Introduction

The Head of Bloc of Loyalty to Resistance MP Mohammad Raad asserted that “deplyoying the army on the border now will serve “Israel” not the residents for it would be a tacit acceptance that “Israel’s” withdrawal is complete”.

In the meantime, a diplomatic source at the Foreign Ministery said he was surprised at the way UN coordinator for South Lebanon Rolf Knutsson’s statement was worded, including his description of the attack as “a dangerous violation to the UN- drawn line of withdrawal”.

Separately, the “Israeli” troops shot and wounded a Lebanese civilian in his leg on the Lebanese-Palestinian border near Abbad tomb.

South still not liberated, says Raad…(1)

Deploying the army along the border would be a tacit acceptance that “Israel’s” withdrawal is complete, Nabatieh MP Mohammed Raad said Sunday.
“Deploying the army on the border now will serve “Israel”, not the residents,” Raad said during a commemoration in Nabatieh for two men killed by a landmine last week.
Mohammed Mahmoudi and Maher Dia were killed on the road between Jbaa and Haitoura in Iqlim al-Touffah when an anti-tank mine destroyed their car.
Raad, the Head of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, maintained that daily requests for the deployment were triggered by “American demands, international pressure and “Israeli” interests.”
He added that it would “confirm “Israel’s” complete withdrawal from Lebanon and pave the way for the separation of the Lebanese and Syrian tracks.”
Raad said “Israel” had refused to withdraw from the Shibaa Farms so that it could continue to interfere in Lebanese affairs.
He expressed “surprise” that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said resistance operations in the Shibaa Farms was a violation of the UN-delineated Blue Line, created to confirm the “Israeli” withdrawal in May.
“The Blue Line is an imaginary line that doesn’t negate
our right to recover our land in every way, including resistance,” Raad said.
Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan, vice-president of the Higher Shiite Council said Saturday that resistance operations would continue until the Shibaa Farms are liberated and detainees held in “Israel” released.
Speaking in the village of Haris in the South, the mufti urged the UN to “condemn “Israel” for its continuous occupation of Lebanese territories.”
He also demanded that the UN press “Israel” to execute UN Resolution 425, which calls for the complete withdrawal of “Israeli” troops from Lebanon, instead of “supporting” “Israel’s” aggressive policy.

UN official under fire for criticizing Hizbullah attack…(2)

A diplomatic source at the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that the United Nations should have consulted Lebanese officials before publicly denouncing a Hizbullah operation against “Israel” last week.
The source said he was “surprised” that Rolf Knutsson, UN coordinator for south Lebanon, made a statement hours after Hizbullah conducted an operation against an “Israeli” patrol last week without consulting Lebanese officials. As a result, the source said Lebanon has been slow to respond to the UN representative’s statement.
The source said that the UN often consults Lebanon before publicly commenting on an issue, as was the case when Hizbullah kidnapped three “Israeli” soldiers in October, he said.
Hizbullah last week set off roadside bombs in the Shibaa Farms area, the first such attack since the “Israeli” pullout in May.
The attack, in which an “Israeli” soldier was lightly wounded, drew condemnation from the United Nations and United States.
The source said he was surprised at the way Knutsson’s statement was worded, including his description of the attack as “a dangerous violation to the UN-drawn line of withdrawal.”
Knutsson said that “such breaches of international peace and security in the South threaten to ignite a new spiral of violence.”
The source said Knutsson exaggerated his description of Hizbullah’s operation by saying it threatened international peace and stability.
“Knutsson didn’t view “Israel” killing 10 people and wounding 40 Lebanese and Palestinian demonstrators on the border as a threat to international peace and stability,” he said.
The source said Knutsson also expressed concern regarding “Israel’s” continuous violations of Lebanon’s airspace in a statement he released earlier this month but only called for an end to these violations.
Meanwhile, Minister of State Nazih Beydoun said statements made by any foreign official in Lebanon are considered interference in Lebanon’s affairs.

“Israeli” shots wound Lebanese civilian at border…(3)

“ “Israeli” soldiers shot and wounded a Lebanese civilian in the leg Sunday amid a protest near a religious site on the Lebanese-”Israeli” border, Lebanese police said.

Mohammad Hassan, 30, had been hurling stones with other young men towards an “Israeli” military post, which lies close to the Imam al-Abbad burial ground, said the police.

The tomb sits on the “Israeli”-Lebanese border.

The men were throwing stones at armoured “Israeli” military vehicles, which patrol the hill around Fatima Gate, when a rock hit one of the three vehicles, witnesses said.

Immediately, the soldiers went into pursuit.

Hassan and the others fled carrying posters, which protested the “Israeli” imprisonment of 20 Lebanese without a hearing.

