Israeli Aggressions

“Israelis” beat civilians at Sheikh Abbad tomb…(1)

A Lebanese civilian was beaten by “Israeli” soldiers at the border on Sheikh Abbad hill after he attempted to remove a plaque inscribed in Hebrew, witnesses claimed on Friday.
The sources, a squad of Hizbullah observers on Abbad, said that Ghanaian UNIFIL soldiers positioned at the summit of the hill failed to intervene.
UNIFIL said it had in no knowledge of such an incident.
The witnesses said the assault occurred on Thursday evening when Mahmoud Abdel-Rahman Sabbagh, 26, was hit several times with a rifle butt when he and other civilians tried to remove two stone plaques fastened to a wall on the Lebanese side of the border.
The border runs along the summit of the hill and bisects an ancient tomb revered by Muslims and Jews. “Israeli” soldiers are stationed to the east of the tomb in front of a new outpost.
Sabbagh reportedly received bruises to his back and shoulder.
The witnesses said that the Ghanaians had attempted to stop the Lebanese from removing the plaques but gave up when Sabbagh and his comrades refused to leave. The peacekeepers moved away from the hilltop shrine to their post 50 meters away, allowing the “Israeli” soldiers to step across the unfenced border and beat Sabbagh, the witnesses said.
On Friday, civilians were allowed to roam the hilltop and were not prevented from approaching the border by Ghanaian UNIFIL troops.
UNIFIL Spokesman Timur Goksel said he had received “no reports of any such activity occurring at Abbad.”
In a separate incident, “Israeli” bulldozers reportedly snuck across the border near Abbad and dumped rubble and garbage on the Lebanese side.

1-       The Daily Star, 2-9-2000.

Arab League backs right to reparations…(1)

”The Arab League urged the international community on Monday to pressure “Israel” into making financial reparations for its 22-year occupation of Lebanon.
The Cairo-based organization issued its plea at the end of the two-day biannual meeting of foreign ministers. The meetings began on Sunday in the Egyptian capital.
“The League asserts Lebanon’s right to demand reparations for the vast human, financial and economic losses it sustained due to the repeated “Israeli” aggression on citizens and infrastructure,” the ministers said in a statement.
The ministers also warned that the continued presence of some 370,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon will remain a contentious internal issue which could impede a regional peace deal.
“If the refugee issue is not resolved it will shake up security and stability, as well as hurt chances of securing a just and comprehensive peace in the region,” the statement said.
The League said “all necessary measures” should be made to force “Israel” to free Lebanese hostages still in “Israeli” jails.
The ministers also underscored Lebanon’s claim to sovereignty over the disputed Shebaa Farms, as well as its right to liberate “every inch” of “Israeli”-occupied territory.
“We condemn “Israel” for its continued occupation of border posts, including the Shebaa Farms,” the statement said.
“Lebanon retains the right to use all legal means to liberate its land,” it added.
The League also called on Arab countries to fulfil financial aid pledges they made at the last Arab summit in 1996, and pledge cash to aid Lebanon’s reconstruction.
Foreign Ministry Director-General Zuheir Hamdan, who delivered Lebanon’s address to the assembly, said the government was adhering to three main issues: release of all “Israeli”-held detainees, the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland, and the removal of three “Israeli” posts along the UN-demarcated Blue Line.

1-        The Daily Star, 5-9-2000.

“Israel” violates Lebanon's frontier at Abbad hill...(1)

““Israel” has again violated Lebanon's border at Abbad Hill. Residents in southern Lebanon said “Israeli” troops have crossed into Lebanon and encroached on thousands of square meters of Lebanese land along the frontier. 

Residents of the south Lebanon border village of Houla have accused “Israeli” troops of encroaching on some four thousand square meters of Lebanese territory at Abbad Hill. They said “Israel” built a new road in Abbad next to the Manara settlement just inside Lebanon. Troops crossed over the so-called Blue Line that was demarcated by the UN to certify “Israel’s” pullout from Lebanon. Residents accused UN peacekeepers of not stopping the encroachment. In July, UN peacekeepers deployed in the area and throughout the zone “Israel” occupied for twenty-two years. Some one thousand army troops and Internal Security Forces have also been stationed in the region. Ghanaian soldiers were deployed in the Abbad Hill flashpoint, where “Israeli” troops regularly cross into Lebanon and set up posts in clear violation of UN resolutions. Both Lebanon and “Israel” claim a shrine at Sheikh Abbad Hill is a holy site. Lebanon says it is the grave of a sheikh while “Israel” maintains a rabbi is buried there. The territory was divided between the two countries when “Israel” withdrew from south Lebanon in May. Most of it is now inside Lebanon. UN troops keep a presence there in a bid to keep the peace. The area has become the scene of regular standoffs between “Israeli” soldiers and Lebanese civilians. It took UN experts weeks to verify “Israel’s” withdrawal to the Blue Line. But “Israeli” troops on many occasions cross the frontier undeterred by the international force. 

Lebanese military delegation tours border areas...(2)

The first time since the retreat of the Zionist enemy from south Lebanon and the Western Beqaa, a Lebanese military delegation on Thursday toured a number of border spots.

The delegation, chaired by Gen Emad Anqa, noted some remarks pertaining to “Israeli” encroachments into Lebanese territories, such as “Israeli” bulldozers dumping rubble behind the Blue Line.

The army officers registered notes in the vicinity of the Abbad shrine.

1-      Future TV, 7-9-2000.

2-      Manar TV, 7-9-2000.

