Marwa Osman, Dr. Amal Wahdan, Dr. Adnan Azzouz, UNAC - Resistance in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine (2024)

Joe Lombardo: My name is Joe Lombardo and I'm the coordinator of UNAC, United National Anti-War Coalition that is sponsoring the webinar today. We are really fortunate to have people on the ground where this US imperialist Zionist war is being expanded and spread to. We will have speakers today from Beirut, which is being bombed, from Aleppo, and from the Ramallah and the West Bank. And I think we'll hear some interesting discussion today. I will give a couple of comments from UNAC at the very end, but I'm going to turn it over to Judy Bellow, who will introduce the speakers. Judy is, she'll be chairing today. Judy is a member of the UNAC Administrative Committee, a longtime peace activist from the Rochester, New York area. She's been to the area where these speakers are from in a couple of occasions and knows them through the work they have all done together. So at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Judy, and we will start the webinar. Go on, Judy, you're up.

Judy Bello: Hi, everyone. So I'm Judy Bello. And I am so really thrilled to have these people here with us. All of them are, as Joe said, people that I work with, and I've visited most of them in their home country. And I've Spent time in the Middle East also with Amal, though not in Palestine. And it's just really exciting to talk to people who are active and working to make their world a better place and dealing with this horrific crisis in their world. So the first person I'm going to ask to speak is Amal Wadron. And Amal, she lives in Ramallah in the West Bank of Palestine. And she is a veteran political activist all of her life. She's been active in one way or another. And she is a coordinator with what we call ODS-PAL, which is One Democratic State of Palestine. And there are a variety of organizations supporting one democratic state of Palestine, but this particular one is supported by Palestinians and the target or the idea is for Palestine to become Palestine again. So this is something really dear to the hearts of many Palestinians, because Palestine is an open society where all ethnicities and religions are welcome. And it's part of a larger community that includes Lebanon and Syria. which are also represented on this panel. So it's very important to us. And when I'm not speaking, I'll put the link to the website in chat. So Amal is chief editor also of the Arab Gazette, and I'll put that link in the chat too. And that website is in Arabic and English, and it just follows the news of what's going on in the region. She is also a founding member of numerous Palestinian grassroots women's organizations, workers organizations, student organizations. Uh, and, uh, she is currently, uh, on the steering committee of serious support movement since the beginning of the war. She and I, uh, back in like 2011 or 12, uh, she and I have been working together on that, uh, uh, initiative. So, uh, I think it's really great to hear from, uh, Amal and she can tell us, uh, what's going on right now on the West Bank. And also, you know, what do they see in the future? How is it going to, how does she perceive the way things are moving? So go ahead, Amal.

Joe Lombardo: Molly, you're on mute. You need to take yourself off mute.

