'A colonial and Zionist agenda': Tunisians protest against Lebanon's Hezbollah disarmament plan

A Tunisian pro-Palestine group has called for a protest outside the Lebanese Embassy in Tunis to denounce mounting efforts by Beirut to dismantle Hezbollah's military capabilities, moves the group views as part of a broader campaign to weaken "resistance movements" across the region.

Set to take place this evening, the sit-in is organised by the Coordination for Joint Action for Palestine, the most influential pro-Palestine coalition in the North African state.

The group has previously staged multi-day encampments and protests outside the US and Egyptian embassies, accusing both governments of complicity in Israel's ongoing war on Gaza.

In a statement published on 6 August, the coalition rejected what it described as "persistent attempts" by the Lebanese government to disarm the Iran-backed group, saying such efforts serve "colonial and Zionist agendas" aimed at dismantling resistance across the region.

The protest comes amid rising tensions along Lebanon's southern border and follows the most detailed disarmament proposal yet from Washington.

According to Reuters, the United States has presented Lebanon with a plan to phase out Hezbollah's armed presence by the end of the year, in exchange for halting Israeli military operations in the country and withdrawing Israeli forces from five positions in southern Lebanon.

The plan, submitted by President Donald Trump's envoy to the region Tom Barrack, is currently under review in Beirut.

At a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the Lebanese government approved the plan's overarching objectives, which include bringing all weapons under state control, deploying Lebanese forces to key border areas, and initiating indirect talks with Israel to resolve prisoner issues and finalise Lebanon's borders with both Israel and Syria.

"We did not delve into the details or components of the US proposal. Our discussion and decision were limited to its objectives," said Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos following the meeting. 

Ministers affiliated with Hezbollah and its Shia political ally, Amal, reportedly walked out of the meeting in protest.

Hezbollah was founded in response to Israel's 1982 invasion, and subsequent occupation, of Lebanon. Backed by Iran, it evolved into a powerful guerrilla force that led the campaign to end Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon in 2000.

Its 2006 war with Israel, which ended without Israel achieving its military objectives, catapulted the group to heroic status across the Arab and Muslim world. From Tunis to Aleppo, images of Hezbollah leader at the time Hassan Nasrallah adorned cafés and even Sunni households across the Maghreb, where many saw him as a symbol of anti-colonial resistance.

However, Hezbollah's 2010s decision to deploy fighters in support of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad during the uprising-turned-civil war severely damaged its reputation.

Graphic footage of atrocities committed by Assad's forces and their allies left many across the region disillusioned with a group once seen as a vanguard of liberation. For critics, Hezbollah had become little more than an instrument of Tehran's foreign policy.

Yet with the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023, and Hezbollah's decision to join what it called a "solidarity front" with Hamas while defending Lebanon's southern border against potential Israeli incursions, the group began to regain some of its lost standing, with Hezbollah's yellow flags reappearing in protests in Rabat, Tunis and Nouakchott.

"We stand with the resistance and its right to bear arms against the occupier. You will always find us beside the barrels of the rifles pointed at the Zionist, that is our place and our path," said Jawaher Chenna, a Tunisian member of the Coordination for Joint Action for Palestine, in defence of the group's position.

Other activists within the group and Tunisians who vow to join the protest criticised the Lebanese government for attempting to appease Washington at the cost of its own security and that of the Palestinian cause. "Palestine is our compass. We support whoever shoots at the Zionists," many commented under the protest call post over social media. 

The protest in Tunis also follows newly published reports by international organisations documenting Israeli war crimes against civilians and infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

"Many of southern Lebanon's border villages have been razed to the ground, and where schools were left standing, several had been vandalised, and at least two had been ransacked by Israeli forces," said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"By pillaging schools, Israeli forces committed apparent war crimes and put the education of students in Lebanon at risk," HRW added.