MP Qassir sets forth guidelines to Hizbullah's platform…(1)

Faithfulness to the Resistance member MP Abdallah Qassir declared a set of headlines that form the major elements in Hizbullah's program for the next stage, on top of which the completion of the liberation process which Hizbullah does not consider complete unless the following five issues are resolved:

-Recovering the remaining occupied territories, including the Shibaa farms,
-Release of all prisoners and detainees from “Israeli” prisons,
-Compensating for all the losses inflicted by the “Israeli” enemy upon Lebanon at all levels,
-Return of Palestinian refugees,
-Putting an end to all forms of “Israeli” ground, air, and sea threats against Lebanon which must come out of the danger circle completely.

Qassir was speaking in Sidon as he received people who came to congratulate Hizbullah on its victory in the polls.

The Hizbullah MP said the program will also stress development, besides tackling economic, social and financial problems.

Blast wounds youth in Kafra…(2)

A 13-year-old boy suffered severe wounds to his head and arm over the weekend after an object he was playing with on a former “Israeli” artillery base near Kafra exploded.
Bilal Ghorabi underwent surgery on his head and left arm at Jabal Amel Hospital in Tyre, his family reported.
While his condition is no longer life-threatening, he will undergo further surgery and will need three weeks to recover in the hospital.
According to his father, Mohammed Ghorabi, Bilal was playing at the base in Huqban, near Kafra, on Saturday when he found an object that looked like a pen on the ground and hit it with a stone.
It then exploded.
Ghorabi added that Bilal was told not to go to the abandoned base where the accident took place, which is near the family’s summer residence. But he explained that his son “found himself there by mistake while taking a detour to our house.”

Mines still stand out as scourge of South
Awareness campaigners still have work to do with locals, returnees, and visitors…(3)

The rules for avoiding land-mine accidents are not all that complicated, but raising land-mine awareness in the former occupation zone has proved a difficult task for activists.
Between 50,000 and 150,000 land mines are believed to lie buried in the South, planted by “Israel” from the early 1980s until the end of the occupation. Community-based organizations working for mine awareness have intensified their efforts in the South following the liberation in May. But the mines have still taken lives.
According to statistics from the Internal Security Forces, since liberation nine people have been killed and 63 wounded by mines in the South.
This wave of accidents has prompted a number of humanitarian organizations and the army to take mine-awareness campaigning more seriously.
Balamand University’s Land Mine Research Center organizes many awareness activities, including lectures, training sessions and leaflet distribution.
The center targets three groups, said Habouba Aoun, who heads the center: locals, residents who returned after liberation, and visitors.
But four months after the liberation, awareness campaigns are not yet totally effective.
In Aoun’s experience, since permanent residents are more attached to the soil and claim to know its perils well, they are more resistant to change. Newcomers, meanwhile, tend to underestimate the extent of  land-mine presence in the seemingly virgin fields, putting them at risk as well.
“To most people awareness is only talk, and people always think, ‘it won’t happen to me,’” said Aoun. As a result, campaigners use the slogan “You’re better safe than sorry.”
Some of the existing land-mine warnings are, “Keep out of mined areas where signs are up” and “If you find something unusual, don’t touch it!”
But when locals are told to avoid using land that is suspected of being mine-infested, “shepherds and farmers demand an alternative,” Aoun said.
For example, nothing stops shepherd Omar Mahmoud al-Ali from herding his 150 goats on an arid hill beside the former “Israeli” artillery position of Shrayky.
“I take care because I know the area very well,” Ali said at his home in Dibbine. But he fears for his 16-year old sister, Intisar, who sometimes takes the herd out by herself, unaware of where danger lies.
Ali was surprised by a few near-disasters himself. He usually steers clear of the barbed-wire fence on the hill, where he suspects there are mines. Two months ago, Ali was about 10 meters from the fence and found himself surrounded by mines, clearly visible on the ground.
“I got away by stepping lightly on some rocks on the way back,” he said. But one of Ali’s goats wasn’t as lucky as he was and stepped on a mine while it was grazing near the fence six months ago, shortly before the liberation.
“Nothing was left of the goat,” he recalled.
Ali tells his stories with alarming ease, suggesting he rejects the possibility of becoming a land-mine victim.
Ali, who is in his 30s, said that as a boy, he amused himself by heating unexploded artillery shells with matches, placing them in old car tires and watching them explode as they rolled down the hillside.
Asked why he was not afraid, he said: “I have to live. I like herding goats. It’s better than being around people.”
Ali nodded at the bare patches on otherwise grassy terrain as a sign of the possible presence of mines. This is only one of the many telling signs recognized by experts. The shepherd did not know that mounds of earth, electric cables on the ground, protruding metal or piles of stone are also best avoided.
He recounted that in the past, UN peacekeepers used to paint rocks blue to mark the suspected presence of mines, signs he has come across several times.
Having lived in Beirut during the “Israeli” occupation, Hussein Deeb Qadbay was excited to return to his home in the once-occupied part of Kfar Tibnit.
But situated on the foot of a hill leading up to the abandoned “Israeli” artillery position of Ali Taher, his house is not far from a belt of mines believed to skirt the position and notorious for causing earlier accidents.
This, however, does not seem to worry Qadbay. To put his mind at ease, “I took a motorbike ride on the hill to make sure there weren’t any mines. I didn’t find any.”
A common fallacy among residents is that land mines ­ which are effective because they are concealed ­ can be seen.
Asked about the possibility of stumbling across a mine by mistake, Qadbay replied: “Nothing would’ve happened to me because I was on a motorbike.” Fallacy No. 2: where land mines are concerned, a motorbike is indestructible.
“I know nothing about land mines,” admitted Qadbay’s 9-year-old nephew, Assem Hayek, “except that there are some on up on the hill.” Forbidden from straying too far from the house, Assem and his young relatives play in the small yard under their parents’ supervision.
With their sense of curiosity, Children are most vulnerable to mine accidents. This is why the Land Mine Research Center, Save the Children and the army’s National Demining Office target children in many of their awareness campaigns. They held a series of summer camps and workshops to give children the basic guidelines.
The center’s efforts paid off: after attending a workshop in mid-August, 20 young volunteers founded the country’s first land-mine awareness club, resolving to publicize the hazards of land mines and warn people, especially children, about suspected danger zones.
From their base at the Center for the Care of the Handicapped in Nabatieh, the volunteers are preparing awareness material and plan to hold lectures in their respective villages. According to Ghassan Rammal, who heads the center, “we’ve noticed awareness levels increased considerably since we began.”
Prior to their workshop, volunteers used to go on outings in areas they would not dream of setting foot in today. The warning has apparently sunk in after just a five-day crash course.
“In the past, I sometimes used to go on field trips near my house, wander off the main roads or venture onto small paths, something I’d never do now,” said volunteer Hussein Traboulsi from Deir al-Zahrani.  “I might also have picked some strange-looking thing off the ground, not knowing it might explode.”
Before attending the workshop, Faizeh Ismail’s source of information about land mines was television, which according to her was “very limited.”
The workshop acquainted her with areas suspected of having land mines, and one of them turned out to be a river where she and her family often visited.
“Now we don’t go there at all,” she said. “But now the club has to work to make sure no one else goes there until it’s cleared of mines.”