Amal Wahdan: Yeah, good point. Hi, Joe and Judy. Thanks. Thanks a lot for putting this webinar together. And I would like also to salute all the people who are joining us from different parts of the USA. Well, I would like to talk about, you know, there's some talking points that I will concentrate on and then we'll elaborate. First, why October 7th and what's the aftermath and the consequences of that? The Palestinian strategy, internal affairs, B.L.O.P.A., which is the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian resistance, the Israeli colonial regime strategy and its domestic front, the access of resistance, a change, of course, in West Asia, unity of resistance fronts and then the global front. and agenda, which is a turning point at this really crucial times in history. Why October 7? I mean, people think that everything started in October 7, but we have to say that October 7 is only the result of a century of resistance by the Palestinian people and a century of the same techniques, same maneuvers, same plots by the Western and including the USA. Of course, we're talking about a century and the USA was here. during that time. And it had a very vital role to play with the British colonial power at the time and the British and the French. And it had its say on even Balfour Declaration. So October 7, as I said, is a result of what we have been enduring for decades and at the hands of the british mandate and at the hands of the zionist militias zionist terrorist militias and the usa we know that this extermination war that we are living under at the moment we are enduring and suffering from at the moment is not only committed by the Israeli colonial regime. It is actually a war with the USA. And we consider the USA as our main enemy. The Israeli colonial regime is just an agent, or we can say mercenaries, who are working to serve the USA and who are working to serve the Western agenda. And what happened in Gaza, if the Palestinian resistance didn't initiate this preemptive, resistance fight against the Israeli settlements and against the Israeli military bases surrounding Gaza, it would be the other way around because the resistance has intelligence that the Israelis are going to attack and going to hit hard the resistance, the Palestinian resistance. So it was a preemptive action, a preemptive step to save the Palestinian resistance and to save the Palestinian people. But the unproportionate reaction by the Israelis really explains a lot about the real intentions, about what is in the plan for the Palestinians. What is not only in Gaza. Gaza is just, you know, one seventh in size compared to the rest of the West Bank. And it's very tiny little place. compared to historic, the size of historic Palestine. So what was the reason behind this is to exterminate that resistance and to do everything they can that this resistance won't come back. This resistance won't continue. And they are ready to pay whatever or to take harsh and severe and terrorist measures against the civilians in Gaza, as we all witnessed. There is no need today to talk about the amount of weapons, the amount of US weapons, we have to say, the amount of destruction, the destruction of life itself, the destruction of the infrastructure of the health system, education system, everything was targeted. Is this the way to act? towards October 7, of course, not unless there is a plan behind this, unless the US is a full partner in this war. Otherwise, the Israelis will not last for one month after October 7. If it wasn't for the USA, until today, a week ago, the USA just gave Israel $8.7 billion. and all these weaponries that the israelis are using coming from the usa is killing people we've reached 42 000 this is the first time in our history in the history and the current history of the world actually that an aggressor a powerful country like the usa and its agent the israeli colonial regime has done something like this. We saw it in World War Two, but World War Two, there were international players and they were big countries. But we are talking about the USA slash Israeli regime against the Palestinian people. Nothing is equal here. We're talking about a part of Palestine which is under total control of the Israelis by sea, by land and by air. Gaza was under siege for 17 years. Nothing has changed. Nobody had moved to take this, to finish with this siege, to take it off the Palestinian people. 17 years of continuous suffering by the people. They couldn't leave a place of 362 square kilometers, which is like 271 points square. So we are talking about a history of oppression, a history of genocide, a history of extermination. And Gaza went through this in 1948. There were tens of massacres that were committed against the Palestinian people in 1948 before they displaced the Palestinians, expelled them from 45 villages in the north and northeast of Gaza. And it turned out to be today, 1.8 million people who were expelled and living in Gaza today, while they are seeing in their own eyes that Israeli settlements in what we call the Gulf of the enclave in Gaza, there are 55 settler settlements surrounding Gaza from the east and from the north and It has only fifty eight thousand people with a list with a bigger area, of course, double the area of Gaza. There is only fifty eight thousand people living there. And you want the Palestinian people who can see their land just, you know, a mile away or less than a mile away and do nothing to to fight for their land. And if we add to this the several aggressions that the Israeli conducted against the Palestinian people in Gaza, there were six wars, 2008, 2009, and then 2012, 2014, until we reached this point. So it's like a boiling pot, and this boiling pot had exploded in October 17. What can we do about this? Palestinians has only one way and nothing is left for us. It's only the resistance, all sorts of resistance from armed struggle to legal and diplomacy this is all these fronts are open for the palestinians and this is actually are condemned by the u.n the u.n gave us this right of resistance while the u.s along with its agent in palestine along with with the nato along with the eu are working against the course of history, are working against the international organization that they have established, which is the United Nations. So all the resolutions that were taken or took place by the UN were not They only conducted one resolution which works for them, which is the partition, the partitioning plan, resolution number 181, and they exceeded the area that they have. occupied until they reached 78% of historic Palestine, while the Palestinians have to agree to live on 22% of that. That's the strategy that the Palestinians are working for, or according, is to fight this occupation, to fight this colonial apartheid regime in any means. with the help of the whole world, with the help of resistance movement in the area and liberation movement in the Arab world. That's the only way that we've got to continue the fight until we dismantle this regime, this colonial apartheid regime. And now we can call it and any other name, it's not only apartheid, it's an extermination regime, genocidal regime, and they're doing crimes that people could not tolerate. We have friends from Europe who are telling us that what we are seeing is affecting our daily life. And we think that all the demonstrations that we are doing, all the activities that we are doing is not enough. That's one side of the story. From the other side, what's the strategy of the Israeli colonial regime? And what's the domestic front looks like today? The colonial regime strategy is very clear according to what happened after October 7. And if we want to add to that the several aggression wars that Israel conducted against the Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank, And the settlements all over the West Bank, we don't have any more land. We are living on 10% of historic Palestine in the West Bank, while the settlers are moving from one place to another, building more settlements, building, attracting more settlers to come and live. There is 700,000 people, I mean, settlers living in occupied West Bank, and there is no international organizations to tell them to stop. There is no power, there is no teeth in all UN resolutions because of the USA and its allies. USA is defending this israeli um apartheid regime in all fields first of all economy 3.8 billion dollar a year until now the americans gave the israelis over probably over 30 billion dollars so far in arms and in money in order to sustain, in order for Israel to continue bombing the Palestinians in Gaza and the settlers in the West Bank.

Judy Bello: Amal, you have two minutes, okay, to wrap up, and then you can speak again at the end.

Amal Wahdan: Yes, no problem. The domestic front, of course, there is... contradiction and the contradiction is piling and there is an opposition but the opposition is not pro-palestinian rights the opposition is within the zionist regime they have no exit plan this regime has no exit plan except for one thing to continue the destruction in in palestine and to continue the destruction of Lebanon, which they started October 8th, but intensified it later on. Netanyahu's project for the Middle East, now Netanyahu is working for a new project called the New Middle East. What does this mean? Everybody saw him in the UN with his plan, with his maps. He wants a new Middle East, just like Condoleezza Rice, just like Sharon before him and Paris before him. And from the other side, the axis of resistance in West Asia, which proven to be the right course, which proven to be the right way to go. Now we have five fronts working with us against this colonial apartheid entity and against the UN. And the global front, we are witnessing a really massive and impressive solidarity from the people of the world. This didn't come from nothing. It came from decades of continuing support for Palestine until we reach this moment when people are chanting, In the Americas and in Europe, free, free Palestine from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. We have not seen something like this before. And the divestment, the BDS movement in university campuses, the student movement was fantastic in this job. And that's where we have to discuss how we can draw an agenda for the global front.

Judy Bello: Thank you Amal. Thank you so much. The next person to speak is going to be Dr. Azouz Adnan. And he is in Aleppo, Syria. And Syria is the longest and most stable supporter of Palestine. Since the Nakba, Syria has unwaveringly supported the people of Palestine. So they also have had a war that has gone on for... for more than a decade now with the United States attempting to destroy the power of Syria in the region. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Asouz as soon as I clear my screen here. He is a Syrian academic and a faculty member at Damascus University and at Kassoun University and IUST University and Syria Virtual University. He's also on the Secretariat of the World Federation of Trade Unions, which is an amazing organization of workers. with global contacts. I actually went to one of their meetings in Syria a few years ago, and there are a lot of great people involved in the WFTU representing unions across the country or across the globe, I mean. He is the country coordinator of the Syria Support Movement in Syria. So whenever we decide to do our charitable actions, Adnan is our man on the ground figuring out what to do and where to have an effect. He has published many books and some of the ones named are The Quran and the Bible spring from one origin, which is kind of interesting because just yesterday I saw an article by someone, by Israel Shamir. He is an Israeli Jew who left and converted to Christianity, but he says that Christianity and Islam are essentially one religion. Uh, and, uh, he also has written a book called terms of conflict, mass media and regime overthrow and, uh, the evolution of human language. And in other words, a course book on translation, which I think is very interesting. It's all connected to language. Uh, so, uh, are you there Adnan? Oh, I know why. Okay, good. I made my screen small and you fell off the edge. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Azouz.

