May 25 marks the anniversary of the liberation of Lebanon’s territory, ending an almost two-decade Israeli occupation of the south of the country.

To this day there remains considerable pride that groups of well-organized Lebanese — tired of the injury and loss under yet another illegal Israeli occupation — successfully ejected one of the most modern, lavishly funded and reputedly best-organized militaries on Earth. Populations in southern Lebanon suffered immeasurable damage under a constant threat of detention, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the many other patterns of Israeli behavior still carried out in its military occupation in Palestine.

Today, a comprehensive museum to the Lebanese liberation, set up at the picturesque, central mountain village of Mlita, displays a collection of the nail bombs, land mines, and illegal cluster munitions that the Israelis used nearby in efforts to maintain their occupation. Yet this was all without success — and Lebanese resistance instead offered a further example in the global body of evidence that there is no force more potent than a people defending its homeland.