1-              Manar TV, 9-9-2000.

2-              The Daily Star,  11-9-2000.

3-              Same source.

Hoss packs his bags for UN…(1)

Prime Minister Salim Hoss leaves for New York on Tuesday to head Lebanon’s delegation to the 55th session of the UN General Assembly.
He is due to address the General Assembly on Thursday in a speech which is expected to focus on Lebanon’s reservations regarding a number of border points set up in the wake of the “Israeli” withdrawal from south Lebanon.
The premier is also expected to raise Lebanon’s demand to restore its sovereignty over the Shebaa Farms, a point contested by “Israel”.
Other key points include Lebanon’s refusal to resettle Palestinian refugees on its territory and its call on the international community to recognize the refugees’ right to return to their homeland.
Hoss is also expected to urge the international community to exert pressure on “Israel” to release all Lebanese detainees still held in its jails.
The prime minister’s talks with other leaders on the sidelines of the General Assembly session are also expected to cover the need to convene a promised conference of donor countries in Beirut during the first week of October.

1-      The Daily Star, 12-9-2000.

Hoss promises to air grievances before UN General Assembly…(1)

“Prime Minister Salim Hoss will tell the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday that Palestinians cannot stay in Lebanon and will also convey the country’s reservations over the UN’s Blue Line.
Hoss left the country on Tuesday for the United Nations in New York, where he will address the 55th session of the UN General Assembly.
In a statement made at the airport prior to his departure, Hoss reiterated that in his  address he would affirm Lebanon’s rejection to resettle Palestinian refugees on its territory and stress the need for them to return to their homeland.
He said he would also raise the country’s reservations over the Blue Line drawn by the UN to mark the country’s border with “Israel”.”
The marker demarcates the line behind which “Israeli” forces were required to withdraw to implement Security Council Resolution 425. Lebanon has argued that the UN is allowing “Israel” to remain on Lebanese territory in three areas: between Metulla and the Hasbani Bridge, Misgav Am near Adaisseh, and in a wadi south of Yaroun.
Other topics the premier will touch upon include Lebanon’s demand to restore its sovereignty over the Shebaa Farms, which “Israel” considers part of its territory. The UN has not recognized Lebanon’s right to the land.
He will also emphasize Lebanon’s need for international backing to carry out development and reconstruction projects, especially in the South.
Hoss said that while in New York he would use the opportunity to discuss a number of other international matters of interest to Lebanon with heads of participating delegations. He is also expected to meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The premier reiterated that Lebanon was keen to hold a conference of donor countries in Beirut in the near future, possibly next month, to raise money for its development and reconstruction plans.

“Israeli” soldiers fire to scare off Lebanese journalists…(2)

“ “Israeli” soldiers fired shots in the air on Tuesday, apparently to scare off three Lebanese journalists including an AFP correspondent, who were taking pictures at the two countries' borders.

"They fired 17 shots in the air when we tried to take pictures of a team of experts carrying maps near Kfarshouba," said AFP correspondent Taher Abou Hamdan.

The other two correspondents were Dureid Kabboura from the al-Anwar newspaper and Hussein Hadifa from the al-Liwa'a daily, said Abou Hamdan.

"We were not scared. We remained standing and told them we were on Lebanese soil and that we did not have to leave," he said.

"A number of Hizbullah members came to see what had happened and then we saw the “Israeli” soldiers and the team of experts going back some 200 meters (yards) away from the border," he said.

The situation along the “Israeli”-Lebanese borders remains tense since the Jewish state's May 24 pullout from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

“Hizbullah, which had spearheaded the guerrilla war against the “Israeli” occupation troops, took up positions on the frontier afterwards.

But the Lebanese army has not deployed along the frontier, although it is present in the southern region along with contingents of United Nations peacekeepers.

Anti-landmine conference opens in Geneva…(3)

The latest victim of “Israeli” landmines was a thirteen-year-old boy from the southern village of Kafra. He suffered severe wounds to his arm and head. There has been a steady stream of landmine casualties in the zone “Israel” occupied despite efforts to spread awareness about the dangers of explosives left behind by “Israel’s” occupation. An international conference taking place in Switzerland is trying to persuade governments that have not signed a treaty aimed at banning the use of mines to do so. Beirut had said it would only sign the treaty when “Israel” which planted at least a hundred thousand mines in Lebanon endorses the pact. 