Adnan Azzouz: Thank you. Thank you very much, Judy. First of all, I would like to say I'm very happy to join you all, brothers and sisters from all around the world, now from USA. So I guess that really the world is now witnessing change in ideologies. And this is, I guess, the main battle that we have to fight till the end. For us in Syria, as Judy has mentioned, Syria has been targeted for a long time because it's long support for Palestinian people. Syria has received more than two million or less of Palestinians since 1948. And the Syrian government has given Palestinians all rights similar to Syrians. So in education, in learning, in owning houses, everything. And this is the reason why this terrorist war was launched against Syria. As Amal has said, the great Middle East was first proposed by the USA. Of course, it was by the guidance of Israel. But for us in Syria, we try to keep the independence of countries in the region. Therefore, the Syrian state has supported the resistance in the region. Because as you can see now, for a long time, we hear about an enemy with immense power. And that enemy can do everything he or she wants without any stop from any person. What Israel is doing nowadays is really proving that the world needs to have its reorder back. As you can see now, when Israel is doing all these massacres and genocides For all people without any stop from any person, this means that the international community needs to move into a new type of community, because after this, no country can be stopped. Because they are doing to be say okay look Israel has done this and you didn't stop it. Why is it because it is the lovely baby of USA? So really this means that the international community needs to re-stabilize itself out of what's happening. I'm going to give you just a brief feedback on what happened in Syria for more than 13 years so far. In 2011, when what was called the Arab Spring started in the world, at the beginning, people were very optimistic that this could change the dictators in the region, unknowing that this is an American plan in order to change people and countries to be in favor of the West. So what happened is that since 2011, a lot of terrorists all around the world were gathered and sent to Syria in order to destabilize this country. The plan was in order to divide Syria into many, many countries. But when we have many countries based on ethnic or religious divisions, Israel's existence is going to be a normal one. So this was the plan when we have a particular state for Sunnis, a particular state for Shiites, a particular state for Kurds. With this kind of countries, the existence of Israel in the region is going to be a normal one because, as you know, it is based on the attempt to make it based on religious factors. But what happened is that although USA and of course it's found in Hillary Clinton documents that they support ISIS, they funded it, they trained its people, and then they sent it to Syria in order to destabilize the state. But what happened that with the bravery of the Syrian army and with the support of our brothers in Lebanon and other regions, we could defeat the terrorism also with the assistance of Russia and Iran. What happened is that after this, USA didn't find that it could achieve its victory over the Syrian state, so they imposed all kinds of sanctions against Syrian people, starting from the Caesar Act and ending with an endless list of sanctions. They attempted to break down the will of the Syrian people by by depriving them from all life means. So what happened is that USA invaded parts of the Syrian lands and they put their mercenaries there in order to prevent people from of Syria to get the oil of Syria. So what happened is that they imposed sanctions that prevented Syrian people from importing oil products or any kind of industrial or material things. And at the same time, they looted the Syrian wealth, natural wealth, and they put their mercenaries in the region in order to prevent Syrian people from obtaining them. So I prevent you from importing what you need, and also I steal what you have. So this is what the US is doing now in Syria. Not only this, they support terrorist groups in order to destabilize the state. And now Syria is suffering from a great movement of migration simply because of the economic sanctions. People cannot live, they cannot find jobs, they cannot start their lives simply because USA is taking our oil, is looting our oil, stealing our oil and preventing us from starting our economy. And with these sanctions, they prevent any other state to help Syrians or to start any projects in Syria. So they impose sanctions on any company or any country that decides to come to Syria in order to invest. They prevent them. They directly put them in the blacklist. So these companies are going to be prevented from doing any business in other regions in the world. So this is what's happening now in Syria. But of course, since October 7, as Amal said, this is not the beginning. This is the result of this long history of oppression against Arab people. And in Syria, just yesterday, we have received new terrorist attacks from Israel targeting a civilian area. and targeting and the result was the mass destruction of the and 10 people are now martyrs and more than 100 people are injured most of them are children and women so what happened is that and every day and and now we have new also missiles coming from israel So as we can see, Israel is bringing new enemies to it simply because they cannot handle the already existing crisis that they have in Gaza. So they are trying to broaden the areas of conflict coming into Lebanon, Syria, Yemen. Now we don't know, maybe tomorrow we have Iraq, Jordan. So what happened is now Israel is trying to overcome It's a problem, it's existing problem by provoking new problems in the region. So as Amma said, the resistance is the only way. Of course, by resistance, we mean resistance by arm, resistance by word, legal resistance, as you can see. Now, for the first time, we can see in the word that people start to wake up. For a long time, Israel was always saying, we are that lovely lamb, in the Middle East, surrounded by these cruel Arabs who are trying to kill us. So since October 7, the reality of Israel has been shown to the world that this is an entity that for them killing other people is something normal. This is normal because according to that, you are free to do whatever you want. We have free pass from USA. You do whatever you want in order to do the job, regardless of any international humanitarian law that prevents any state to intervene with military access, as we have seen, and targeting civilians or civilian areas. But for Israel, it has all kinds that all what you do is going to be justified. Don't worry. Do whatever you want. We are going to cover all your mistakes so this means that the international movement of solidarity and resistance should get united and it's something good as Amal said for the first time we have the new awakening in the west these demonstrations in the universities and the streets we know that this is not enough but this is something good but I guess now what we see now with Lebanon When we have this mass destruction of this region of Lebanon simply because they say no to Israel and we have this mass destruction and something very strange is the whole world is witnessing. Even those who are considered as friends to Lebanon, they are just watching. Nobody interferes in order to stop this Zionist entity from continuing its mass destruction and killing of people. So thousands of Lebanese fleeing from Lebanon. Imagine we are a country which is already torn by this kind of terrorist attacks and war. And we are receiving our brothers also from Lebanon because this is our own country. duty this is what we we should do and this is what the world should do so i guess that we need international solidarity and also we need international support you we need your support by all means in order to stand against this entity and of course as you can see usa is just giving a free pass do whatever you want and we are all next to you thank you judy thank you that was wonderful um and so um

