5 ways you can help the people of Lebanon now

Earlier today (October 1), Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon. This escalation follows weeks of intense aerial bombardment, during which at least 1000 people in Lebanon have been killed, including 87 children and 56 women, and around 6000 people injured.

The IDF’s stated goal is the elimination of the political party and paramilitary group Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets across the border since October 8, displacing around 60,000 people from northern Israel – Hezbollah has said it will not stop this campaign until Israel ends its attack on Gaza. The group’s leader, Hasan Nasrallah, was assassinated last week, in an air strike which levelled six residential buildings.The week before, Israel exploded hundreds of pagers and other electrical devices across Lebanon, which killed scores of people, including several Hezbollah commanders, and left thousands injured.

According to Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, as many as 1 million people may have already been displaced by Israel’s recent attacks. Repeating a tactic which it has often used in Gaza, the IDF has issued “evacuation orders” warning residents to leave their homes under the threat of being bombed. Some of these orders have come suddenly and late at night, making them useless as a means of preventing civilian casualties. This use of “evacuation orders”, along with the subsequent air strikes, has effectively created a refugee crisis within Lebanon itself, forcibly displacing thousands of people, and leaving them homeless and deprived of basic necessities.

While the international community has urged de-escalation, Israel’s latest offensive has the full support of the United States (even if Joe Biden has since made a cursory call for a ceasefire.) An already volatile situation is spiralling even further out of control, and at this point there seems to be no limit to Israel’s aggression – the global community has proven, time and time again, that it’s unwilling to impose any consequences for its repeated violations of international law. Based on Israel’s prior conduct in Gaza and some alarming recent statements by some of its senior politicians (one of whom, Education Minister Yoav Kisch, suggested that Lebanon will be “annihilated” and will “cease to exist|) Human Rights Watch has warned that Lebanese citizens are at “grave risk of falling victim to atrocities”.

There’s obviously a limit to how much any of us, as individuals, can affect the course of global politics, but we’re letting ourselves off the hook if we think of ourselves as completely powerless. There are things we can do to help people in Lebanon, and ways we can exert pressure on our own government, which continues to be complicit.

As well as facing the threat of further bombardment, thousands of people in Lebanon are now struggling to access food, water, healthcare and shelter. Around 115,000 people are living in state-run shelters, and many displaced people have been forced to sleep rough in Beirut. In the short-term, the best thing you can do to help would be donating to an emergency fund. Media collective From the Periphery has published a verified list of mutual aid projects and crowdfunders, all of which urgently need support. Several international NGOs, including UNICEF UK and Islamic Reliefhave launched emergency appeals.

That said, according to Daniel, a British-Lebanese man based in London who has spent the last week raising emergency funds, donating to local mutual aid projects might be more effective than to large, international NGOs. In the mountainous area where his family lives, there is an absence of support for the people arriving after having been displaced from the south. Some schools have been turned into shelter, but basic resources like food, sanitary products and clean clothes are harder to come by. “There are less major players operating and providing aid there, so a lot of people have turned to mutual aid,” Daniel tells Dazed.

“There’s a historical mistrust of big charitable organisations, and everything’s just happening so quickly that we need to get food to people immediately,” he continues. “No one else had checked in with them or provided them with anything. There’s literally no infrastructure to support people who have been displaced, and I think that’s why mutual aid has become a really effective tool right now.” You can donate to Daniel’s initiative on GoFundMe, and media collective From the Periphery has published a verified list of mutual aid projects, some of which are focused on helping LGBTQ+ people, women and refugees.

In London, a collective of Lebanese artists – Assault on structure – have organised a crowdfunder in partnership with the Lebanese Red Crosswhich will help to provide people with safe shelter, nutritious food, clean water, clothing, hygiene products and medical supplies. You can donate to it here.

There is a large protest taking place in London this Saturday (October 5), which, according Palestine Solidarity Campaignhas three demands: end the genocide in Gaza, hands off Lebanon, and stop arming Israel.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign is organising coaches to the national protest from all over England and Wales, and there are also protests being held across Britain, including in Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Manchester. If you’re not happy with the British government being directly complicit in a seemingly endless campaign of mass death, now is the time to show up

It’s never too late to start supporting BDS (boycott, divestment and sanction), a global Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. One of the campaign’s primary goals is to pressure Israel into complying with international law, which could not be more pressing at a time when the IDF looks to be gearing up to commit even more war crimes in Lebanon.

Over the last year, a lot of organic pro-Palestine boycott campaigns have sprung up on the internet, but boycotts work better when they are targeted. BDS chooses its targets based on their illegal practices and the extent of their complicity with the oppression of Palestinians, but the list is also designed to be focused, realistic and maximally effective. It’s worth checking out its website to find out which products and companies to avoid.

Al Jazeera’s English-language podcasts are great for getting to grips with what’s been going on: Al Jazeera News Updates provides regular bulletins, mostly just a couple of minutes long, and you can find more in-depth analysis on the The Takeboth of which are available on Spotify (you can also find their reporting on TikTok, Instagram, Youtube and Twitter.)

I also learned a lot from listening to a Jacobin Radio interview with Joseph Daher, the author of Hezbollah: The Political Economy of the Party of Godwhich provided a concise and even-handed account of the group’s history, ideology and goals, along with the broader political context of Lebanon. If you’re on Twitter, you should also follow (or read the substack) of Séamus Malekafzalia journalist who provides incisive and up-to-date commentary on Middle East politics.

@aljazeeraenglish Flares and explosions were seen across the Israel-Lebanon border as the Israeli military announced the start of a ground offensive in southern #Lebanon on Monday. #news #breakingnews ♬ original sound – Al Jazeera English

“Write your MP!” always sounds like a pat bit of advice, something to throw into a list like this when you’ve run out of ideas. Does it really make any difference? If your MP is a bad person with bad politics, are they going to be swayed by receiving an email, however impassioned or well-argued?

Maybe not, but there is something to be said for exercising your democratic right to annoy your elected representatives – if nothing else, it can feel quite cathartic. And if an MP receives enough messages, it shows that their constituents care strongly about an issue. Opinion polls have shown that there is broad public support for an arms embargo on Israel, but there is a difference between randomly being asked a question and taking the time out of your day to write an email. You don’t need a masters degree in Middle Eastern politics to express your opposition to the discriminating bombing of civilians, but if you’re not sure what to say, there are letter templates online which you can use to demand an arms embargo.