ZIONISM’S EXPANSIONISM
The current escalation in Lebanon cannot be understood without recognising the colonial ideology of expansion that underpins the Zionist project. Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, alongside its attacks against Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Qatar and Iran, is part of Zionism’s expansionist agenda. Drawn partly from the 20 century vision of a “Greater Israel” and rooted in the pursuit of territorial gains that have been deemed unfulfilled. th In the case of Lebanon, Zionist activists are expressing their colonial and settler ambitions openly. Zionist groups have been holding conferences calling for the occupation, annexation, and settlement of
“Greater Israel” extending into neighboring Arab states, including parts of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
History teaches us that colonialism begins, first and foremost, with a metaphoric occupation, with the redrawing of borders by coloured pens and ruthless hands, with envisioning and imagining settlement, and with these visions being fed, through literature and fiction, to both children and adults alike. Palestine itself, particularly in the early Zionist imagination, from Herzl onwards and throughout the literature of Zionism was first occupied in this way, before the Haganah militias and Israeli forces moved to violently displace and massacre Palestinians. Now that Israel’s tanks are moving and images of an occupation of southern Lebanon are already circulating, we know too well its expansionist efforts will not stop there. The turn may come next to those silently watching as borders are redrawn. Unless the pen extending the idea of a “Greater Israel” is taken away, its ink won’t run dry, nor will the fantasy it continues to draw.
southern Lebanon. The Uri Tzafon movement, for example, has been explicitly advocating for Jewish
settlement there, and in December 2024, its members claimed to have established an ‘outpost’ at the border under the banner “Lebanon Is Ours”. The group has also published a children’s book titled “Alon and Lebanon” that encourages and advocates for settlement in southern Lebanon. This has also been coupled by statements from senior Israeli officials, most notably by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has recently called for the annexation of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. Defence Minister Israel Katz has likewise said that the residents of southern Lebanon cannot return and that Israel’s military should occupy the south of Lebanon up to the Litani. These ambitions have long been circulating in statements such as “From the Euphrates to the sea” and in maps depicting a
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