Resistance Never Dies!
Santanu Dey
IN his memoir Memory of Forgetfulness, Mahmoud Darwish, the distinguished Palestinian communist poet, recounts a profound conversation with his friend, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, a revolutionary poet of renown. This powerful book chronicles the harrowing 88-day siege of Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Our great friend from Pakistan, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, is busy with another question:
‘Where are the artists?’
‘Which artists, Faiz?’ I ask.
‘The artists of Beirut.’
‘What do you want from them?’
‘To draw this war on the walls of the city.’
‘What’s come over you?’ I exclaim.
‘Don’t you see the walls tumbling?
Faiz and Darwish are no longer with us, but their legacy lives on. Beirut's spirit lives on, unbroken. Lebanon lives on. And their spirit lives on in the voices of poets, artists, and writers.
Walls stand, bearing scars and vibrant hues. Graffiti breathes life into the ruins left by Israeli aggression in September last year – a defiant art born of destruction.
The city nestles perfectly beside the Mediterranean, and as you wander through it, you'll notice that the walls of tall, multi-level buildings are adorned with wonderful, brilliant graffiti. Even the small, crumbled walls bear powerful calls of resistance. Take, for instance, the path leading to Crown Plaza, where a tiny wall, just 2.5 feet tall, features a striking mural in red calligraphy: 'Oath of Continuous Struggle', written in Arabic script, with the English translation written above it in the right corner – 'Today's glory is only for the bullet'. In the cafes, you’ll often spot the faces of Stalin, Che Guevara, and sometimes even Putin, side by side in graffiti art.
Revolutionary art literally covers the walls of rebellious Beirut. Near Martyrs' Square, vibrant graffiti in red paint boldly declares '#Palestine + Lebanon = Revolution.' This iconic square has long been a hotbed of protests, including those in solidarity with Palestine.
Hassan Hamdan, better known as Mahdi Amel, was a renowned Marxist thinker, who worked tirelessly to adapt Marxist concepts to the Arab context. Though he may be gone, his legacy endures. Stencils of his portrait are plastered across Beirut, bearing the words – ‘Read Mahdi Amel!’ A professor at the Lebanese University and a key member of the Lebanese Communist Party’s central committee, Amel was assassinated on May 18, 1987, on Algeria Street, near his home. His favourite quote is: ‘You are not defeated as long as you are resisting.’
This is why Lebanon, and the Lebanese Communist Party to this day, firmly believe that resistance never dies – a conviction rooted in the powerful notion that as long as you resist, you’re not defeated.
Faiz Ahmad Faiz, one of the greatest Urdu poets of the 20th century, wrote Ek Nagma Karbala-e-Beirut Ke Liye (A Song for the Battlefield of Beirut) in June 1982, amidst the Israeli invasion. The poem portrays Beirut:
Every fighter, an envy of Alexander the Great,
Every girl, beautiful as Laila.
Beirut, the heart of Lebanon,
Beirut, ornament of our world,
Beirut, exquisite as Paradise’s Garden.
On September 17, 2024, a series of small explosions reverberated through Lebanon’s streets, sparking widespread confusion and terror. This incident, known as the pager attack, marked a defining moment in Israel’s war on Lebanon. The day that followed saw another wave of fear as walkie-talkies with embedded explosives were detonated, further traumatising the Lebanese public.
On September 22, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Amichai Chikli, Netanyahu’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs, declared that Lebanon ‘cannot be defined as a state’ and that the Israeli army therefore had the right to ‘take over’ Lebanese territory and establish a ‘buffer zone’.
September 23, Israel launched a devastating series of air strikes, with the first wave killing upwards over 500 people in Lebanon, marking the country's deadliest single day since the 1975-1990 civil war.
On September 27, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s longtime secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah by dropping around 80 bunker-busting bombs in an attack on Dahiyeh, a suburb in southern Beirut, resulting in at least 33 deaths. The Israeli bombing campaign that followed lasted for over two months, claiming more than 3,000 lives and displacing nearly a million people, including thousands of foreign nationals and labour.