Judy Bello: Our final speaker is Marwa Osman. And again, I have to change my screen to give you her bio. And Marwa lives in Beirut right now. She has a home in the south of Lebanon where the bombs have been coming down for some time. And so she moved to their apartment in Beirut. And which again, there's more bombing. And so now I believe she's in a safe house in Beirut with her family, with her small children and her husband. So, uh, Marwa is, um, a professor of media studies at Maroff university. She is also a presenter and producer for the MIDI stream, uh, an expose show on press TV, where, uh, she does covers the news, uh, regional news. And she is really an experienced writer and commentator on West Asian issues. And she's the go-to person in Lebanon for me. And so I know that she's going to have some interesting things to tell you. So I'm going to turn it over to you, Marwa.

Marwa Osman: Thank you, Judy. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you very much. Thank you, Joe. It's nice to see you again. Dr. Amal, it's always nice to see your beautiful face. Dr. Azouz, it's very nice to see you. Actually, I know you from before, but I don't think you remember me, but it's nice to see you again. And I want to start by thanking, first of all, the people who put this seminar together for bringing us together. And I want to thank Dr. Amal for telling us a complete history about the why we are here right now. And I want to thank Dr. Azouz on behalf of all Lebanese people for accepting us as refugees in this very dire situation. I know that more than 250,000 Lebanese people have... You are in your country, Marwa. You are in your country. I have no doubt. If you know me, you know that I am Syrian-Lebanese. It's not Lebanese. And Palestinian as well. So I'm a Levantine. That's what I am. But I wanted to thank you because people need to know that despite the Sykes-Picot and despite the attempt by Zionist Israel and the US Empire and its allies break us apart and to make us into these tiny countries, we recognize that we are a one nation and that we don't have borders between us. And the big evidence is how Syrians, because of the war, the terrorism that was brought upon Syria, found refuge in Lebanon. And now both those Syrians and the Lebanese then found again in the motherland, Syria, refuge from the bombs that are falling, the US-made bombs that are falling on our heads. Let me just give you a comprehensive overview of where I am right now, what's happening, and then we'll talk a bit of geopolitics. I am in Beirut, in the central district of Beirut, and I had to flee twice. I'm displaced twice, and I'm not leaving my country because I'm here because I need to be here. This is where I should be at the moment. This is my duty. My house in South Lebanon, it's in a very beautiful village called Khiyam. It's on the border with occupied Palestine and the occupied Golden Heights. So I'm right there at that triangle with Syria, Palestine and Lebanon. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to take my kids strolling someday there. Maybe we go to Tiberias. Maybe we actually go to Ramallah and visit Dr. Aman. You never know. And I then, when it started on October 8th, I was actually right there because October 7th hit us and it was a glorious, glorious day. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. And October 8th, the resistance started its open front against Zionist Israel on Lebanese occupied land, meaning according to international law, the Lebanese resistance, Hezbollah, when they opened the front line in Kafr Shuba and in the Shabaa farms, they were actually operating according to the UN charter. trying to liberate Lebanese land. They didn't start by bombing inside occupied Palestine. They only began when Zionist Israel started retaliating on areas that are inside the Lebanese territory, way inside the Lebanese territory. I was right. There was 645 a.m. on October 8, and we were watching how the resistance gave us dignity by standing the first for like the first couple of hours standing with our brothers and sisters in Palestine. Fast forward. one year later, or let's say one year minus one month when the escalation started really going big in Lebanon. We all viewed an entire year of genocide against our brothers and sisters in Gaza, alongside attempts by the Zionist entity to bombard Damascus, Hama, Aleppo, alongside the American occupation also looting, stealing, and bombing Syria, alongside also bombing Baghdad, Yemen, Hodeidah, Sa'dah, Sana'a, you name it. They were bombing everyone who was part of the axis of resistance, majorly those factions who stand in support of Palestine first and foremost. Up until a month ago, we saw a very intriguing escalation, which made me again about 15 days ago to get displaced for the second time from my Beirut house, because my Beirut house is in the suburbs of Beirut, which now globally is known. It's called Bahia. And we live in that area where the Western mainstream media calls the Hezbollah stronghold, when it's just another suburban area where people, residential areas, shops, busy streets, schools, hospitals, the same way like your neighborhood, exactly wherever you're living. So when they started escalating by targeting the first line of commanders in the resistance, and then you all witnessed the terrorist attack of the Patriots and the walkie talkies on September 17 and 18. And then on September 19, you all witnessed as well one of the most horrific attacks on the residential area in Beirut history in the southern suburbs of Beirut against two 10 stories apartment buildings taking down 40 apartments, killing more than at that time 63 residence alongside the commander Ibrahim Aqeel, who's the head of the Radwan forces, which are the infantry forces of Hezbollah, alongside 13 other members who were in a civilian meeting. They were not on the front line. And they took out two residential buildings at that moment. My house is just 400 meters away, so I lived through the whizzing of the missiles and the wave of attack that made us feel as if the apartment is coming down, the apartment building is coming down. I had to make decision at that moment whether I should stay or I should leave. And the decision was, obviously, I don't want my kids to have any sort of trauma, the same trauma that I lived through in the 1996 war and the 2006 war. So I decided to find a safe place for my kids and help. And alhamdulillah, I am more than where I need to be at the moment. I just dread the civilians who fled South Lebanon and the Bekaa after a wave of attacks after that attack. Four days later, they started with a big wave of attacks against the Bekaa Valley, and that's the last week of September, and the southern part of Lebanon, which in less than 24 hours, they were killing more than 750 civilians and wounding more than 2,000 people. Now, the latest numbers that are coming from the Ministry of Health in Lebanon, they say that since October 8, 2023, the numbers of martyrs in Lebanon has exceeded 2,600 martyrs and the number of casualties, 10,000. injured civilians. We're talking about civilians. You're not counting the fighters of the resistance. So that has been the case in Lebanon. And then