Resistance and Liberation Day: May 25 – The Anniversary of the Zionist Defeat and the First Arab Victory
By Masar Badil – May 25, 2025
On May 25, 2000, the Lebanese people, through their valiant and honorable resistance, wrote one of the brightest pages of glory in the history of the Arab-Zionist conflict. On that day, the Israeli occupation army was forced to withdraw in humiliation from South Lebanon, unconditionally, after nearly two decades of occupation, leaving behind its collaborators, prisons, and fortified positions.
This was the first true Arab victory over the temporary Zionist entity since the Nakba of 1948—a victory recorded through the courage of the resistance fighters in the South, the Western Beqaa, and across all of Lebanon. A victory for those who believed that land is not restored through negotiations or normalization, but through the rifle, sound political vision, and a clear and principled stance.
Resistance and Liberation Day is not merely a local Lebanese holiday, but a radiant milestone in the history of Palestine, the Arab nation, and humanity at large. It confirms that the resistance project is capable of action, of achieving victory, and of imposing new equations—when there is popular will, belief in the justice of the cause, and wise revolutionary leadership.
Hezbollah, alongside the national resistance movements, proved that “Israel” is not an invincible destiny—and that occupation can indeed be defeated, not through futile negotiations, but through the pursuit of a full liberation struggle.
After May 25, 2000, never again can the occupation claim it has an “invincible army”!
Liberation came as the culmination of the sacrifices of thousands of martyrs, from various affiliations and revolutionary currents, who gave their lives over the course of two decades in defense of the dignity of the land and its people, confronting the Zionist war machine, armed with the most advanced weaponry and backed by Washington and the capitals of the Western imperialist powers.
Victory was not born in a moment, but was the result of a long accumulation of Lebanese and Palestinian resistance experiences, and of deeply rooted popular consciousness in the camps, villages, and towns of the South which held firm and embraced their fighters amid the bombing, destruction, and massacres.
Statement Against Genocide and Surrender: For Hope, Steadfastness, and Resistance
And today, as we mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the liberation, the conditions are more severe, and the enemy more savage, as Gaza and the West Bank—and with them, all of Palestine—engage in an open battle against genocide.
At a time when the world remains silent—or complicit—resistance once again proves itself to be the only effective option.
The experience of South Lebanon proves that resistance, even with the simplest means, can disorient the enemy, force its withdrawal, and break the aura of fear and intimidation it sought for decades to implant in the minds of the Arab people. This brave resistance rendered the enemy’s forces immobilized on the front lines, unable to advance, both in 2006 and in 2024.
Resistance and Liberation Day is a message to all peoples under occupation: that the price of freedom is measured not only in blood, but in political will and in the refusal to submit to the logic of degrading settlements that the official Arab regimes are working to normalize and generalize.
The victory of May 2000 is still alive, renewed every time the resistance stands up to the occupation, and every time the voices of the free rise up from Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, and every corner of the world resisting domination and colonialism. It is a victory that teaches us that when people possess a compass and break the wall of fear, they can create miracles and change the equations. The battle is long, bitter, and difficult—but its end is inevitably the liberation of Palestine—all of Palestine—and the removal of the Zionist entity from our land.
Let us turn this anniversary into an occasion to strengthen the path of resistance and to restore the value of the Arab liberation project in the face of all forms of normalization, subservience and dependency. Let us make the lessons of May a beacon for the future—lighting our path, and inspiring us with steadfastness, unity, and determination to achieve victory.
Glory to the resistance… Glory to the martyrs of liberation… Victory to Palestine.