“The campaign to rid the world of landmines is proving successful but pressure needs to be kept up on governments according to the pressure group wanting to ban them. Jody Williams who won the Nobel Prize as head of the Campaign to ban Landmines said more needs to be done about mine action and assistance to victims. (Williams saying: "It is pretty clear that the general trend continued to be positive in the global movement to get rid of landmines. Production is down from 55 countries to 16"). Signatory states to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty have been meeting in Geneva to review progress and discuss the problems of implementation. So far, 138 governments have signed up to the Treaty and another 101 have ratified it. The treaty prohibits any use, production, trade or stockpiling of anti-personnel mines. A giant hour-glass placed outside the assembly room of the Palais de Nations is turning every 22 minutes- the time between landmine incidents- to remind meeting delegates of the urgency of the landmine crisis. The crisis has hit the region “Israel” occupied in south Lebanon for 22 years. Lebanese police say at least nine people have died and 63 other have been injured in explosions of “Israeli” landmines and unexploded shells since the “Israeli” withdrawal from the south Lebanon in May. UN officers estimate at least 50,000 mines were planted, most by “Israel” and its allied militia. Lebanese authorities are warning people of the danger of mines and unexploded shells in the former occupied zone. The first casualties started coming in just as “Israel” withdrew from the south and thousands of people flooded the region to celebrate. The Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers are clearing the mines in the area which amounts to more than 10 percent of Lebanese territory. The effort is hindered by the difficult terrain, lack of maps and limited funding. UN peacekeepers have accused “Israel” of providing inaccurate maps for landmines occupation troops planted in the south. Beirut estimated that some 8.6 million dollars are needed to clear southern Lebanon of mines.

1-       The Daily Star, 13-9-2000.

2-       AFP, 12-9-2000.

3-       Future TV, 12-9-2000.

PM raises issues of “Israeli” violations, Shebaa Farms, Lebanese hostages, compensations and Palestinian refugees before 55^th General Assembly of UN…(1)

Prime Minister Salim Hoss delivered a speech before the 55^th General Assembly of the United Nations. Here are the excerpts:

Mr. President,

In the second half of May 2000, Lebanon and the United Nations witnessed an historic event. My country recovered most of its occupied territories in the South and in the Western Bekaa.
Thanks to the resistance and steadfastness of the Lebanese people, and the support of the international community, “Israel” had to withdraw from these territories after a senseless occupation that lasted over 22 years. It left behind a trail of devastation and destruction to the infrastructure, to private property, and to the environment, as well as a local economy in a state of collapse.
Lebanon has paid dearly for its liberation. Thousands have fallen as martyrs on the road to victory and thousands more have been wounded or disabled. Human and material losses were not confined to the areas under occupation. For 30 years “Israeli” strikes terrorized our civilian population, destroyed civilian properties, and wrecked havoc with the sectors of the economy.
The “Israeli” withdrawal came after 22 years of continued refusal to comply with Security Council resolutions 425 and 426 (1978) respectively. The two resolutions called upon “Israel” to withdraw immediately and unconditionally from southern Lebanon and the Western Bekaa to the internationally recognized borders with “strict respect for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon.”
For the first time since 1978 the United Nations Interim Force to Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been able to fulfill its mandate under Resolution 425.
To do so the UN had to identify a line for the purpose of confirming the “Israeli” withdrawal. Regrettably, in three locations this line does not conform to the internationally recognized boundary line demarcated in 1923 between Palestine and Lebanon under the French and British Mandates. The United Nations Blue Line also leaves the Shebaa Farms outside UNIFIL’s area of operations in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon has seriously  cooperated with the UN to fulfill the requirements conducive to the implementation of Security Council Resolutions 425. Despite “Israel’s” repeated violations of the withdrawal line and obstructive practices which hindered the deployment of UNIFIL for weeks, the force was at long last able to deploy, accompanied by the Lebanese armed forces.
At this juncture it seems fitting to recall Lebanon’s “civilized stance” and the wisdom and tolerance graciously shown by his valiant people in reaction to the new situation. The Lebanese people crowned their resistance to the occupation with a victory which brought about the “Israeli” withdrawal. Contrary to dire predictions, no mayhem or acts of vengeance ensued. This has earned us the appreciation and admiration of the international community.
On this occasion allow me to pay tribute to the secretary-general of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, and to his assistants, and to the officers and soldiers of UNIFIL for their tireless and unswerving efforts to fulfill their noble mandate in compliance with legitimate international resolutions.
In this context I would like to underline the importance of the following points.
First: Lebanon insists that its internationally recognized borders are not negotiable. They are the borders demarcated in accordance with the 1923 Paulet  Newcomb maps, and reaffirmed later in the 1949 ““Israeli”-Lebanese General Armistice Agreement.”
Second: Lebanon confirms its reservations about three locations where the Blue Line has been adopted by the United Nations as the line of withdrawal. This reservation is included in the report submitted by the secretary-general to the Security Council on June 16, 2000.
Third: Lebanon insists on its right to sovereignty over the Shebaa Farms, which are an integral part of Lebanese territory.
Fourth: Lebanon insists on its sovereignty and authority over the locations set by the UN inside the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) line in the Mount Hermon area.
Fifth: Lebanon demands the immediate release of all  Lebanese detainees from “Israeli” prisons. They were kept as hostages in violation of the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, of the relevant protocols, and of The Hague Convention of 1907. Lebanon believes that the release of the detainees represents the completion of the “Israeli” withdrawal and is therefore the fulfillment of Security Council Resolution 425.
Sixth: The liberation of Lebanese territory from “Israeli” occupation shall remain compromised unless a just solution is found to the problem of the Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon. The solution lies in allowing these refugees to return to their homeland as provided for in legitimate international resolutions.