you have the bunker buster bombs that were dropped on us because we are, according to the Zionists, only basically pets that they test their weapons on, weapons made by the United States of America that are equal to 82 tons of explosives that fell on a residential area in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which basically assassinated the head of Hezbollah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, turning him from a leader into an iconic global figure. And from then on, they have been carpet bombing the southern suburbs of Beirut. Every time a bomb hits, it's like it's sitting in our street, but we are at least 13 kilometers away, and yet That's like the thermo something bombs. I don't want to say the wrong word. thermobatic bombs i think it's it's called uh that they're using um which you watch on tv and then you would say oh that's a warehouse that has weapons no you need to study what those weapons are made from and how they explode and what kind of a visionary they give and and how how the explosives it explodes on several uh times it's just not one explosive explosion it's different explosions and it shatters across at least three or four kilometers in a radius. So there they are bombing issues. If you if you look at videos coming from Bahia, it is something not even similar to Gaza because the bunker buster bombs were not used on Gaza as long as as far as I know. But in Beirut, I mean, if you walk in Gaza, you see buildings that are completely fallen. You see that buildings that are either completely fallen on the side or just crushed like basically biscuit. In Lebanon, I was watching this video today and I was talking to an expert in explosives and he was telling me it's something that he's never seen before because you would have this like the building, the apartment building that would be like 12 stories high. You look at the area where there used to be a building and you see nothing. except a uh 12 meter crater nothing absolutely there's like no no dust there's like just you know uh literally just sand in the place of the building that once stood there and that's on a large scale in in the southern parts of Lebanon. And you also have the frontline villages where Zionist Israel was supposedly going to do a very limited operation to try to eliminate Hezbollah. They have carpet bombed the villages on the frontline. I'm pretty sure everyone has already seen Neroon, which they attempted to infiltrate and try to invade and they failed, but they completely carpet bombed it. If you look at it, you think it's Gaza. It's that big. that has been happening as well. Added to that, at the political level, you've been seeing the hypocrisy of the Zionist entity alongside the American empire with speeches coming out of the White House and spokespersons of the White House saying that they are working on diplomatic resolutions and they want to see an end to this, but Israel has a right to eliminate the risk of Hezbollah. Apparently, Israel has a right to eliminate everyone around it, but we are not allowed to defend ourselves. Apparently, Israel has a right to kill humans right, left, and center, and no one has the right to put a stop to it and at least stop providing them with weapons. When Macron tried to criticize that, Netanyahu gave him a special video calling him a shameless leader that will go down in history as someone who is anti-Semitic and hates Israel. That's what That's what they are about. They are just genocidal maniacs throwing all sorts of descriptions left and right while killing civilians, obviously with internationally banned weaponry. At the moment, diplomatically speaking, it is funny because it is very tragic. So it's dark humor coming from the United States of America. They are pushing for Lebanon to elect a president. moment because they think by eliminating the first line of command in hezbollah hezbollah does not exist anymore therefore they should just elect a president that is a puppet in the hands of the americans which would end up by signing some sort of a peace agreement with israel peace and israel i know they don't go together in one sentence but that's what the americans are trying to do at the moment but I think they are astonished by the level of capability that Hezbollah still has. We haven't seen Israel succeed in its infiltration. We saw them planting a flag and bulldozing a couple of lights in a public place. in a public setting, in a public park. I think Dr. Amal Wahdan visited, I don't know if you have visited the Maroon Ras Park before. You could understand what I'm saying. It's a public park. Judy, you were there. I think, Judy, you were there. You took part in the field trip that we were together in, in the Maroon Ras. Remember how far, first of all, Judy, you remember how far it was from the actual town and how it was right on the fence. So Israelis are now gloating that they are taking down those lights that are present in between the tables where people used to come and have some barbecue with the family. So that's what Israel has invaded so far after nine days of trying to invade South Lebanon and at the same time continuing with the bombardment campaign. Now, the humanitarian situation is in dire need of assistance, but the morale of the people is ever so high. They trust their resistance, and they know that with the bombs that we've been seeing over the past three days, we've seen Haifa being hit with missiles, we've seen Ghoshdan, we've seen... I think it's called Kuryat, which is the suburbs of Haifa, also being targeted by missiles after more than 15 days of carpet bombing. It was about time the resistance retaliated with such capabilities. And I think that the Israelis are now in a conundrum because they didn't achieve any of the objectives they set for Gaza. They completely failed there, except for the genocide, committing massacres and genocide. And the goals that they set for themselves in Lebanon, apparently to make sure that the northern settlers returned to the north, now Haifa is being evacuated, Ghoshdan is being evacuated. I think that those objectives are turning around and just strangling the Zionist leadership. And I think the only way out right now, both for the Americans and the Israelis, is to shift focus away from Netanyahu. They desperately need to change Netanyahu if they want to see any kind of change on the ground. On the end note, we will never stop supporting Palestine. We are Palestinians. There's nothing called Lebanon, Syria, but no, no, we are all one nation. will never stop supporting i don't care if my house is gone in the south or in beirut i'll just rebuild it that's who we are we rebuild and we continue living and uh also on another note i want to thank the syrian arab army and the engineers in the syrian arab army and in the iranian revolutionary guard corps for giving us the know-how right here in our country to be able to fight this occupation and especially for the syrian arab army that has been fighting a war for everyone fending terrorism against us right here in the region, and at the same time giving know-how and weapons to the resistance to resist. So that's a thank you from us all here in Lebanon, and thank you guys for listening.