The men had been standing upon a spot that regularily undergoes fire by “Israeli” soldiers and has been transformed into a shrine for pilgrims since the “Israeli” retreat from south Lebanon on May 24 after 22 years of occupation. 

At least 10 Lebanese civilians have been killed and another 40 injured by “Israeli” gunfire on the borderline since “Israel’s” withdrawal from Lebanon.

Seven Villages await their independence
Even those too young ever to have seen their homes can describe them exactly, as well as tell who lived next door…(4)

Warren Singh-Bartlett

Across the zone formerly known as Occupied, Lebanese citizens are free this year to celebrate a double independence: from the French Mandate in 1943 and the “Israeli” occupation in May 2000.
But during the commemoration this Wednesday, spare a thought for those who have little reason to celebrate either event. For the residents of Teir Bikha, Ibl Qamah, Hounine, Malkieh, Nabi Yusha, Kades and Saliha ­ the Seven Villages ­ independence has yet to arrive.
“We’re happy the South has been liberated and we will celebrate with them,” says Moussa Chahrour, whose grandfather Shaker Chahrour was mayor of Hounine. “But now we say it must be our turn to go home.”
Strung along the old 1923 frontier between British Mandate Palestine and French Mandate Lebanon, the Seven Villages, which include more than 25 farms, were annexed to Palestine under the Al-Quds Treaty. No more than a line on a piece of paper, the Sykes-Picot Accord, which established the internationally-recognized frontier between the two colonial mandates, changed nothing for the residents of Jabal Amel, the mountainous region straddling the Lebanese-Palestinian border. At least, not at first.
Initially, the incorporation of Shiite villages into a country with no Shiite population raised few feathers. The Lebanese census of 1933 asked the villagers whether they would like to remain in Palestine or be re-incorporated into Lebanon. Economically speaking, Palestine was a more attractive prospect and as Beirut was much farther away than Haifa, most villagers appeared happy to become Palestinian.
To be fair, the concept of Lebanese or Palestinian meant little to people accustomed to the freedom of movement under Ottoman rule, freedom that continued during the Mandate era. The border was left unfenced out of respect for the centuries-old flow of trade and movement in the region, which meant traveling to Tyre or Sidon to sort out administrative tasks or pay taxes and down to Haifa to buy those little bits and pieces that didn’t quite make their way to the mountain.
Residents were offered Palestinian identity cards but in recognition of complex historical, religious, and geographical ties, they were also allowed to retain their Lebanese identity papers. With no border fence, residents could cross back and forth whenever they liked.
This easy existence came to an end in May 1948 when underground Jewish groups overthrew Palestine and proclaimed the State of “Israel”. Slowly but surely, the residents of the Seven Villages were forced off their lands. By 1949, the Seven Villages had fallen. And suddenly that line on a European map became frighteningly real.
It’s no wonder that these days the question of where the villages belong elicits a more emphatic response. “Our family was Lebanese before the Ottomans, before the French, and before there was even a Lebanon,” says Hajj Abou Fawwaz Hassan Khodroj, who was just 13 when he left his home for the last time.
“I’m Lebanese, and our land is Lebanese, there is no doubt about it.”
This conviction appears to have been shared by successive Lebanese governments. Resi-dents of the Seven Villages, unlike their Palestinian counterparts, were granted Lebanese citizenship in the 1960s and records of the old land deeds still exist in Sidon and Tyre.
The belief that the Seven Villages are Lebanese is even more evident in the younger generation of Houninites, too young to have ever set foot in the village.
“We’re Shiites and we’re Lebanese. Why put our villages in Palestine? There are no Shiites in Palestine,” says 26 year-old Ali Kleit, for whom, like many others, returning to Hounine has become a mission.
“We belong with the other villages in Jabal Amel.”
At the moment, there is not even a glimmer of that happening soon to a place perched strategically on the cliffs above the Galilee Panhandle overlooking the shiny, white Jewish settlements dotting the fertile plain.
Today, Hajj Abou Fawwaz lives in Shiyah in the southern suburbs of Beirut. His single-story house stands in stark contrast to the towering apartment blocks around him. The garden, full of jasmine and shaded by trees, is the closest approximation he can make to the home he last saw in 1948.
“We left slowly, group by group; we did not run from Hounine but we were scared the Jews would come and massacre us,” he says surrounded by his wife and family. “My family went to Markaba but there were still people in the village so we left everything in our house. My parents told us we’d be back after a month.”
