26 Years of Lebanon's Liberation Through Resistance

Ajouté : 2026-05-29

[00:00:00]This was the last areas that the Israelis occupied before withdrawing to the uh actual border occupation line zone uh in the south of the Lethani. Uh so this is the last moment before the fight was taken by the resistance to the Lethani region and eventually by the year 2000 the uh resistance was able to completely liberate uh Lebanon from the presence of the Israelis and the Lahed army the collaborationist military >> [music] >> Hey everybody, this is Le Maru from Free Palestine TV and we are at the Roshi waterfront area of uh Beirut. Before we continue with this report, I ask you to press the subscribe button on whatever social media platform you're watching this on and to go to our website freepalestine.vo to donate so we can continue bringing you this content.

[00:01:06]We are here today because uh the 25th of May is the anniversary of the liberation of Lebanon in the year 2000. It's been 26 years since that glorious day. And we hoped to take you through uh the various stages of the liberation of uh Lebanon starting from the height of the occupation, the Jewish military occupation of Beirut. uh in 1982 after the invasion.

[00:01:43]>> It was a very jittery morning. People straining their eyes into the bright sky, but the attacking jets high above were hard to see.

[00:01:53]>> Our first stop is going to be in Alhamra Street, the main very famous uh shopping and cafe street in downtown Beirut.

[00:02:03]Let's take you there through this history of resistance and liberation in Lebanon.

[00:02:20]So, we're now on Hamra Street. Uh, as you can see, this is the main commercial area in downtown Beirut. There's a lot of cafes. It was famous for that. And there's a lot of shops. But the reason we're here is because uh after the Israeli occupation of Beirut uh the Palestinian Liberation Organization uh decided to leave uh Lebanon uh with all its fighters under the promise from the United States and France to protect the disarmed refugees in the camps. And what ended up happening is of course the Sabbranchhatila massacre on the 14th of September uh 1982.

[00:03:08]Uh that was the height of criminality and uh injustice that the Zionists have committed. But you know with that in that moment of depression uh that the whole people in the region felt uh 10 days later on the 24th of September 1982 the uh warrior Khaled Alwan from the SSN the Syrian Social Nationalist Party uh did the very famous uh wimpy operation.

[00:03:43]Uh and this story is very important to note here because uh as Khaled Alwan uh was walking uh in Hamra uh there was a coffee shop uh right uh up the street here on this corner called Wimpy and there was three Israeli officers. Uh they were uh buying coffee from the coffee shop and they refused to pay in the Lebanese pound. They wanted to pay in the Israeli shiko uh as a form of humiliation for the coffee shop workers, the Lebanese people all around here. And uh Khaled Alwan as he passed by and he heard this humiliating moment and saw how that waiter was being intimidated uh decided to just pull a gun from one of the Israeli officer and bomb bomb bomb.

[00:04:36]He uh killed one of the Israeli officers and two of them, one of them was shot in the uh neck, the other in the chest. And this wimpy operation uh done by a young man by himself in a moment uh of uh uh trying to fight back humiliation uh triggered the beginnings of the Libanese resistance against Israeli occupation in uh Lebanon. uh that that moment of pride of Khaled Alwan's wimpy operation uh reignited pride in the Lebanese people and the possibility that they were be able to expel the Israeli occupation. We're now 26 years later and we can definitely feel the uh importance of that moment, how it triggered across all of Lebanon, waves and waves and waves of uh resistance until the expulsion of the Israelis in the year 2000.

[00:05:51]We are in the Wizah neighborhood. Uh, and this is the main Torah fair in the Wizah. Uh, a few things to note here is that this way is downtown Beirut. Dawe is the airport of Beirut and Awiz is the edge of Alah, the southern suburb of Beirut and Beirut municipal uh area.

[00:06:13]Basically, this neighborhood is named after Imam Abd Rahman Huzai who's buried there. There's a shrine for him and a mosque. Uh he was born in 707 and died in 774. But what's significant about this story of Imm is that during his his time the Khalif the Abbass Khalif Abu Jafar al-Mansur had a problem with a few revolts in Christian villages in Mount Lebanon and uh he ordered the expulsion and the ethnic cleansing of the Christians of Mount Lebanon down to the coast and to Damascus area.

[00:06:55]But Immuzai uh refused this order by uh the khalif al-Mansur and he uh or you know ordered for people to protect the Christians of Mount Lebanon and demanded that the khalif only punish those who have rebelled not to use collective punishment.

[00:07:17]Therefore, today the Lebanese government has uh Christian uh Imam Wuzah as the imam of coexistence.

[00:07:28]So, this story of coexistence in Lebanon goes back to this name of this area and the imi down there. The other thing that's important about why we're here is this mosque, Masid Naser. It is a place where the beginnings of the armed wing of Hezbollah was formed. It was 10 men that came together would meet here in the mosque, meet down in the waterfront and plot and think about how can they organize for the uh resistance, military resistance. And uh uh of those uh 10 men that founded the armed wing of Hezbollah uh all of them today have been martyed over the years. And the most significant figure the most memorable name of them of course was Vad Shukr [clears throat] who was the commander and chief of armed wing and he was assassinated in 2024 during the um 66 day war.

[00:08:33]These men were the founders of this resistance gave their life and this neighborhood of Luzai gave all it can to resist the Israelis and expel them from We drove out of the Wizar neighborhood.

[00:09:17]Uh went through the side of the airport of Beirut and now we're in the Kald neighborhood. It's just the edge of uh Beirut and the Lahi, the southern suburb of Beirut. Uh the reason we're here is that Khal is the gate into Beirut city.