Judy Bello: Thank you very much, Marwa. All of you, it was great hearing what you have to say, and I'm not sure, Joe, do you have some questions in the Q&A?

Joe Lombardo: Judy, I think there's two questions in the Q&A, but let me just say something quickly if I can. First of all, I want to express total solidarity from UNAC with the speakers and with the movement that's resisting US imperialism and Zionist aggression throughout the whole region. I think as Dr. Adnan said, we are seeing a totally new day. We are seeing it in the United States. As an anti-war activist, I've been waiting for a long time to see the students rebel again on the campuses and see large street demonstrations throughout our country. And they're happening throughout our country and throughout the world. Many, many campuses rebelled during the spring. And these administrations spent the whole summer figuring out how they can stop it in the fall when students came back. And when students came back, they saw some were had been expelled some were not allowed into classes we saw there were areas that were declared as free speech areas those were the only places to protest if you could protest at all one college that i've heard about they had guards at all the gates and when the student leaders came to these gates to return to school in the fall they were denied access to the campus. So they couldn't get onto the campus. The next day, they showed up with masks, but not just themselves. Everybody else wore a mask too. So this is the creative kind of actions that youth know how to do, young people know how to do, and will lead our struggle. The world is wakening up to what U.S. imperialism and Zionism is and as Dr. Adnan said, it is a new day. US imperialism and Zionism are being challenged never before You remember the Six-Day War when Israel claimed it won in six days? It's been more than a year and they cannot win. They are trying to expand the war because they're hoping that the U.S. and their NATO allies and in colonial countries, the countries that had colonies, the white supremacist countries around the world can join them because that is the only way that they can win. The resistance is standing up to Zionism, and this is a new day for all of us. So, Judy, if you could look into the question and answer, and maybe see if there are Q&A things that can be asked there.

Judy Bello: You might have to give me permission, because you're the... Oh, okay.

Joe Lombardo: Well, I thought anybody could, but I will do that then. I will look and see what questions there are. But let me remind people that if you register, you will get a video of this webinar tomorrow from Zoom. So if you see a Zoom message, open it up and in there will be a link to the video of this webinar. And we urge you to please spread it around and UNAC and others will be doing

Judy Bello: Can I just say one thing beyond what Joe just said? Yes. If you go out in society right now, and this happened at the very end of the Iraq war, and that was a war in which the United States was actually losing our own people. But right now I would say 70 or 80% of Americans oppose what's happening. The problem is that they don't know how. to affect the government to make the necessary change. So it is, speaking of a new day, like that's just amazing to have that high a percentage of the people here oppose a war. Everywhere I go, if I wear a keffiyeh, no matter what, people ask me questions. And they too are horrified. And the problem, as I say, is just that we do not have, unfortunately, we do not have a democracy here at the moment. So maybe now some questions.

Joe Lombardo: Okay. So the first question that I see is the question of, two-state versus a one-state solution in Palestine. The author of the question claimed that 85%, according to a friend of his, seemed to support a two-state solution. He asked a further question of why don't we see more countries supporting the resistance and supporting the Palestinian people in real concrete ways. So we'll just open it up. And I'm going to change people's view to a gallery view so people can see everybody. And we'll just open it up for anybody that would like to answer that question and others that we will ask. So if you want to do that, just jump in and do it. There's no need to raise a hand or anything. And we can have more than one answer to those questions.

Judy Bello: I think Amal is waiting to respond to that, at least initially.

Amal Wahdan: But actually, that's what I've been working on and fighting for almost 20 years now, you know, in front of the odd situation of the Oslo Accords and the two-state illusion, not the two-state solution, because there is no such a thing as two-state solution. Two-state solution is a dissolving factor to the Palestinian cause, because we can't live in that 22% of historic Palestine, which is also occupied by settlements, hundreds of settlements and hundreds of thousands of settlers. So this actually is a blood, you know, the Oslo Accords that was condoned and articulated by shimon peres and he admitted himself it's only just an agreement so that the israelis can get into the arab world for an economic peace accord, you know. And before him, Sharon, when he invaded Lebanon, he was calling for the same thing, changing the geography, changing or partitioning Lebanon into sects according to religion. religious sects. So what we are calling for is right now the best solution for all. This killing, this machine killing of the Israeli colonial regime and the USA is not going to take anybody anywhere except for continuation of this bombardment and resistance, Palestinian resistance, Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, the whole axis of resistance. If we want to stop this bloodshed, there is only one solution that historic Palestine will be one country. and whoever agree to live on equal paces with the original or indigenous people of Palestine, they're welcome. And no, place for racism, apartheid, Zionism, imperialism, what have you. This has to be terminated. This has to be really exterminated, actually. And we have to put all these leaders into trial, like what happened in World War II, Nuremberg, do you remember? That's they were chasing the Nazis, the Israelis, of course, and the Zionist movement all over. They were chasing the Nazis to put them on trial. Now it's our turn and it's the humanity at large duty to put all these leaders along with the USA leaders as well. into trial because of the crimes that they have committed to people. So the one state solution is an institutionalized country and has a constitution based on equality based on democracy, human rights and international law. This is the time actually to implement this, but we cannot implement this while these mad leaders who are running the Israeli regime and the USA who are trying to govern the whole world But they have no chance now. The USA is about to start the decline. I mean, they started to decline. We have multi-polarism now. There is other players on the stage and unipolar is vanished. The USA has been losing now that they started the Ukraine war. in order to conquer and to eradicate Russia, they are failing. They are miserably failing and putting whole of Europe at risk. And the Europeans know... Kamal, you're muted.