Bitter words. Fifty-two years later, his parent’s words have yet to come true. As Jewish guerrilla gangs like Stern and Haganah consolidated their hold on Palestine, they used scare tactics to drive border residents away.
Their methods ­ detentions, kidnappings, and beatings ­ were so effective that, according to organizations like Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch, they are still used by the “Israeli” army today.
As the situation deteriorated, Houninites left in greater numbers, moving temporarily to villages on the Lebanese side of the border. Hajj Abou Haidar, who left Hounine in May 1948 at the age of 17, remembers that for many fellow villagers, the last straw was the kidnapping of three Hounine women, taken as they worked in their fields down on the Galilee plain.
“For a while, we still used to come to the village to pick fruit or check on our neighbors,” he says. “But it got more and more dangerous. The Jews would chase you if they found you. They took many people, some were gone for several weeks.”
Tactics didn’t stop at intimidation. The Haganah and their counterparts were responsible for massacres all over Palestine. Deir Yassine is perhaps the most infamous, but several massacres were perpetrated in the Galilee. The worst was at Saliha in September 1948, when 105 residents were machine-gunned behind the village mosque. Later in October, a further 85 were killed in Houla.
Hounine wasn’t spared. Before the guerrillas set about blowing up the village, destroying homes, farms and the 12th century village mosque, they rounded up the remaining 14 residents, mostly those too old to leave their lands, and shot them in the village square.
With the village gone, Hounine lives on in the minds of its residents and is reborn in the minds of those who listen to the stories they tell. Memories, unlike bricks and mortar, are much harder to destroy.
Even those too young to have seen Hounine can describe the house their family once owned. They know how many acres they planted, who lived next door, how long it took to get to Tyre, even the best place to nap on the way to Markaba. And naturally, they all dream one day of going home, whenever that day might be. It is this persistence of memory, passed down from generation to generation, that may, one day, pose the challenge to “Israel’s” control of the area.
Last November, before prospects of a unilateral “Israeli” pull-out materialized, then-Premier Salim Hoss was quoted as saying that Lebanon “requires the return of the Seven Villages and all the other areas ­ seized from Lebanon before and after 1949 and during the June (1967) war, including the Shibaa farms and the border areas in the qadas of Marjayoun, Bint Jbeil, and Hasbaya.”
Once it became clear that an overall peace settlement was unlikely, the government’s stand on the issue had less immediacy. The worry was that in the absence of a comprehensive deal any demand for the return of the villages, and therefore a redrawing of the 1923 frontier, would lead to attempts by “Israel” to legitimize their occupation.
In an article carried by one news service on Jan. 20, Hoss reported that “Lebanon’s borders are internationally recognized and are not subject to modifications or retracing, under an eventual settlement with “Israel”.”
The only exception, he added would be to take in the Seven Villages “forcibly seized by “Israel” in 1949.”
With the continued occupation of the Shibaa Farms, the violence in the occupied territories, and the deadlock in Syrian-”Israeli” negotiations, the prospect of peace with “Israel” looks dimmer than before. For now, the issue of the Seven Villages is again on the back burner. The villagers may have a long wait until, like their fellow residents of the South, they too have cause to celebrate each Nov. 22.
But waiting is something Houninites do well. Until May, no one had caught a glimpse of their “piece of Heaven on Earth” for 18 years. The last time residents ventured onto what remained of their land was to pick fruit from trees their ancestors had planted. That was in 1982.
Back then, it was possible to get up close to the settlement, even to talk to the new residents. At the time, they were Arab Jews from Yemen. Today, although the red-tiled homes seem close enough to touch, they are even further away than ever, separated from Lebanon by a tall barbed wire fence and border patrols. The orchards have been uprooted and the fields littered with landmines.
Although the situation is still not resolved, residents have begun moving back. Those whose land is still under occupation, and the bulk of Hounine land is on the other side, have been given small plots by fellow villagers. Slowly, New Hounine is rising in sight of the old, its two-story buildings looking right into the Jewish settlement over the fence.
“It’ll be sad to see Hounine and not be able to touch it,” says 14 year-old Mustafa Shbeeb with a shy smile. “But it is my village and even if I never live there, I know my children will.”

