As an international solidarity organisation, committed to the diplomatic, political, and peaceful resolution of conflicts, and abidance by United Nations (UN) resolutions, Liberation condemns the ongoing bombardment of heavily populated civilian areas of Beirut in Lebanon – a flagrant violation of that country’s sovereignty as well as international law – by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
The fierce bombardment follows on from the indiscriminate attacks upon Lebanese civilians through the planting of explosives in electronic communication and radio devices, which killed 37 and injured thousands more. This action has been widely condemned as a war crime precisely due to its indiscriminate nature.
While the IDF claim that the current bombing campaign consists of precision strikes aimed at the leadership of Hezbollah, the reduction to rubble of entire residential blocks in densely populated civilian areas, costing the lives of non-combatants, women, and children in the process, underlines the falsity and cynical nature of this claim.
The latest strikes have even seen surprise expressed by the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, with President Joe Biden claiming that the US had no prior knowledge of the attacks. Efforts by US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to engage Israel in movement towards a diplomatic solution have so far abjectly failed.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the Israeli government, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, is out of control and driven both by its extremist agenda and a desire to pursue war at all costs so as to remain in power. The devastating strikes on Beirut followed on almost immediately from Netanyahu’s widely boycotted speech at the UN General Assembly in New York and flew in the face of widespread calls for a negotiated settlement and ceasefire to be discussed.
Israel’s contempt for the will of the international community, as articulated by the UN, has been evident for decades in its brutal and illegal treatment of the Palestinian people and their just demands for national self-determination and a fully sovereign state of their own. This contempt is evident in Israel’s recent actions in Gaza and the West Bank and is becoming yet more flagrant with its attacks upon the Lebanese capital.
These actions and the latest developments serve only to increase the threat of widening the conflagration in the region, with escalation beyond the Middle East into what could quite conceivably become a world war should this trajectory not be shut down.
Pressure on Israel to come to the negotiating table must be increased through concrete actions. Liberation repeats its call on the British government to immediately cease all arms sales to Israel. Liberation urges all trade union and cultural organisations to support the Boycott, Disinvestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to isolate Israel internationally, until it is prepared to negotiate meaningfully on a way forward.
