Holdouts keep toehold on Shibaa Farms
Zahra family has refused to yield in face of "Israeli" pressure

The goatherd shook his head. “None of Shibaa’s people have lived there since 1967,” he said, pointing beyond the barbed-wire fence to the Shibaa Farms across the border.
“Except the Zahra family,” he suddenly remembers. “They refused to leave.”
The Zahra family have waged their own war of resistance against the "Israeli" occupation.
Nouhad Zahra, her husband Qassem, and their nine children, in addition to her uncle Ahmad and his daughter, are the only Lebanese living in Shibaa Farms. They have resisted numerous "Israeli" attempts to drive them off their land.
“Leave our land and go where? We had to stay here,” Nouhad Zahra told The Daily Star while visiting Kfar Shouba to sell goats milk. “Today, they say the land isn’t Lebanese but we’re the ones who can prove the contrary.” When "Israel" captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, it annexed the Shibaa Farms as well, cutting off Shibaa, an agricultural town on the steep western slopes of Mount Hermon, from the farms which fed it.
Agriculture was, and is, the only source of income for 95 percent of the largely Sunni population of Shibaa, which officially lies in Lebanon. With their farmlands off-limits and little alternative economic activity, Shibaa’s youth abandoned their homes in droves. They left behind them an aging population. But Ahmad Zahra and his wife stood their ground.
“My father refused to leave,” Ahmad’s son Mohammed, who was 12 at the time, recalled. “They took his goats, threatened him and tried paying him off but he wouldn’t go.
“My mother died there, on April 25, a month to the day before liberation. I wish she’d lived to see Shibaa freed.”
"Israeli" tourists come to the farms every day, to visit the Prophet Abraham’s grave. “We’re not allowed near it. We just watch from a distance,” Nouhad said.
About 15,000 people lived in Shibaa in 1988. Only 6,000 live there now. Without the farms, few will be able to return to their newly liberated homes.
Half-built homes line the narrow streets, which are carved into the rugged mountains which from a distance appear to defy gravity. Shibaa’s population in exile ­ most of whom live in Beirut or the Gulf, while others reside in South America, Canada and Africa ­ started building new homes in the town about two years ago, when an "Israeli" withdrawal became a realistic possibility. More buildings are necessary if Shibaa is to accommodate even a small proportion of its sons and daughters. But the locals are hopeful.
Abu Tareq, one of the village elders, pointed to the destruction of one of the "Israeli" bases perched on the surrounding hilltops ­ altogether the Middle East’s largest military observation post ­ as an indication that the "Israelis" are preparing to leave the farms.
But on United Nations maps, most of the farms appear to be in Syria, and the UN has ruled that they fall outside the jurisdiction of Resolution 425, which called for the full withdrawal of "Israeli" troops from Lebanese territories.
Asaad Farhat, Shebaa’s mayor, said he challenged the United Nations to prove that the farms do not belong to Lebanon, adding that the UN was being unjust.
“I remember my father, who was a mukhtar and who was present when the map was drawn, telling me that there was a problem because of one olive tree, which had one branch in Lebanon and one in Syria,” he said.
On Thursday, "Israeli" Premier Ehud Barak told French President Jacques Chirac that "Israel" would withdraw from part of the farms ­ areas that some UN maps indicate are in Lebanon.
Locals claim that "Israel" is clinging to the farms, which cover 250 square kilometers, because it is taking advantage of their fertile soil, once planted with olive trees, fruits, vegetables and nuts.
From this side of the border, the farms look like a wilderness covered by brush and rocks. Shibaa itself is framed by barren hillsides.
The old men in the main square claimed they have title deeds to the farms. They showed us one document. The deed was handwritten and signed on a yellowing piece of paper in pencil and ink. But the signatories and any witnesses are long since dead. Even so, the elders reiterated that “the village is part of Lebanon and that the farms have belonged to the village since before the Ottoman era.”
Both Lebanon and Syria seem to agree. Last Friday, UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen opened up new avenues of negotiation, claiming that the Shibaa dispute was “technical and not political.”
“It’s not up to the UN to demarcate borders. It’s a matter for states to decide themselves,” he said. “The two countries (Lebanon and Syria) don’t have an international border agreement. If Lebanon and Syria signed an international border agreement in the future, they ­ should they wish to do so ­ may request that the Security Council change the mandates of UNIFIL and UNDOF.”
“We want our land given back to us, to our country, we want to live. I’d like to be able to see my father before he dies,” one man said.
The dramatic landscape of Mount Hermon, almost 2,000 meters above sea level, still has isolated patches of snow.
“There used to be a ski resort in Bayader, near the farms, but it was destroyed by the "Israelis",” said one youngster visiting the area for the first time in 10 years. Returning residents are considering building new ski resorts.
The village locals claimed that it was local defiance that created these new opportunities. Now they are ready to boast about their suffering and resistance.
“There was no armed resistance here,” said Abu Khaldoun, who hopes to run for Parliament, “but we resisted huge pressure to collaborate and tried to get on with our lives.”
The old men described how "Israel" blew up homes to intimidate residents. When families refused to join they forced them from their beds and drove them away, warning them not to return. They took the men to the notorious Khiam detention center. Some were even killed.
“They surrounded the town once, trying to force us to collaborate, but we refused so they tried to tempt us with food supplies, but to no avail,” Abu Khaldoun said.
Several “Israeli”-allied militiamen in Shibaa surrendered last week. Their families remain, Abu Tareq said, because people understand they were unwilling collaborators. “I think 22 surrendered.”
The mukhtar and Abu Khaldoun found the figure reasonable. The goat-herd disagreed.
“There were more than 100 militiamen in Shibaa, and they’re gone now. It was only 100 because 300 others handed themselves in last year, when they were offered light sentences.”  

The Daily Star, 29-5-2000.