On November 27, a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel went into effect in the early hours of the morning, marking a significant development in the conflict (Lebanon’s terrible year: From exploding pagers to Israeli occupation! Al-Jazeera, September 17, 2025).
The Lebanese Communist Party's 'People's Aid' organisation has stepped in to fill the gap, launching an operation to mobilise resources, locate shelters, and supply food. Communist volunteers patrol congested roads and cities, helping people find refuge and providing medical assistance. Prior to the brutal airstrikes, the LCP's Polit Bureau had issued an open letter to the world's communist and workers' parties, appealing for solidarity.
One year after, the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) organised an international solidarity visit with the Lebanese and Palestinian people. According to the LCP, ‘in the light of genocide being committed against the Palestinian people, the escalation of the Zionist war of aggression against people and the states of the region, and following the criminal Zionist aggression on Lebanon and its people – and as the anniversary of the launch of the Lebanese National Resistance Front’– the LCP organised an international solidarity visit from September 14- 17, 2025 in Beirut, Lebanon.
33 Communist parties, Socialist parties, workers’ parties, and progressive movements from numerous countries participated in the solidarity visit, including those from Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Cyprus, Sweden, Serbia, Ireland, Spain, Romania, and Hungary, as well as the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The visit also drew participation from North Africa and Morocco, alongside communist parties from Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait, and Iraq. The Communist Party of Venezuela was also represented.
A key part of the visit involved visiting the Palestinian camp in Beirut to exchange views and engage in dialogue. A day-long seminar, spanning over five hours, focused on ‘People’s Struggle and International Solidarity’. On a subsequent day, a detailed discussion took place between the international representatives and the ‘Popular Aid Association’, the party’s health wing, in Dahiyeh (literally, 'the suburb') still bearing the scars of Israeli bombing. On the way to Dahieh, the devastation was starkly evident in the remains of multi-level buildings, reduced to fragmented husks and buried under layers of debris, a grim reminder of the 50 locations targeted by Israel between September 27 and October 11.
The settler-colonial State of Israel is driven by its ambition for a 'Greater Israel'. This goal was underscored on January 18, 2024, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparked controversy during an i24 interview. He asserted that ‘with or without an accord, the State of Israel must have security control over the entirety of the territory west of the Jordan River,’ effectively claiming sole sovereignty over Palestine, ‘from the river to the sea’.
In a recent documentary, ‘Israel: Extremists in Power,’ Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right figure in Netanyahu’s government, articulated his vision for a ‘Jewish state’. Citing biblical prophecy, Smotrich declared that ‘the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus,’ and further asserted that this expansionist vision encompasses territories in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
The apartheid Zionist regime under Netanyahu’s leadership has a crystal-clear vision – Greater Israel.
Our slogan, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ refers to the land between the Jordan River to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Notably, the founding charter of Netanyahu’s Likud party echoes a similar geography, but with a starkly different vision: ‘Between the sea and the Jordan, there will only be Israeli sovereignty.’
In reality, the ultimate target is the entire West Bank, a region Smotrich refers to as ‘Judea and Samaria’.
The delegation of the CPI(M) included Nilotpal Basu, Polit Bureau member, Santanu De and V P Sanu, members of West Bengal and Kerala state committees respectively. Amidst this backdrop, Nilotpal Basu, leader of the delegation, addressed the seminar, emphasizing the need to strengthen people’s struggle on a larger scale. ‘International solidarity must grow,’ he stated, ‘to confront the US-Israel axis, support Palestine’s fight for freedom, and uphold the region’s struggle for sovereignty and just peace.’
The International Seminar Demanded:
- Stop the Genocide in Gaza!
- Hands Off Palestine– End Zionist Israeli Occupation!
- Free Palestine Now!
- Stop Israeli Aggression in West Asia!
- World wants peace in West Asia!
