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Lebanese people have taken to the streets in the capital Beirut, voicing support for the country’s resistance movement Hezbollah and protesting mounting US- and Israeli-led pressure towards the group’s disarmament.

The rallies took place in the city’s Dhahiyeh neighborhood on Monday night, with participants shouting slogans in favor of “the right to defense in the face of foreign invasion.”

The attendants, who included droves of bike-riding supporters, waved Hezbollah’s flags, hailing the movement as a “major” contributor to the country’s defense.

Hezbollah was formed in 1982 with a mandate to defend the country in the face of Tel Aviv, which has been occupying the country’s Shebaa Farms on the common border with Syria since 1967, as well as the regime’s increasing regional expansionism drive.

Ever since, both the regime and the United States, its biggest supporter, have been mounting pressure on the country to have the movement disarmed.

The pressure has grown since 2023 after Hezbollah began staging solidarity operations in support of the Gaza Strip that had come under a genocidal Israeli war.

It soon evolved into heavily Washington-backed escalated Israeli aggression against the country that went on to claim the lives of more than 4,000 people.

Participants in the Monday rally also held up pictures of the movement’s current officials as well as those who have been martyred, including the leading figures assassinated throughout the escalation.

Hezbollah itself has vowed to continue defending the nation, as it successfully has throughout both the escalation and two full-scale Israeli wars in the 2000s. It has warned the Lebanese against succumbing to the pressure tactics that are aimed at serving the regime’s expansionist ambitions.


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[-] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

any comprador lobbying for hezbollah disarmament in this specific conjuction of history should be branded a traitor and face the consequences.

[-] rainpizza@lemmygrad.ml 20 points 4 days ago

Some important points to consider from this. This is also speculation! If you have more information and other perspectives, feel free to correct this:

  • It is not guaranteed that the Lebanese government will reach a consensus regarding Hezbollah's disarmament. There are still many opponents to this, including obviously Hezbollah and Amal, which make up a significant portion of the government. If a decision is reached to disarm, then Hezbollah and Amal will quit the government.

  • If the decision is reached that Hezbollah should be fully disarmed, this will be extremely difficult (almost impossible) to implement, because the party will never voluntarily give up its weapons, and this has been clearly stated.

  • If the Lebanese state insists on disarming Hezbollah, and it wants to do so forcefully, then they are officially allying with Israel and every Lebanese soldier unfortunately becomes complicit — and no action will remain off-limits.

  • The Lebanese Army is not capable of confronting Hezbollah on the field. The only way they can forcefully disarm Hezbollah is by openly inviting Israeli or American intervention. In that case, a civil war is a real possibility. Hezbollah will not be the one to blame, Joseph Aoun and Nawaf Salam forced their hand, and the party will do what it must.

  • Hezbollah has never directed its weapons at any Lebanese unless directly provoked or existentially threatened. Hezbollah's weapons have only been a threat to Israel, and in fact, these same weapons guaranteed southern Lebanon's independence and liberated the Lebanese from the occupier. It was Hezbollah's weapons that protected Lebanon's dignity and protected the Lebanese when the government was silent.

[-] Malkhodr@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 4 days ago

These self-hating Maronite backstabbers are going to plunge the country into civil war (again) just so they just continue being a proxy for foreign powers.

What's the fucking end goal?! The Lebanese Muslim population needs to actually unite against these blatant sell outs and smash the bullshit sectarian system which has burned down any attempt to give Lebanon a future.

[-] burlemarx@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 3 days ago

Not all maronites, but the Maronite bourgeoisie is aligned with Western interests. This contradiction between the Lebanese army (represented by the Maronite elites) and Hezbollah (represented mainly by Shia Muslims) has always been there. The problem is that a civil war would certainly help Israel's cause as it would destabilize Lebanon. So Hezbollah needs to thread carefully and possibly mobilize the people (with strikes and demonstrations) so the Maronite elites back down.

[-] redchert@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

For a while, Maronites aren't really the majority of the Lebanese population, they transplant themselves to the west and have sub-marginal population growth. Ignoring also the large refugee population that is not maronite at all. They just stopped publishing population data because then the supposed "rights" that the maronite elite feels itself entitled too, have no basis in perceived reality.

Lebanon was created by france as a christian identitarian state. Similar to Jordan, it serves a certain function in the region.

This Bosnia of the near east will implode, as the contradictions are too strong.

this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2025
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