[00:09:37]And when the Zionists were invading in 1982, uh there was huge battles in this location uh starting from the 6th of June 1982 all the way through the 10th of June. uh the resistance here uh you know was trying to pin down the Zionist and slow their entrance to Beirut which they were able to do that slowed the actual uh occupation of Beirut by the Zionist in 1982 but as you can see from here uh that's the airport and the Wizah and you can see the whole Ras Beirut the peninsula that juts out into the sea uh where the downtown is and Hamra Street and so forth. Uh the resistance was using the uh higher ground around us here uh mainly the PLO Amal uh party and the uh patriotic national front of resistance in Lebanon uh to pin down the Israelis. And as they withdrew after the U Alwan wimpy operation, uh few days later, the Israelis began their withdrawal from Beirut. And again, the resistance uh created ambushes uh here to hit the withdrawing Israeli forces as they did when they were invading. The Israelis lost tens of tanks and soldiers. It was kind of a war of attrition that pinned the Israelis down in Kald. So this is why it's very important this location uh in the story of uh resistance and liberation of uh Lebanon in general.

[00:11:49]We drove up from Sida, which we will be talking about in a minute, during the resistance as the Israelis were withdrawing gradually from uh Lebanon under the constant bombardment from the resistance factions. uh as they withdrew from uh Sida they went up the hill here the area of uh Jazine and Kafar Faloo that's where we are Kafar Faloo this is a very important juncture this road takes you up to the mountain regions uh from the coast so whoever controls this juncture controls the mountains behind us there but as you can see there is Sida city and the coast underground. Uh this became a very important site uh of resistance, the Israelis and the Lahed military, the collaborationist southern uh Lebanese occupation, you know, forces were stationed here and came under a lot of attacks. We're going to go up and uh continue uh from upstairs so you can see how important this site is.

[00:13:06]As you can see how strategic this point is. This used to be a hospital uh for the kafir faloo uh area. Very important.

[00:13:17]And as the Zionists withdrew, they took control of this area to have uh a view of the villages down there and Sida and control all the uh traffic towards the inside the mountain area, the Jazian mountain areas. Uh the resistance in all its forms, the communist party. O there's an attack that's happened right now. We've been hearing the Israeli jet uh flying. Clearly, there's something uh just south of Sida that has this been attacked.

[00:13:55]Again, this shows us the importance of the viewpoint from this location.

[00:14:04]As I was saying just before this uh attack happened, the various resistance groups including the communist party, the Naserite party, basically the Arab unificationist movement, the SSNP and the beginnings of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon were pounding the Israelis in Sida pushed them out uh through the war of attrition to here and then the resistance uh began and attacking this location of the LA army, the south collaborationist regime and the Israeli military.

[00:14:43]All this building is is covered in uh the memories of this of course with all these holes in the walls and the destruction. And once this area was liberated, this was the last areas that the Israelis occupied before withdrawing to the uh actual border occupation line zone uh in the south of the Lethani. Uh so this is the last moment before the fight was taken by the resistance to the Lethani region and eventually by the year 2000 the uh resistance was able to completely liberate uh Lebanon from the presence of the Israelis and the lad army the collaborationist military.

[00:15:32]All of what we spoke about shows how uh resistance to occupation requires multitude of things. One of them having the perseverance, the spirit, the historical uh moments of honor to draw upon. It also requires the involvement of all society in its in all of its political formations. And it requires generation after generation of uh doing so.

[00:16:11]We are in uh the middle of uh Sida. Sida is the gate to the south. It's also the uh third largest city in Lebanon after Beirut and Tripoli.

[00:16:23]This is uh one of the main uh roundabouts in the city that leads you to uh the sahu or the martyr square.

[00:16:34]We're standing here because after the liberation of uh Sida in uh 1985, uh the resistance throughout its attacks on Israeli troops occupying south of the Lethani in the security zone, as they called it, uh began bringing uh their loots from the battles against the Zionist to different parts of Lebanon to show the Lebanese people uh the uh veracity of the resistance and to get people to feel pride uh in this resistance. This is a uh an an an M3 halftrack American um APC from World War II that the Israelis continued uh using uh throughout the uh 1980s. Uh Israelis used these APCs. They would put air defenses on them, anti-air. They'll put uh howins on them, uh kachushas and what have you. Uh but this symbolism of uh bringing the uh destroyed Israeli machinery to the cities across Lebanon uh energized the resistance even more.

[00:17:50]the population uh had their head up high and uh uh of course the resistance continued until the day of the liberation in the year 2000 which we are here to celebrate with this documentary.

[00:18:07]We hope that you learn more about the stages of resistance in Lebanon starting from uh Beirut all the way here from the occupation and that you've noted that there's been many many colors of resistance in Lebanon uh that came in different waves from the 1930s and the British French occupation uh of Bilad Sham greater Syria uh with the SSNP the Syrian uh social nationalist party followed by the Arab Nostraite Arab unificationist parties. Uh followed by the uh communist wave like the Communist Party and the uh FL uh PFLP, the Palestinian PFLP, followed by the liberals like the PLO uh and eventually by the Islamic resistance in Lebanon, in Iran. Those are all waves of resistance that our people in the region birthed because of uh having this uh patriotic feeling and trying to find any possible roots that strengthens that resistance.

[00:19:14]This is Le Maru from Free Palestine TV.

[00:19:18]I ask you one more time to press the subscribe button on whatever social media platform you're watching this on and to go to our website free Palestine.

[00:19:26]to donate so we can continue bringing you this content. And until we see you next time, we wish you all a world free of Zionism, imperialism, and colonialism, and an end to this latest uh wave of Israeli occupation in Lebanon.

[00:19:44][music]