Judy Bello: Kamal.

Joe Lombardo: We can't hear you.

Judy Bello: We can't hear you.

Amal Wahdan: Dr. Amal, . And Gaza is another field. This is a global war. It's not only between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli regime or the access of resistance and the US-Israeli regime. This is a global war. The US is trying to hold to its military bases. And Israel is a military base for the US and imperialism. So they want to stop the course of history. The course of history is with the people who are revolting, who are fighting for their freedom and liberty against all colonial powers who are still fighting according to the laws of 100 years ago. We cannot allow these people to continue their um barbaric um nazi crimes against the people of the area look we haven't been living in peace for decades now and they are still thinking that they can play with us like chest stones we are not letting them to continue this action and we will stop them with our resistance and the people of palestine are holy and totally with the resistance and the people of the world now are chanting Free Palestine from the river to the sea. This is exactly what we are fighting for, a historic free Palestine for people who can live in harmony, for people who can live according to human rights and international law. And this is how we can bring seven million people who are scattered all over the world back to their villages. And by the way, We're working on something called Museum of Palestinian Memory about the destroyed villages. The 675 destroyed villages that was totally or partially destroyed by the Israeli terrorist militias in 1948 and on, these people who are living around the world in refugee camps and in the diaspora these people are longing to come back to their um to their homes and to their villages and guess what according to the statistics and according to history um or history researchers 82 percent of the lands of these destroyed villages are empty Most of the settlers, or I should call them colonists, are living in the middle region of historic Palestine, which is a greater what they call greater Tel Aviv, which most of it was built on the territories of these destroyed villages of Jaffa, or they call it Jaffa. Yes, people are dispersed all over the world while we have people from 80 countries, 80 racial and ethnos around the world coming to replace the Palestinians. So this is the only and the rest of them. we can say that this Ghosh Dan area of 10 settlements have like 4.5 settlers, colonists. In Krayot, in Haifa area, which consists of six settlements, And most of its people came from North Africa and from the Soviet former Soviet Union. They consist of half a million settlers. The rest of the settlers are all over Palestine. So that's why we say that there is a chance there is a real chance that. and now we are fighting actually we can't uh hope that the us will stand by us to have a free palestine to have a one democratic state of palestine and we have to fight for it and the resistance is doing a great job the resistance in palestine and the resistance in the access of resistance are proving that the unity of the liberation movement in the Arab world and in other parts of the world can change the scene. We did not actually dream when we were talking about the access of resistance and when we were, you know, preaching about the need to have access of resistance. We didn't think actually that this will change the whole scene after October seven. We didn't we never thought that Yemen will block the Al-Mandeb Strait, and fight against warships, UK and US warships in the Red Sea. We didn't think that the ballistic missiles of Yemeni Ansarullah will hit Tel Aviv in the middle, the Ghosh Dan area, which consists of 4.5 colonists there. This is a dream that came true. Of course, we know that Hezbollah is with us day and night and was supporting the Palestinian resistance for years. Actually, the establishment of Hezbollah was for liberating Lebanon and Palestine. It wasn't only for Lebanon. And the Syrians who are a stronghold that supports the axis of resistance, support the Palestinians and the Lebanese resistance are in one front now. And all of us couldn't believe when we saw the Iranians attacking from more than 2,000 No, I think it's less than 2,000, about 2,000.

Marwa Osman: It's 1,400 kilometers.

Amal Wahdan: 1,400, yes. OK, so we were chanting. All Palestinians went to the roof of their buildings to agree greet the the iranians while the israelis were hiding in their shelters so this dream that we were longing for has finally come true and while we are talking about the resistance and changing the course of history in this part of the world the end result should be clear. We cannot go back to an illusion that the US tried to convince us with by bribing some of our leaders and we now have the voice of the resistance to say Palestine is from the river to the sea and the 7 million people who are scattered all over the world and in refugee camps living in miserable lives have the chance to not to dream had the chance to come along and live in their own country in their own land and by the way the the traces of these villages are still there i visited some of them and i take You know, delegations to go and visit before October 7th, of course, to visit these places. And we work with the refugee camps. That's why you see the resistance fighters. Most of them come from either refugee camps or the countryside. And these are our leaders. And the fighters in Gaza are our leaders. And they have all our respect and support, as they have the respect and support of the whole people. Millions of people who are going in the streets on weekly basis are supporting and chanting for an independent, free Palestine.

Joe Lombardo: Thank you, Amal.

Marwa Osman: I just need to say something. I have a live link with a TV channel, so if you have any question, I can answer in three minutes. That would be great because I need to straddle. I'm sorry.

Joe Lombardo: It's okay. Any question directly for, well, let me see what's there. A bunch of others. If you have an answer to that question, Dr. Morales, including the part of why there's not more help from other countries. That would be good. And there's a second question which maybe you want to answer coming from Lebanon.

