Beirut, Lebanon – Quite a few Lebanon’s Christian villages launched a press release on Monday, refuting claims by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they’d requested Israeli annexation.
“Christian villages in Lebanon, a few of them have really requested to be annexed to Israel, as a result of we shield them in opposition to Hezbollah, Hezbollah fanatics who need to kill them, and we do the identical issues with Christians in every single place,” Netanyahu had advised the Fox Information programme The Sunday Briefing the day earlier than the villages responded.
Israel at the moment occupies round six p.c of Lebanese territory, regardless of claiming within the latest Lebanon-Israel framework agreement that it has no territorial ambitions within the nation.
Lebanese analysts and southern Lebanon residents additionally lambasted Netanyahu’s claims, with some utilizing vibrant language.
“[Netanyahu’s claims] replicate his cynicism and the truth that he’s a pathological liar,” Karim Emile Bitar, a professor of worldwide relations on the Saint Joseph College of Beirut, advised Al Jazeera. “A number of Lebanese MPs and authorities officers known as each single mayor of all cities in south Lebanon, and there may be completely no fact in these statements. It’s fully a fabricated declare.”
Officers in 15 cities in southern Lebanon with Christian populations issued the assertion denouncing what analysts mentioned was an effort by Netanyahu to inspire sedition and strife between Lebanese.
Division over Hezbollah however rejection of Israel
Netanyahu’s feedback come on the again of a extremely criticised, US-brokered settlement between Lebanon and Israel geared toward ending Israel’s warfare on Lebanon.
The newest spherical of combating intensified on March 2, when Hezbollah fired six rockets at Israeli targets for the primary time in additional than a 12 months, and Israel responded by rising assaults throughout the nation, together with the capital Beirut, and invading southern Lebanon.
In latest months, Israel has attracted worldwide criticism for indiscriminate assaults on Lebanese targets, together with incidents involving Christians. Most notably, an Israeli soldier sparked international uproar when he smashed a Jesus statue in south Lebanon in April, whereas in early March a priest was killed by Israeli tank fire in south Lebanon. Moreover, an official of a Christian celebration was killed in early April in an jap suburb of Beirut.
Reached on Monday, a Beirut resident from the southern city of Jdeidet Marjayoun described Netanyahu’s assertion as “propaganda” and “false”. The resident requested anonymity as a result of their work doesn’t permit them to talk to the media.
Lebanon’s political illustration is split alongside sectarian strains, with the management break up between a Maronite Christian president, a Sunni Muslim prime minister, and a Shia speaker of parliament. A sectarian quota additionally exists for Lebanon’s parliament, and sect can also be a consideration when assigning authorities ministerial posts.
Some analysts consider Netanyahu and the Israeli authorities are attempting to amplify tensions inside Lebanon’s sectarian system with the purpose of making inside battle. Throughout the newest intensification of Israeli assaults, greater than 1.2 million individuals had been displaced from their properties. The bulk are Shia Muslims who had been compelled to search out refuge in areas with completely different sectarian makeups, at occasions resulting in fears that communal tensions may boil over into violence.
“This appears to be clearly supposed to sow civil strife in Lebanon, to pit the Lebanese in opposition to each other to advertise this concept that Israel might be a protector of sure minorities to play on the existential angst of Lebanese southerners,” Bitar mentioned. “It’s a decades-old divide-and-conquer technique, a part of an Israeli technique.”
For probably the most half, these tensions haven’t but culminated in violence. The nation is, nonetheless, deeply divided on the function of Hezbollah and the difficulty of its weapons and armed resistance. Regardless of that division, Lebanese individuals nonetheless overwhelmingly view Israel in a detrimental gentle.
A June 2026 ballot performed by Lebanese American College professor Jad Melki backs up this sentiment. Out of 1,000 individuals polled, 54 p.c agreed diplomacy is the one path to liberation, whereas 35 p.c supported armed resistance as the one path.
And whereas a couple of third of the individuals polled supported a peace settlement with Israel (34 p.c), 87 p.c agreed with the view that Israel is an enemy of the Lebanese.
Divide and conquer
Lebanese officers additionally spoke out strongly in opposition to Netanyahu.
Melhem Khalaf, a Greek Orthodox MP from Beirut, gave a press convention on Monday the place he mentioned that Netanyahu “doesn’t have the precise to talk on behalf of Christians”.
Hanna al-Amil, the top of the bulk Christian municipality Rmeish, situated on the southern Lebanese border, advised native newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour, “No village within the South has made such a request.”
The technique of Israel making an attempt to divide and conquer minorities within the area will not be new, analysts mentioned. Israel has claimed it needs to play an identical function in Syria, notably within the Suwayda area, after sectarian violence shook the Druze neighborhood there final 12 months. Israel then bombed Damascus in what it mentioned was an effort to defend the Druze neighborhood.
“The truth that most Lebanese dwelling in these villages within the south additionally had been shocked and launched statements, firmly denying this was fairly vital, nevertheless it shouldn’t be taken calmly as a result of it’s a part of a wider Israeli technique,” Bitar mentioned.
“There’s a want for all Lebanese to stay united and stay decided to nip within the bud all Israeli makes an attempt to sow civil strife in Lebanon,” he added.
