THE LEBANESE PEACE AND SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE HELD ITS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The committee dedicated its discussions to the escalating Zionist aggression and genocidal warfare perpetrated against the Palestinian populace in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Jerusalem, as well as the oppression and intimidation faced by Palestinian citizens within the territories occupied in 1948. Concurrently, the Zionist forces have launched significant aggressions against Lebanese and Syrian territories. The assault on southern Lebanon has resulted in the displacement of tens of thousands of citizens from border villages, the devastation of entire neighborhoods across numerous towns, and a widespread campaign of assassinations throughout Lebanese territory.
In the face of this criminal warfare, the United States is providing comprehensive support to the aggressors, furnishing them with weaponry, financial aid, media coverage, and political backing while obstructing the efforts of international organizations such as UNRWA that advocate for Palestinian rights. Furthermore, it intensifies pressure to curtail funding, perpetuate starvation, and deny the Palestinian people their right of return. The U.S. is directly involved by supplying Israel with coordinates and intelligence and deploying military fleets to the Middle East, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean, along with direct military strikes in Yemen in collaboration with Britain. Governments of NATO, including certain European states, participate alongside the U.S. and Britain in a new aggressive campaign against the peoples of the region.
The Peace and Solidarity Committee emphasizes that the foremost priority is to immediately halt the aggression against the Palestinian people, withdraw Israeli forces from the occupied territories, facilitate the exchange of prisoners as requested by Palestinian organizations, and ultimately secure the release of all detainees from Israeli prisons.
International solidarity is imperative, constituting a battleground against the aggressors, wherein democratic, progressive, and peace advocacy forces, along with humanitarian institutions, mobilize global public opinion to support the rights of the Palestinian people, including their self-determination and the establishment of an independent sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital.
At the national level in Lebanon, the Committee reiterates the Lebanese people's right to resist Zionist aggression, urging for a broad solidarity campaign to provide necessary means for resistance and support in border villages and towns. This includes accommodations, healthcare, and social assistance, as well as resources for reconstruction and the enhancement of the healthcare and education sectors, responsibilities that fall primarily on the state. However, the Lebanese government's neglect of its obligations and abandonment of families in southern Lebanon is lamented, particularly evident in the absence of budget allocations for supporting population resistance or reconstruction efforts.
Regarding internal matters in Lebanon, the Committee expresses concerns over the deteriorating basic rights of the Lebanese people, manifested in the collapsing purchasing power and the forced migration of youth due to prolonged crisis perpetuated by the ruling factions. Additionally, there's an erosion of judicial independence, hindering investigations into crimes committed by influential figures and representatives of the ruling elite, including inquiries into the central bank, banks, and the Beirut port explosion.
The Lebanese Committee for Peace and Solidarity pledges to reinforce its collaboration with the World Peace Council and all peace and solidarity committees worldwide. It underscores its shared aspiration for a world free from wars, occupations, and colonialism, characterized by liberation, complete independence, social justice, stability, and equality, devoid of discrimination based on confessions, religions, ethnicities, or gender.
Beirut, March 18, 2024