Mr. President,

“Israel” must compensate Lebanon for the human, material and economic losses sustained as a result of “Israeli” occupation, and  acts of aggression in accordance with international and customary law, and according to the principles of the UN Charter.
In this regard we recall Security Council Resolution 262 (1968), which recognized that Lebanon was entitled  to appropriate  redress for the destruction it had suffered when “Israel” attacked Beirut’s International Airport in late 1968. In this attack “Israel” destroyed 13 Lebanese airplanes.
Finally, the Lebanese believe in their right to receive adequate and fair reparations for the substantial losses and devastation inflicted upon them after years of occupation and repeated acts of aggression. Such acts were perpetuated in a stark defiance of the will of the United Nations since 1978.
Lebanon will therefore resort to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, which is the proper organ through which to address its claims.
We do hope that the court will be able to endorse our request for adequate reparations, and appeal to the international community to support our just and fair demands.

Mr. President.

The question of reconstruction and rehabilitation of Lebanon’s liberated territories is a high priority on the Lebanese agenda. It also enjoys tangible international support. In this context, I would like to recall the preparatory meeting of donor nations held in Beirut on July 27, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the support of the World Bank and the secretary-general, Mr. Kofi Annan. The meeting was attended by representatives of 40 states and international financial institutions.
The participants discussed the question of providing urgent finical assistance to help restore a degree of normalcy in the liberated territories. The preliminary deliberations were promising. We hope to see them come to fruition in the donor conference to be held  at the ministerial level in October.
The Lebanese feel that the international community did not exert adequate efforts to compel compliance with Security Council Resolution 425, which called upon “Israel” to end its occupation long ago. Because of this delay, Lebanon had to suffer the dire consequences of occupation. Our economy crumbled, and our people endured untold suffering.
From this rostrum I appeal to donor countries, the international financial institutions and the United Nations’ specialized agencies to provide sufficient assistance for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the South. This will be a token of solidarity on the part of those able to give on behalf of the international community.

Italians to honor Sabra and Shatila victims…(2)

“More than 200 Italian MPs, human-rights activists and journalists arrived in Lebanon on Thursday to commemorate next week’s 18^th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres.
At a news conference at the Press Federation, former Information Minister George Skaff told the visitors that the country was counting on their support, as well as the support of the international community, to collect compensation for the damages caused by the “Israeli” occupation.
Italian journalist Stefano Kiarini described the massacres, which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, as “crimes that can never be erased from human memory.”
He said that the visiting delegation planned to build a proper cemetery for the victims.
Kiarini blamed the “Israelis” for sanctioning the killings and said that Ariel Sharon, the “Israeli” defense minister at the time, had ordered the massacres. ““Israelis” believe that Palestinians don’t have the right to live or even to be buried properly,” he said.
Kiarini invited all citizens to participate in a march on Saturday to lay flowers at the victims’ graves. He also said that the delegates wanted to highlight the Palestinian side of the conflict, particularly the right of return, which, he claimed, was the key to regional peace.
“Sabra and Shatila are only two of many other violations that “Israel” committed since 1949. They’ve tried to divert people’s attention from the fact that Palestinians came from Palestine and that they have the right to return,” he said, claiming that “Israel’s” true objective was to exterminate all the refugees.
He said that “Israel” has changed its strategy and is now trying to eliminate the Palestinians through diplomacy.
European Union parliamentarian Louisa Morgantini said the intransigence in the “Israeli”-Palestinian talks was coming from the “Israelis”. “Palestinians have the right to return to their country, they have the right to compensations and they have the right to an independent country with safe borders and a safe capital in Jerusalem,” she said.
She said that while Europe supports Lebanon and Palestine economically and socially, its political support is lacking. “Europe should start putting pressure on “Israel”,” she said.
Lawyer Farouk Yaghi said that a group of lawyers was preparing a lawsuit against “Israel”, which will include grievances concerning “Israeli” attacks on Lebanon.
The As-Safir daily newspaper has invited the delegation to tour the South on Friday ­ a trip that will include the infamous Khiam detention center.

1-        The Daily Star, 15-9-2000.

2-        Same source.

Premier: powers are starting to hear us
Hoss reiterated Beirut’s reservations about UN-delineated blue line…(1)

Prime Minister Salim Hoss said Friday that world powers understood that Lebanon cannot bear a Middle East peace that leaves tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees on its soil.
“Lebanon has achieved some progress on the international scene regarding its rejection of the permanent settlement of Palestinian refugees on its territories,” he said. “There are signals from world powers that any peace can’t be achieved at Lebanon’s expense.”
Speaking to UN Radio in New York, Hoss, who is representing Lebanon at the UN General Assembly’s 55th session, reiterated Beirut’s reservations about the UN-delineated Blue Line used to verify “Israel’s” pullout.
“Lebanon insists that the Blue Line does not coincide with its international border,” he said, stressing that “so far, we can’t say that UN Security Council Resolution 425, which calls for “Israel’s” full withdrawal from Lebanon, has been implemented.”
Lebanon believes that the Blue Line deviates from the international border into its territories in three areas, the largest of which includes the western part of “Israel’s” Misgav Am border settlement.
Hoss said Lebanon also wants the Shebaa Farms returned.

