LVC Arab and North Africa Region: Solidarity Statement with the Lebanese people and its farmers

La Via Campesina Arab Region and North Africa (LVC ARNA) condemns the heinous attack carried out by the Zionist occupation against the Lebanese people on September 23, which led to the martyrdom of 492 Lebanese and the injury of more than 1,650 others. During the third week of September, the Zionist entity launched its terrorist war on Lebanon, in densely-populated urban areas, and on agricultural lands. During two days, (September 17,18^th), the Zionist entity had booby-trapped and detonated more than 5000 pagers and communication devices. According to Lebanese ministry of health 37 martyrs and more than 2,931 wounded fell as a result of these terrorist attacks.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that “medical teams working until the early hours of dawn, in a scene reminiscent of the port explosion on August 4. As of September 18^th morning, hospitals had performed 460 operations, most of them on the eyes and face, in addition to operations on the limbs, especially the hands, and amputations of the hands and fingers. 25 martyrs and 608 wounded are the result of the second explosion that occurred (Wednesday 18^th September).”

Additionally, probably hundreds of wounded have lost their eyes. According to Dr. Elias Warraq, an ophthalmologist at Mount Lebanon Hospital, “60-70% of eye injuries have lost at least one eye. We had to remove both eyes, for some. It kills me. In my 25 years of practice, I have never removed as many eyes as I did yesterday.”

In addition to that, and according to The Lebanese Civil Defense 51 martyrs fell along with 68 wounded and 10 are still missing, as a result of a third the Zionist entity attack on Beirut in the form of warplane raids on one of the most densely populated residential neighborhoods in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Moreover, the Zionist entity executed more than 200 raids on villages in the south of Lebanon, an agricultural region par excellence, mostly bombing and burning agricultural lands, olive orchards and forests, amongst which is the Zebkin Valley, environmentally one of the richest locations in southern Lebanon. The war against Lebanon killed more than 1060 Lebanese and displaced over 100,000.

Both in Lebanon and Gaza, the Zionist entity is not only killing people directly, but burning their lands and poisoning their waters for years, thus killing their environment, their livelihoods and destroying their food sovereignty.

Up until July 2024 and through this Ecocide (the deliberate destruction of the natural environment), the Zionist entity had burnt more than 4000 beehives in southern Lebanon, burnt lands, trees, soils and water with the internationally banned white phosphorus, while also affecting migrating birds that cross over the region in this season. Additionally, it has destroyed around 50000 olive trees, burnt thousands of hectares of agricultural and forest lands, and destroyed more than 150 villages.

It is clear that this is a planned, systematic and conscious destruction of rural life, through the bombing of rural structures of life, survival and steadfastness. September is the olive season in the south of Lebanon, and such attacks have forbidden farmers and peasants from accessing and harvesting their lands, an activity the majority of the southern families rely on, financially, for the whole year.

Moreover, the Zionist entity army seems to be heading towards the occupation of southern Lebanon, a region which has had a long history of occupation and underdevelopment, and will thus suffer from the consequences of the upcoming military operation.

The general population of Lebanon, which is already suffering from one of the biggest economic crises in modern history, will suffer more from the occupation of southern Lebanon, specifically at the level of food sovereignty. To the south-east, cereals and grains to the south-east are grown, while olives, tobacco, figs, almonds, citrus, and banana fruits are grown along the southern coast, and a historic fishing community survives despite opposing circumstances.

The genocide in Gaza and the ongoing war on Lebanon are systemic and conscious acts of terrorism, whether through the direct killing of people, their lands, waters, livelihoods, or through military acts that lead to their imminent starvation.

In cities and villages, from the river to the sea, in the mountains and on the coast, there is no normal life in our region while the Zionist entity is here.

Accordingly, La Via Campesina in the Arab and North Africa region (LVC ARNA) recommends:

1. We call on the international community institutions to stand against the blatant Israeli interventions that limit Lebanese sovereignty over its lands
2. We call The Security Council to intervene to stop the war waged by the occupation on Lebanon and its lands
3. The continuation of the war on Lebanon increases the difficulty of the economic situation in Lebanon, so the international bodies must intervene to stop it.
4. The attacks that have been ongoing for more than ten months on the areas of southern Lebanon have greatly harmed Lebanon’s sovereignty over its food sources and natural resources, so we call on agricultural organizations represented by the FAO to assume their responsibilities to stop the aggression on the agricultural sector.

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