Intifada chic hits Beirut fashion scene…(5)

“ A shopper walking down Hamra Street, Beirut's busy commercial thoroughfare, turns a corner and is greeted by a threatening sight.

The Palestinian intifada has spread to Beirut. Beirut fashion, that is.

Intifada chic has taken over a street-level window display proudly portraying mannequins symbolizing the fierce Palestinian stone-throwing uprising against “Israeli” occupation.

The display catches the eye like a looming menace, with adult and child-size mannequins dressed in wool sweaters and sporting hoods that have small holes pierced for the eyes and mouth.

One of the adults, standing near a large rock, holds a slingshot ready to fire an invisible missile.

The striking fashion statement is the work of US-educated Lebanese designer Loulwa Abdel Baki, one of the country's prominent young talents, who has a line of clothing and a boutique named Kalabsha, or manacles, in Arabic.

"I was very upset and angry at what is happening with the Palestinians, and it was my way to express those feelings," said the 35-year-old designer, sitting at a wrought-iron desk in her boutique.

"It is nothing as a contribution, but it was my way of reminding people of the ordeal of the Palestinian people. It was my way to show that, in my heart, I was feeling with the Palestinians, thinking of them," she said.

Abdel Baki said the eruption of the intifada at the end of September, with almost daily news of children being killed, made her cancel her second annual fashion show and replace it by a low-profile exhibition at her boutique.

"I couldn't picture myself presenting a new collection while people are dying in Palestine. It was too shallow, too oblivious of what is happening around us," she said.

"I couldn't just do a fashion show as if nothing is happening in Palestine and here in Lebanon where we are also constantly under threat by the “Israelis”," she said.

The designer was referring to “Israeli” threats of reprisals, accompanied by repeated supersonic booms even over Beirut skies, since the Lebanese Shiite Hizbullah kidnapped three “Israeli” soldiers to secure a prisoners swap.

Abdel Baki said her clients were "first surprised at the idea of wearing politically motivated designs, but when I explain the idea behind them they were touched and bought them in no time."

The wool sweaters, priced between 25 dollars and 30 dollars, are either plain black to symbolize the Palestinian struggle or colourfully striped "for hope, because the fight is not gloomy," she said.

The hooded designs were meant to "portray another kind of ordeal the Palestinians are subjected to: they have to hide their face and identity to fight for their land and their rights."

Abdel Baki, who has breathed new life into Lebanese fashion by making Western-style clothes with an oriental touch, has a long history in making political statements with fashion.

In 1989, she returned to Lebanon after completing fashion design studies at the Parsons School of Design in New York, a year before the country's devastating 15-year civil strife ended.

She subsequently made world headlines with a dramatic fashion show in the shell-pocked St Georges Hotel, a symbol of Beirut's pre-war prestige, with models walking down to the shaky light of candles set in sand bags allowing visitors to decipher militia graffiti on the bullet-riddled walls.

Shooting in Jordan sparks peace moves…(6)

A fresh diplomatic effort was made yesterday to cool the Middle East crisis as a shooting attack on an “Israeli” diplomat in Jordan delivered a further reminder of the risk of the conflict spreading into neighbouring countries.

The former “Israeli” president, Ezer Weizman, who played a role in the 1979 peace deal with Egypt, yesterday met Hosni Mubarak, the Arab leader who is closest to Yasser Arafat, to search for a solution.

The two veteran politicians met in Sharm el-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort where Mr Mubarak, the Egyptian President, hosted the summit last month where Bill Clinton brokered a ceasefire that quickly failed. Today, Dennis Ross, the US President's envoy to the Middle East, who is to stand down soon, will return to the region to press for the terms of the ceasefire to be implemented.

Further alarm rippled through “Israel” yesterday after gunmen shot at its vice-consul in Amman, Jordan, as he stepped into his car, lightly wounding him. “Israel’s” Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, told his cabinet yesterday that it was a "very serious incident".

The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has publicly called for an end to attacks on “Israelis” from Palestinian-ruled areas. Yesterday “Israeli” troops shot and killed another Arab child, a 14-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip.

A Palestian General kills an “Israeli” soldiers before being martyred…(7)

A Palestinian security official, General Bahaa al-deen Salamah ben Said (30 years) attacked “Israeli” soldiers Saturday morning in an army post near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in Gaza strip. An “Israeli” sergeant was killed in the attack and two soldiers were wounded, one of them critically.

“Israeli” soldiers then opened fire on the Palestinian general killing him. Hospital sources said his head and body were riddled with bullets and he was wearing an “Israeli”-style combat jacket.

The Palestinian intifadah fighter is from the Deir al-Balah town of Gaza strip. Relatives revealed that the martyr had been previously arrested by the “Israeli” occupation forces because of his national stands.

Some 200 people outside the Shifa Hospital in Gaza city said they had come to "Salute the hero".

The “Israeli” army answered by using helicopter gunships to hit with missiles a Palestinian police post in the Gaza town of Khan Younis, wounding four policeman, one of them critically.

Palestinian Security officials said the missiles hit a base of force 17, which guards Arafat.

 Heavy fighting also broke out between Palestinians and “Israeli” troops in the divided West Bank town of al-Khalil (Hebron).

Footnotes:

1-     The Daily Star, 20-11-2000.

2-     Same source.

3-     AFP, 19-11-2000.

4-     The Daily Star, 20-11-2000.

5-     AFP, 19-11-2000.

6-     Independent, 20-11-2000.

7-     Manar TV, 18-11-2000.