Lebanon Will Survive, With Your Help.

Since before the 1948 announcement of the creation of Israel, Zionist plans included south Lebanon as part of Israeli territory. They tried at least six times to seize it, and they thought they had succeeded in 1982, when Ariel Sharon’s army captured the territory. But this resulted in the creation of Hezbollah, which, along with its allies, finally expelled all the Israeli forces in 2000, except for the small Shebaa Farms area where Syria, Lebanon and Palestine/Israel borders meet.

Then they tried again in the summer of 2006, expelling around one million inhabitants, nearly the entire population of the south at that time. I and some of my colleagues were there, and we participated in the nonviolent Lebanese civil resistance movement. Hezbollah and its allies were very effective, and expelled the Israeli forces in only 33 days. This is because the ground troops were averse to taking casualties, and therefore did not advance very far. I saw some of the effects that scared them away, especially in the town of Houla. There were later Israeli attempts, but the Lebanese resistance was effective in discouraging them from progressing very far.

That brings us to the present day. Following the Palestinian resistance breakout on 7 October, 2023, Hezbollah, Ansarallah (Yemen) and the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units all participated in trying to combat the Gaza genocide. In September, 2024, Israel assassinated Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, and in December, Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire, which was observed by Hezbollah but violated more than 3000 times by Israel over the next 15 months. By February, 2026, Israel had occupied more than five towns in south Lebanon, and bombed and dynamited many others, causing almost 4000 mostly civilian casualties and expelling more than 1.2 million refugees.

Israel says it will capture and annex south Lebanon, but Hezbollah is putting up fierce resistance. In addition, Iran is requiring Israel to remove all of its troops from Lebanon and scrupulously maintain a complete ceasefire as part of the proposed agreement between Iran, the US and Israel. Iran and the US appear to agree on the ceasefire, but Israel does not. This is likely to be a flashpoint for resumption of hostilities.

This is the context in which the SSM, which was formed 12 years ago as the Syria Solidarity Movement, answered the call from Lebanon to provide relief supplies to as many refugees and bereaved families as we could. Last week, we sent $20,000 of your donations to our Lebanese NGO partners for this purpose, and they are being used to help families whose homes have been destroyed and whose family members have been killed or severely wounded.

Our website is being revised and upgraded, but still partially a work on progress. We are no longer able to operate directly in Syria, as we once did, and have broadened our role to serving the needs of the entire region, including Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Yemen. And we have changed our name to the Sovereignty Support Movement, in recognition that the core of the problem for the entire region is the oppression of imperialism and Zionism, which deny the people of West Asia the right to exercise their freedom, independence and sovereign rights, as guaranteed by international law and the UN Charter. We just need to change the name of our listserv.

If you would like to help, please visit our website, sovereigntysupportmovement.org. Your donations are still US tax deductible, and will be used to foster a better and more compassionate world.

Paul Larudee, for the SSM Steering Committee