Israel’s Illegal Annexation of Southern Lebanon

The world can no longer stay silent. What is happening today in southern Lebanon is not just another border skirmish, nor a “security operation” as Israeli officials cynically claim — it is an active, illegal annexation. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), backed by extremist settler organizations and private military contractors, are redrawing Lebanon’s borders with concrete, bulldozers, and blood.

Near the village of Jal al-Dier, Israeli bulldozers roar day and night, carving out a massive fortified wall that snakes deep into Lebanese land. This is not merely a fence — it is a monument of colonial theft, a structure meant to erase Lebanon’s sovereignty under the guise of “security.” Behind this monstrous barrier lies another inner wall and layers of cement and soil fortifications meticulously engineered over the years to permanently seize Lebanese territory.

And here lies the scandal: this isn’t the work of the Israeli military alone. The construction is being carried out by Israeli settler companies — private civilian contractors funded and supported by far-right extremist groups. Among them is the notorious “Uri Tzafon Movement”, founded in March 2024, whose open mission is to settle southern Lebanon as “biblical land.” Since mid-2024, Uri Tzafon has been actively building and selling properties on Lebanese soil, openly violating international borders as the world looks away.

One of the key contractors in this criminal enterprise is Bardarian Brothers, a company long linked to Israeli Ministry of Defense contracts. According to WhoProfits (2018), this firm has profited for years from constructing apartheid walls, military infrastructure, and illegal settlement expansions. In 2024 and 2025, Bardarian Brothers and similar companies expanded their operations into southern Lebanon — this time to entrench an occupation that has no legal, moral, or historical justification.

But the invasion does not stop with bulldozers. It has taken on a religious and ideological face, reminiscent of the darkest colonial crusades. In March 2025, hundreds of Hasidic Jews were escorted by IDF soldiers deep into southern Lebanon to pray at what they called “a rabbi’s shrine.” The event was not a religious pilgrimage — it was a political declaration. Loud prayers proclaimed the land as “inherently Israeli,” under the watchful eyes of soldiers carrying rifles. This grotesque fusion of faith and occupation exposes the religious extremism driving the annexationist project.

These acts represent a flagrant violation of international law, particularly UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted on August 11, 2006, which explicitly prohibits any Israeli military presence or expansion in southern Lebanon. Even UNIFIL and multiple international observers have condemned Israel’s recent construction, describing it as a direct breach of Resolution 1701 and a threat to regional stability.

And yet, the crime deepens. In a shocking development, Israeli real estate agencies have begun advertising and selling land parcels in southern Lebanon and Gaza — online, in plain sight. Reports by Roya News (2024) and BBC (2025) reveal how Israeli extremists and speculators are marketing occupied land as “new investment opportunities,” turning stolen soil into profit. This economic normalization of annexation is as dangerous as the walls themselves.

Israel is not merely violating Lebanon’s sovereignty; it is destroying the very foundations of international order. Every wall built, every prayer staged under military escort, every land sale signed is a blow to the global legal system meant to prevent such aggression.

Let us be clear: This is not a security buffer. This is not a border adjustment. This is a crime — the deliberate, systematic annexation of another nation’s territory, enforced by the military, blessed by extremist rabbis, and financed by private companies complicit in occupation.

The IDF’s actions in southern Lebanon — from Jal al-Dier to the border hills — mirror Israel’s colonial blueprint from the West Bank to Gaza: build walls, plant settlers, claim divine right, and wait for the world’s silence.

But silence is complicity. Human rights organizations, international courts, and every voice that still believes in justice must act — now. The International Criminal Court must open immediate investigations into Israel’s war crimes and illegal annexation efforts. The United Nations must enforce Resolution 1701 and sanction Israeli companies involved in construction on Lebanese land.

Lebanon’s sovereignty is not negotiable. Its borders are not for sale. And its people will not disappear behind walls built by occupiers and extremists.

The annexation of southern Lebanon is not only a Lebanese tragedy — it is a global moral test. If the world fails to stop Israel’s colonial advance today, it will have no authority to speak of human rights, peace, or law tomorrow