“It’s almost certain that there will be no progress on the Lebanese and Syrian tracks of the peace talks, or the Palestinian track, before the US presidential election,” he added.
With respect to the conference of donor countries, called for by Lebanon to raise funds for a $1.2 billion government plan to re-develop the South, he said: “No final date has been set for the meeting, but we expect the meeting to be held on Oct. 9 and Oct. 10.”
Hoss later held separate talks with UN special envoy Terje-Roed Larsen, who said: “We discussed the probability of an upcoming donor conference. We’ve agreed to work on this issue and in particular to try to use a major conference of non-governmental organizations on Sept. 28 in Beirut to move this issue forward.
“The United Nations, the European Union and other donors and institutions ­ we’ll do our very best in order to alleviate the situation for the people in the South,” he promised.
Hoss also met with EU Middle East envoy Miguel-Angel Moratinos, who said: “We discussed the plight of the Lebanese in the South and the future of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and how to secure peace and stability in the entire region.”

Italian MPs voice support for Palestinians…(2)

Italian parliamentarians voiced their support on Friday for the right of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to return to their homes with East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
“Italy supports the Palestinian people in this respect,” said Guillielmo Lentio, head of the Italian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Lentio spoke during a news conference in Sidon’s Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp. He and more than 200 Italian human-rights activists, MPs and journalists are in Lebanon to take part in commemorative ceremonies for the 1982 massacre by “Israeli”-backed Christian militiamen of some 1,000 Palestinians and Lebanese at the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.
Accompanied by representatives of Italian non-governmental organizations and several journalists, the parliamentarians were received by the Alliance of Palestinian Forces and officials with the Popular Committees that run the camp. They toured schools and clinics run in the camp by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides social and health services to refugees.
The MPs met with Palestinians who explained the economic and social problems they face as a result of shrinking financial aid by donor countries to UNRWA.
Palestinian President’s Yasser Arafat’s Fatah Movement held a reception for the delegates, attended by some 5,000 refugees.
“Palestinians in Lebanon reject permanent settlement outside their homeland. They want to return to their homes and to determine their fate,” said Fathi Abul-Arwat, head of Fatah’s department for labor affairs.
Louisa Morgantini, a European Union parliamentarian and head of Italy’s International Peace Association, said: “We’re here to remember the 1982 massacre, which no one in the world should forget.”

Survivors of Sabra and Chatila still in agony…(3)

“Survivors of the massacre are still haunted by its memories. Many are trying to move on with their lives, but others are still overwhelmed by the events of September 16. 

“ The children of Sabra and Chatila. This generation is too young to remember the horrors many of their relatives survived. But this week, like every time this year, adults organize activities to ensure the generations don't forget the rampage of blood that began on September 16 and lasted until September 18, 1982. The survivors have wiped the blood from their front rooms and bedrooms where they were lined up and systematically killed or maimed. The greatest change this year is right here. Eighteen years ago, “Israeli” forces who were behind the massacre used bulldozers to bury their victims here. It was uncared for-a garbage dump and children's playground simultaneously. This year local municipalities are sprucing it up. Children will still regard it as a playground. Others will remind them of the atrocities their patch of greenness in this camp holds. The memories of the massacre are still livid in the minds of Palestinians eighteen years later. It's another chapter of Palestinian history here in Lebanon they won't forget. These are some of the survivors' stories. Souad Srour was twenty-years -olds when troops killed her father and five brothers and sisters. She was shot four times in the back, which left her partially paralyzed. She was left for forty-eight hours alone with the bodies, during which troops returned and again shot her in the chest and arm. 
[Souad Srour, telling FTV: "At around 9:00p.m. I asked my mother if we could go get my girlfriends from the bomb shelter to sleep here and the guys would sleep alone...We went out, to the top of the road, there's a house with a bomb shelter. We saw a terrible sight. A sight you can't see. The ones who were in the bomb shelter were now out, strewn on the street. There was one called Abu Rida. He said,'For the sake of God, help me.' I told Mahar that's Abu Rida let's see him. When we were approaching him, someone from above yelled obscenities and said, 'You're still alive?' When we heard that we ran... They came and knocked on our door. My father said 'welcome.' He thought they were “Israelis”. They told him, 'Welcome-we'll show you what kind of welcome this will be...They lined us up against the wall and who looked back-got it. And they fired at us...They fired at us in the house and I was the only one who survived. I was conscious and began looking to see who was still alive...The blanket was nearby so I covered my brothers so I couldn't see them. They were close to me. I was between the two-my neighbor and brothers Bassam and Shady. Shady was shot in the head. Those I could cover I did and those that were uncovered I watched all night and cried. ...The next morning when I was opening my eyes, I saw them over my head...They told me we found you still alive so we want to finish you off. Before they did, I was raped...And we survived.]
Souad went to the 1995 Beijing conference for women where she recounted her tale. She takes sedatives to get through her days. 
Mohammad Abu Rodaina was five years old when the troops knocked on his door that night. He lost eleven members of his family. 
[Mohammad Abu Rodaina, telling FTV: " When they entered the camp in our house they separated the men alone and the women alone. And they told us to leave the house, they were going to shoot us outside the house ...We saw the massacre. We saw our relatives and I saw my father in the newspapers. And my sister, too. My sister, she was pregnant and they pulled the baby from her abdomen...My mother was watching the video cassette and she saw her daughter and her husband. And in the morning the second day she became paralyzed. And I lost her, too. And I lost my mother, too..I still remember. I still remember everything. 

They mourn the victims the world has forgotten

On a rubbish-strewn field the survivors remember as the people without a land visit the mass grave of hundreds of their relatives…(4)

By Robert Fisk in the Sabra and Chatila camps, Beirut

16 September 2000

They are bulldozing the garbage from the small plot of land behind the plane trees of Sabra and Chatila. Cheap concrete blocks are being laid to form a makeshift dais for speakers. A black flag has been draped by the wall to remind the Palestinians – as if they could forget – that here lies the mass grave of hundreds of their relatives. Up to 400 corpses lie beneath the soft red earth. Up to 2,000 died. But only now, 18 years after the majzara, the massacre, has the atrocity been commemorated.

