As the genocide in Gaza reaches its bleak one year anniversary, Israel has now also launched a bloody campaign against Lebanon. According to reports from the Lebanese Health Ministry, at least 620 people, including 50 children, have been killed in just the past three days, with 500,000 displaced.
Israel’s behaviour, as well as that of its allies in Europe and North America, and the media, follow a worryingly familiar pattern to those that were used to manufacture consent for its genocide in Gaza over the past year. Last week, after Israel blew up communication devices across Lebanon, the media portrayed it as an attack on Hezbollah, rather than an indiscriminate terror attack that showed no concern for where they were located or who had possession of them. Similarly, airstrikes are described as targeting “Hezbollah strongholds” rather than areas in which regular civilians and non-combatants live. Indeed, Israel has already started to produce unsubstantiated claims that weapons are being hidden inside houses to justify its targeting of civilian areas – a familiar tactic they have used to justify their destruction in Gaza.
A year of almost unconditional support from Israel’s allies as it committed genocide in Gaza (and increasingly the West Bank also) has served to encourage an increasingly far-right, rogue state and society, which seems intent on engulfing the entire region in an all-out war. The UK, as well as the US and EU, have shown over the course of the past year that there are no red lines that Israel can cross, effectively giving it free reign to reshape the region according to its most fascistic fantasies.
Reacting to recent events in Lebanon, Shamiul Joarder, Head of Public Affairs at Friends of Al-Aqsa, said, “Over the past year, Israel has not faced any consequences from its allies for its genocidal war in Palestine, which has only emboldened it to spread death and destruction across Lebanon. We are already seeing reports that F-35 jets, of which 15% of the parts are made in the UK, have been used to bomb civilian areas. This, once again, highlights the moral and legal failure of this government, which continues to treat Israel as an ally and supply it with diplomatic, intelligence and military support. Given this recent escalation, and the ongoing violence being committed by Israel in Palestine, it is essential that the UK impose an arms embargo and use all means at its disposal to pressure Israel and bring its leaders to account before it engulfs the whole region in war.”
Friends of Al-Aqsa, along with its partners, has organised an emergency demonstration outside Downing Street this Thursday, 26 September, to send a clear message to demand an end to the aggression on Lebanon and genocide in Gaza.
