Lebanon, WFDY describes the anti-imperialist resistance as having two main objectives. “The first is direct: to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian resistance, to deter the occupation, and to form a supportive front to change some of the existing balance of power. In the face of this supportive front, the occupation attacked the Lebanese villages bordering the occupied territories for 11 months, causing the displacement of their residents, who were uprooted from their homes and most certainly lost them, and whose lives were also disrupted for months. The second objective of the supportive front is indirect: to avoid the expected war, based on the resistance’s awareness of the occupation’s expansionist approach and its colonial projects.”
The global youth organization says that Israel’s initial attack was designed to neutralize the resistance in Lebanon, by detonating thousands of pagers and other wireless devices and assassinating 15 resistance leaders in a massacre in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Israel then used the response to these attacks to launch more.
“The occupation used the resistance’s reaction to its crimes as a pretext to launch a violent aggression against all villages in the south and the Bekaa on September 23, with the aim of displacing their inhabitants, resulting in the most massive displacement movement these areas have ever seen. On that day, more than 500 people were martyred, thousands were wounded, houses were bombed over the heads of their inhabitants, the roads used by the displaced to evacuate were also bombed, and two thousand martyrs fell in just three days.
“On September 27, [Israel] carried out the assassination of the martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, and then threatened areas of the southern suburb of Beirut only to begin its aggression against it throughout the night, causing the displacement of its residents, most of whom did not know where to go. The occupation also escalated its aggression to include the assassinations of leaders of the Palestinian resistance in its various factions in Beirut and the camps of Ain al-Hilweh and Beddawi, striking buildings inhabited by displaced people in areas that were relatively considered safe, shutting down some hospitals in the south and the suburb, all under the claim that they were affiliated with the resistance, justifying its crimes as they did in Gaza, striking ambulances and paramedic centers, and carrying out two raids near the airport.”
The destruction in Lebanon is made worse by the political paralysis which has afflicted the country since 2022, leaving the people without a properly functioning government or social institutions.
“In the absence of the state, only the people are breaking through the sectarian divisions imposed by the regime,” says WFDY. “With minimal resources, they are confronting the absence of the state by assuming its role. It is the people who share their struggles and pain, which global interests have sought to divide along sectarian and identity lines. International solidarity between peoples is essential to reject the occupation and its projects.”
WFDY is calling upon its member organizations, as well as all peace-loving and progressive individuals and groups, to deepen solidarity efforts with the people and resistance in Palestine and Lebanon by intensifying public education efforts, organizing and strengthening solidarity movements and actions, confronting and opposing governments which are supporting and normalizing the occupation, and building boycott campaigns that isolate Israel economically, politically and culturally and limit its economic and military support.
WFDY has also launched a crowdfunding campaign to help its member organizations in the region purchase the necessary paramedical supplies to alleviate the suffering of those affected by Israel’s aggression.
“Our comrades and their people in Palestine, Lebanon and most of the region are facing a project backed by the imperialist forces led by the US and NATO and are sacrificing their own flesh to tip the balance of power in the region, thwart the imperialist project and finally end the occupation, even if it takes time.”
WFDY was formed on November 10, 1945 at the World Youth Conference in London, England. It has member organizations in countries around the world, including the Young Communist League of Canada.
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