Of course, if it had happened in a land to the south of here – a land called “Israel”, which the Palestinians of Sabra and Chatila still call Palestine – the world's press would gather each year at this time to honour the dead. Mercifully, “Israel” has never suffered such a slaughter. But if it had, the American president would surely make an annual pilgrimage to the site. Certainly, every US presidential hopeful would turn up. Relatives of the dead would be treated with reverence and generosity.

The mass grave of Sabra and Chatila, however, contains only Palestinians. Until last week it served as both football ground for youths and a garbage tip. Probably, in a few days' time, it will become a rubbish dump again. And the survivors of this most awful of weekends fester on in their hot concrete huts, unvisited by journalists or statesmen. Whenever I write about the massacre at this time, I always say that The Independent will be the only British newspaper to remember the anniversary. Sadly, so far, I have been right. A people without a country are a people without honour.

The facts of what happened between 16 and 18 September 1982 are not in doubt – save for the guilty and the insane. On 16 September, the “Israeli” army surrounded the adjoining Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila and sent their Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia allies into them to hunt for "terrorists". There were none. Just civilians, whom the Phalangists murdered and raped in homes and backyards and streets, slaughtering up to 2,000 civilians, in some cases watched by “Israelis” from rooftops. Only on the 18th did “Israel” order its allies out of the camp. When I entered Sabra and Chatila early on the 18th – before the murderers had left – it was already a charnel house.

The Lebanese president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, had just been murdered. The Phalangists were in vengeful mood. Yet Menachem Begin, then “Israel’s” Prime Minister, was to claim he never imagined there would be a bloodbath. The “Israeli” Kahan commission report – which bleakly confirmed that “Israeli” troops saw the massacre taking place and did nothing – condemned Ariel Sharon, then Defence (War) Minister, for indirect responsibility. Mr Sharon is now leader of the right-wing opposition Likud party. He could yet become prime minister of “Israel”.

So this little patch of rotten earth, these few square miles of fetid huts and lanes, should attract at least a little attention at this time of year. The survivors are still here, many of them, still mourning their dead, still sweltering in their bullet-holed concrete slums. Mahmoud Ayoub is 73 now but remembers the day of the massacre as if it happened only a few hours ago.

"We knew the “Israelis” were circling the camp and I saw several men in Phalangist uniform wearing masks. Neighbours told me they were killing, but I didn't believe it because I heard no shooting. Then they said that the Phalangists were using knives and I believed them. My son Sobhi and I collected all the extended members of our family we could find – 65 in all – and we led them to the far side of the camp from their homes at night. We saved them all."

The subterranean cemetery is still there, a gruesome, dark place of faded "martyrs" pictures and cement grave markers, stinking of sewage.

Mr Ayoub married twice but his second wife, Hayat – 60 now, but only 42 at the time – lost at least 10 of her family in 1982. "My nephew, Mustapha Habrat, was hiding with the women and children in one of the air-raid bunkers we had built here," she says. "The Phalangists came and took all the men out to execute them. Before he was taken away, Mustapha took off his ring and gave it to his wife, Amal, saying, 'You will be able to sell this and get money for you and the children for a couple of days'. Then he was taken away and they shot all the men. But Mustapha, though he was hit many times, lay covered in blood and pretended to be dead."

The story – like all the stories in Sabra and Chatila – gets worse. "While he lay there, gypsies came to loot the bodies, to take the rings and the watches from the dead. When they tried to rob Mustapha, they found he was alive and managed to get him to the hospital."

Saved by those who would pillage his dead body, Mustapha searched in vain for his wife and three children. They had disappeared, were never seen again. Like many of the dead of Sabra and Chatila, they may lie under the golf course near Beirut airport, a mass grave that has never been – and never will be – opened.

The Ayoub family came from the Palestinian village of Majdeqrun in Gallilee. As one of the Arab fighters, Mr Ayoub was among the last to leave for exile in Lebanon in 1948. Some of his family stayed behind and are now “Israeli” Arabs; and old Mahmoud Ayoub was allowed by the “Israelis” to visit them in 1989. "I found our old home and wept," he said. "I went into the house – the “Israelis” had rented it to an Arab woman from another village – and I walked through my family's olive groves. I even went to Jerusalem and prayed at Al Aqsa. But I knew all the time that, in a month, I would have to leave."

Mrs Ayoub remains locked on to the moment of the massacre. "I was one of the first to come back and I found the streets heaped with bodies. I took pills to steady my nerves and went into each house. In some, the women were lying dead with their legs far apart. There was much rape. The men were lying on the floor in their blood. It was very hot. The bodies were rotting."

I don't tell Hayat Ayoub that I saw all this myself, the dead and the mutilated and the raped. They had even shot the horses in the camp.

And the lesson of all this? Mahmoud Ayoub does not believe there will ever be an independent sovereign state of Palestine. He doesn't trust Yasser Arafat and he doesn't believe he will ever return to live in his home. He blames the Americans and the Europeans and he is angered at the number of countries who refuse Palestinians the right to visit Europe.

"The Palestinians are like germs," he says. "No one wants us – because we don't have a country."

1-       The Daily Star, 16-9-2000.

2-       Same source.

3-       Future TV, 15-9-2000.

4-       Independent, 16-9-2000.

