For years, "Israelis" took soil from South Lebanon and used it for agriculture, for the gardens of public buildings and homes, and for military use. This cannot be ignored in the upcoming negotiations between "Israel" and Lebanon

"A short walk or drive on the other side of the Good Fence on the "Israel"-Lebanon border at Metulla leads to a rusted fence, hung with rusted license plates and signs that say "Border ahead," as well as gates whose signs bear names such as Oldtimers' Gate, Tank Gate, Gate 5. Metulla residents explain that this is the old fence, as distinguished from the new fence. Both visitors and residents find it hard to comprehend the differences between the new and old fence, or their significance. One way or another, the fences are wide open, to the great convenience of drug smugglers. Close to the fences is an industrial building with a big sign - "Industrial Structures Ltd., the biggest real estate company in "Israel"" - and young plantations of deciduous trees, with Thai workers working nearby.

Opposite is Kilah, a Lebanese village close to the unclear border between Lebanon and "Israel". A illager
reveals that the houses closest to the fence are empty, their inhabitants evacuated by the "Israel" Defense Forces* "for security reasons." For these same reasons, the IDF prohibited the completion of high-rise buildings, whose skeletons stand silent as they have for years. Some of Kilah's residents were forced out of their village a few years ago. Heaps of garbage and rubbish stand next to the mosque.

The naked eye can make out, between the fence and the homes of the village, pale areas -
the color of the ground cover - interspersed with wide strips of dark brown.

"The dark strips are the craters and trenches created by steam shovels and bulldozers from "Israel" that took a bite out of the red sandy earth, very fertile agricultural soil, loaded it onto trucks and brought it to "Israel"," the villager from Kilah related. "For years "Israelis" took agricultural soil from Kilah and other places in South Lebanon and brought it in big trucks to "Israel"."

Close to a few of the craters are boulders, which may once have marked the border, encircled with a stripe of brownish red, indicating the level of the ground before the steam-shovels and bulldozers took their bites.

"In 1996 I loaded soil from Lebanon, transported it to "Israel" and dumped it in various places in "Israel", including Metulla," a Golan Heights truck driver confesses. "The soil I moved was used for farming, for the yards of public institutions and private homes. The army also used Lebanese earth for 'tracker trails' - swept dirt paths it maintains on the borders in order to detect infiltrators' footprints." While he spoke, he pointed out the gardens of private homes in the town where he had dumped red sandy soil from Lebanon.
One of the companies mentioned as having trucked soil from Lebanon to "Israel" is that of Moshe Maman, of Rosh Pina. Asked this week whether earth was still being brought from Lebanon, Maman said, "the IDF has forbidden us from entering, for security reasons."

To the question of whether people had to pay for permits to take the soil, he answered, "We didn't need anything." Asked whether it was possible to just go in and take the earth, he responded, "What can I tell you, it was something like that." When did it stop? "At some point there was a newspaper article, and since then it stopped. It stopped this year," he said, and quickly ended the conversation in order to continue his work.

Maman's statements seem to corroborate Lebanese claims. According to some Lebanese, the phenomenon has slowed in the last year, but the IDF has been unable to stop it completely.

The Lebanese Parliament discussed the issue in October, 1998. In a letter to the UN Security Council, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri complained that "Israel" was taking hundreds of tons of fertile agricultural soil from the Marjeyoun area and other places in South Lebanon. At the time, the coordinator of activities in Lebanon, Uri Lubrani, rejected the Lebanese government claims as "nonsense."

However, some days later, after reexamining Lebanese claims, defense establishment sources admitted that ""Israeli" citizens stole soil from within Lebanese territory without obtaining permits from the army." A South Lebanon Army** officer confirmed the theft of earth from an area within Lebanon, near the border fence. According to a UN spokesman, ""Israeli" trucks regularly transport topsoil from the Adassiya area to "Israel". It is inconceivable that "Israeli" soldiers don't know about it. We are talking about an area in which the "Israeli" presence is not negligible" (Ha'aretz, November 8, 1998).

The chairman of the Metulla local council, Ya'akov Katz, when asked to explain the official process that enabled the transfer of earth from South Lebanon to "Israel", including Metulla, responded, "I am not addressing this issue. Go to the authorities that deal with South Lebanon. I know nothing about it."
Both the IDF and Defense Ministry spokesmen responded laconically when faced with a detailed list of questions and asked to respond to the claims made by "Israelis" that they were involved in transporting soil from Lebanon with the knowledge or permission of the IDF and the defense establishment, as well as claims by Kilah residents regarding the relocation of the border fence westward. "We are not addressing your questions, and all border issues will be discussed in the future between us and the Lebanese," said the Defense Ministry spokesman, while the IDF Spokesman said "all issues connected with the "Israel"-Lebanon border will be discussed in the future."

Yossi Goldberg, a native son of Metulla who headed the local council for 20 years (1978-98) and served in the Knesset from 1988-92, was considerably more forthcoming than his successor and the Defense Ministry and IDF spokesmen.

Goldberg declared decisively that "the IDF never prevented the transfer of earth from the Ayoun valley because it was private land owned by Metulla residents for a century, who have the kushans [a Turkish term for property registration certificates] to prove it." To reinforce the historical connection, Goldberg added that Ayoun is mentioned in the Bible (Kings I and II and Chronicles). The Arabs call the valley Marjeyoun.

According to Goldberg, there used to be no border fence separating "Israel" and Lebanon north of Metulla. The cease-fire agreement signed with Lebanon in March 1949 stipulated that the cease-fire line would run along the international border between Lebanon and Palestine-Mandatory Eretz Yisrael demarcated in 1923 by France and Britain. (Lebanon was under the French mandate, while Palestine-Eretz Yisrael was under the British Mandate.) Goldberg says the border was not defined precisely, and from 1949 until the early 1970s there was no fence.

Then, in the wake of infiltration incidents from what used to be called Fatahland, "Israel" built a fence - the "old fence" - where it was convenient security-wise, but not necessarily along the exact lines of the border. After a truck explosion in March 1985 in which 12 IDF soldiers were killed, "Israel" moved the border fence westward and northward - the "new fence."

"The future location of the border will be determined in the expected negotiations between "Israel" and Lebanon," Goldberg pointed out. "There is no argument that soil was taken from the Ayoun valley, both by Lebanese from areas away from the border and by Metulla residents and others," he emphasized, "but that does not determine the border. I repeat, the earth that Metulla residents took is earth owned by them throughout 100 years of [Jewish] settlement. With the beginning of negotiations between "Israel" and Lebanon, the inhabitants of Metulla will demand their private lands in the Ayoun valley, some 4,000 dunam (1,000 acres) north of the fence. This is land given by the "Israeli" government in 1949 to the Lebanese after signing the cease-fire agreement. The land given in the 1980s as a temporary substitute for agricultural purposes to the farmers of Metulla in the Galilee and the Hula valley cannot replace our lands in the Ayoun valley, and we will not give them up. The border between the two countries must be clearly marked out again".