In a report from Beirut, Rima Majed examines Israel’s escalating attacks on Lebanon and how Israel’s actions in the region have fueled resistance movements. “Since October last year, we’ve realized … our lives do not have a meaning in this broader international order. We are numbers. Our bodies are disposable,” says Majed. “All we keep hearing is that Israel has the right to self-defense. We never hear about the right of Palestinians to self-defense, or the right of Lebanese to self-defense.”
TRANSCRIPT
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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
We continue to look at Israel’s intensifying war on Lebanon as Israel has launched its heaviest bombardment to date on Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs. Earlier today, Israeli war planes bombed a fire station in southern Lebanon, killing at least eight firefighters. Israel’s assault has now displaced 1.2 million people in Lebanon.
In Beirut, we’re joined by Rima Majed. She’s an assistant professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut.
Professor Majed, thanks so much for joining us as we continue our discussion with you, bringing folks Part 2. I wanted to ask you about the U.S. response since last October 7th, since Hamas’s attack on Israel, and then Israel began the slaughter in Gaza, and now, finally, expanding to Lebanon.
RIMA MAJED: I mean, the U.S. response has been not surprising, but it’s been really, really — I mean, since October last year, I think if we — we’ve realized something very clear, is that our lives do not have a meaning in this broader international order. We are numbers. Our bodies are disposable. It seems like no one really cares. All we hear, all we keep hearing is that Israel has the right to self-defense. We never hear about the right of Palestinians to self-defense or the right of Lebanese to self-defense. It’s all framed as if this all started on October 7. What about the occupation that existed before, this Israeli settlements around Gaza that are illegal settlements? What about the situation in Gaza that was the situation of a siege? Gaza is described as an open-air prison. What about all the breaches of 1701 in Lebanon since 2006? I mean, there are Israeli drones over our heads all the time. We never hear about this. We don’t have a right to self-defense? Is this only a right for the Zionist state? This is really — this really tells us — I mean, this highlights the hypocrisy of this world order that is always standing on the side of the powerful and never on the side of justice.
And in that sense, I feel our wars — I mean, in my own life, I’ve lived more than five wars by now. Our wars never end. Our wars are only put on hold until the next round starts. And these wars will not stop as long as there is occupation, as long as there’s a settler-colonial entity that is expanding, as long as there is no justice, no right to return, no reparation. It will not end. Every kind of injustice of this scale will create its own resistance, whether it’s Islamic or secular or leftist or nationalist or whatever flavor it takes. Resistance will continue because oppression is so big. I mean, this round of war is leaving generations with anger........