Marwa Osman: I can answer that. And there was a question from an Irish. Yes, I was going to ask you that one also. Yeah, I'd love to answer that as well. Let's start with that. And then I'll go to why others are not helping because the answer is obvious. But the Irish issue with the UN delegate or the UN forces of the Irish forces in the southern part of Lebanon in the Lebanon area, which is near Nakura, which is on the southernmost end of the western part of South Lebanon, that has been witnessing a lot of action over the past two days because there is, as you know, Lebanon has peacekeeping missions, but Zionist Israel does not have. Lebanon has to abide by the 1701 UN resolution, but Israel doesn't have to. So we have UN peacekeeping missions for decades now in Lebanon, and they work, by the way, side by side with the Lebanese army and the resistance. They are not our enemies. On the contrary, we have people who got married from UN members in that area. So, and especially the Irish battalion, which is one of the closest to our hearts in South Lebanon, because we know that we and the Irish people share a similar history and they support actually our resistance movement. So we don't have a problem with them. On the contrary, Zionist Israel was choosing that part of Labouna where the battalion is situated, where the headquarters of the Irish battalion is situated, and they tried to use them as human shields. to enter and infiltrate into Lebanon. Hezbollah was releasing statements for the past three days saying, we are not going to engage because this will put a risk on the lives of the UN Irish battalion forces. And the Israelis were asking the Irish to move. The Irish were saying, why would we move? We are situated here according to international law. Until Zionist Israel initiated the attack and Hezbollah had to retaliate to that attack, what I heard From the Zionist side, which I really don't believe, but they said they actually, they mentioned that they lost eight members of the soldiers, of the occupation soldiers, and they lost also, I think, 50 casualties injured. That's what they say. But according to the resistance, the number is much higher than that. So that's concerning the Irish battalion from the UN forces. Now concerning why don't others come on board like, seriously, like whom? What, Egypt? Jordan United Arab Emirates these are regimes these are regimes that were put in place by the United States of America there is nothing called Jordan now my Jordanian friends might might be a bit uh they might get like a bit mad with me but I mean come on history is what's the truth it's not me saying that what is the role of the uh so-called king of Jordan absolutely nothing except to protect Israel And the evidence is not only that he does not allow Jordanians to join the forces of the resistance into occupied Palestine. And second, he tried to stop the missiles that were being launched against Zionist Israel. They intercepted the missiles and they never intercepted one F-16 or F-35 that was using the Jordanian airspace to go ahead and bomb Syria. There you go. Now, Egypt, let us not go there. I think, you know, the history of it. But I mean, who are you talking about? Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia that has been bombarding Yemen since 2015 and openly wanting to start normalization with Zionist Israel? Or what, the other Arab Gulf peninsulas who were literally instated, put in place as puppets in the late 70s? There was no UAE in the 60s, no Saudi Arabia in the 60s. They were brought in by colonial powers. You need just to read history to understand why those regimes will never react because they are remnants of the empire. They are remnants of colonialism. You seriously expect that Saudi Arabia, that Mohammed bin Salman will tell Zionist Israel, you either stop killing Palestinians or I will bomb you? Why? They're his friends. He doesn't care. So it's just a bit of history. If you read a bit of history about the region, you will understand why it is those specific people who are part of the axis of resistance. And in conclusion, I think that we are, as Dr. Amal was saying, a very crucial and important time in history. And every word that is being said all across the world, if you wake up and say, what can I do? Speak about Palestine. Speak about Lebanon. That's more than enough for us. If there's a protest, take part of it. If you have a representative, send him a letter and telling him, why are we funding genocide? Okay. And there's a drastic thing that I would call people to do, but I don't want to do it right here because I don't want to cause any trouble for anyone. But you can follow my account on Twitter at Marwa two underscores Osman, and you can hear what I have to say. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be among you all. Viva la resistance.

Joe Lombardo: Thank you. Thank you very much, Marwa. I really appreciate you being here. And we'll talk to you again soon. So I just also want to say hello to Afia, who I see in the chat, leader of Black Alliance for Peace and the Malcolm X Center. Some others who I see here, but I'm not getting there. Someone from Britain said something about how now they're carrying Lebanese flags in their demonstrations in London, which are huge. When I was in Britain not too long ago, I joined one of these massive marches in London and was very happy to be. surrounded by hundreds of thousands of others that wanted to end Zionism and imperialism. Any other answers to any of those questions or any other thoughts?

Adnan Azzouz: Yes, I would like to answer that regarding is there any possibility that we could bring these war criminals to justice or to heck? I would like to answer on this, saying that the international law is made for weak people, actually. Let's be frank. Law is for weak people. We can apply law and we bring people into justice when they are weak. But this international, for instance, let's speak about international criminal court. International criminal court has issued, of course, a lot of warrants. for the Prime Minister of Israel and his Minister of Defense and others. But let's be frank, these are tools by the United States. Let's be frank. If they say anything that is against their will, they are going to deprive their financial support to these international organizations. We have seen this, if you remember when Trump has done this with many international organizations when they went out of the line that US is doing. So as you see, he has done this with the UNESCO, with also the other international organizations. So who is going to bring them to justice? If they are the main players, they are those who put the rules, who can bring them into justice? So the question is how we can get united in order to have a new form of a new international community, because the United Nations have failed in this exercise of true of true and false issues. United Nations is very good in blaming others and using the veto against them when they are not in the line of the United Nations or of the United States. I'll give you a small example of what's happening in the, I am an international expert in ILO. ILO, International Labour Organization, because they don't like Belarus, They included a special article this year in Geneva saying that Belarus is not having democracy. So no country should have any contact with Belarus federation trade unions or whatsoever because they don't have democracy. Imagine why the United States is preventing anyone from saying any word against Israel. So how does it come that democracy is not practiced there? While in the United States, if you carry the flag of any resistance or any country that is against the USA, you are going to be put in jail under, of course, this anti-Semitism and these, of course, other accusations. So we see by international organizations like the ILO or other international organizations, part of UN, that all these efforts are just to suppress people from saying what they want to say. But what we see now is this new order happening now. I guess this is the last chance that we have to pick and to make it all around the world in order to start a new order, a new form of internationalism. In this way, we can fight these kinds of organizations that are all supported by the united states so i guess this is the the the one chance that we have now the word is a way to the reality of states no democracy is there no free of speech is there no human rights is there there are only slogans in order to suppress others who are not with us so so the question is how we can bring them into justice by changing the whole order the new order that we could find, we can have new courts, we can bring them into justice, but not according to the already existing one. Thank you very much. And I really apologize because also I need to leave. So if you have any other questions, I would be glad to answer before I leave. Thank you.