Nasrallah: no time for sectarian rhetoric…(1)

“Israel” shouldn’t feel secure

Hizbullah’s secretary-general urged some leaders on Monday to refrain from sectarian slogans in their calls for pardons for Samir Geagea and Michel Aoun.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the two men’s cases should be decided by the judiciary.
“There is a judicial aspect regarding the return of General Aoun and the freeing of Geagea,” he told a delegation from the Journalists’ Union led by the group’s president, Melhem Karam. “Politicians cannot deal with this. They should deal with the political aspect only.”
“Even on the political level,” he said, “the two issues are being handled in an unhealthy atmosphere that does not pave the way for results aspired for by some leaders.”
Geagea, former leader of the banned Lebanese Forces is serving four life sentences for masterminding the assassination of three rival leaders and planning to kill a fourth.
Aoun, a former army commander, has been living in exile in Paris since 1991, a year after his ousting by a joint Lebanese-Syrian military operation.
The judiciary has also investigated alleged embezzlement of public funds by Aoun, but no legal action has been taken against him.
“Those who advocate the release of Geagea and the return of Aoun say things that shouldn’t be said, like hostile words against Syria. These attitudes threaten Lebanon,” Nasrallah said. “They’re also hostile to the resistance movement and support “Israel’s” call for the army’s deployment in the South or for the disarmament of resistance fighters.”
Nasrallah denied his group’s responsibility for stone-throwing incidents at “Israeli” soldiers across the Fatima Gate on the international border in the South. “Stone-throwers are not instigated by anyone. Can anybody say that all stone-throwers are supporters of Hizbullah? The incidents are an expression of people’s feelings and a form of objection to the “Israelis”,” he said.
“The incidents sum up the meanings of Lebanon’s victory and the enemy’s defeat,” he added. “Hizbullah encourages these incidents, which we consider to be cultural, not political. Stone-throwing will not liberate the Shebaa Farms, rectify the Blue Line or free Lebanese detainees in “Israel”. But it carries a moral and cultural value.”
Lebanon has reservations concerning “Israel’s” continued military presence in the Shebaa Farms. Beirut also argues that the Blue Line, drawn by the United Nations to verify “Israel’s” pullout, does not coincide with the international border.
Lebanon also calls for the release of 19 Lebanese held in “Israel” as bargaining chips in exchange for the fate of several “Israeli” soldiers who went missing in action in Lebanon.
“If the army deploys to the border, it’ll be protecting “Israel”, not Lebanon,” said Nasrallah. “It’s not in Lebanon’s interest that “Israel” feel secure as long as it continues to threaten our country, occupy parts of it and hold detainees.”
Regarding a decision by donor countries to postpone a conference aimed at raising funds for the government’s plan to rebuild the South, the Hizbullah leader said: “Since the beginning, holding the conference was dependent on subjecting Lebanon to “Israel’s” conditions, including the disarmament of the resistance movement and the deployment of the army.”
The conference was postponed until a new government is formed after the new Parliament convenes on Oct. 17.
Nasrallah said that discussing the formation of a new government “should not be restricted to who will head it. I don’t say this to support or oppose any potential premier or because I want a share for Hizbullah. I say it because Lebanon needs to be saved from several threats, including those posed by “Israel” or those that will be posed if the situation in the South goes to explosive extremes.
“The new government should deal with the economic crisis and the political situation resulting from the elections. They could’ve threatened the situation if security were not under control or if the Syrian troops withdrew,” he said.
“The new government should have a program. It should not give false hope to the people,” he warned. “Hizbullah’s confidence is precious and will not be given to any government if we’re not satisfied with its goals. If the premier-to-be says: ‘I am the program and the government,’ we will not accept that.”

Sheikh Qassem: confrontation with occupation not over yet

"The confrontation with the Zionist enemy is not over," Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General his Eminence Sheikh Naem Qassem said, citing the occupation of the Shebaa Farms and three other Lebanese areas, besides the Lebanese detainees in “Israeli” prisons and the complications of the Palestinian cause.

Speaking at a rally to commemorate the martyrs of the Qabriekha Town, Sheikh Qassem said, "“Israel” wants five things from Lebanon:

-To hold its tongue regarding the Shibaa farms and the three other occupied spots,
-To forget the issue of the Lebanese detainees and prisoners in “Israeli” prisons,
-To disarm the Resistance so that "“Israel”" feel relieved of a force that poses a threat against it,
-The Lebanese army has to be completely in charge of border security so that it preserves and be responsible for “Israeli” security,
-To weaken the Syrian presence in Lebanon in order to undermine Damascus' ability to recover the Golan Heights and support Lebanon and the Palestinian cause…(2)

Elsewhere, Qassem, said “those who rely on donor countries rely on a mirage.
“The United States is used to making promises and pledging financial aid then procrastinating for purposes of political blackmail,” he said.
Speaking during a ceremony held at a school in Nabatieh to honor its excellent students, he warned that Washington “plans to take from Lebanon the maximum it can give, and give it back the minimum it can.”
The United States “promised to give Lebanon financial aid once the Western hostage crisis was over, but the promises were not kept after they were freed … It should not be allowed to achieve for “Israel” what “Israel” failed to achieve in war”…(3)

MP claims further violations…(4)

“Lebanon claimed Monday that up to 60 square kilometers of Lebanese territory have been annexed by the “Israeli” Army along the border between Shebaa and Kfar Shuba.
The “Israelis” were also accused of violating the UN-delineated Blue Line in the area and constructing a military defense network on Lebanese soil.
Information Minister Anwar Khalil said that the government had learned the “Israelis” have encroached upon an area between 1 and 3 kilometers deep and 20 kilometers long. “They’re working on redrawing the border without referring to the international authorities,” Khalil claimed in a speech in Hasbaya.
““Israel” is working on an imaginary line completely different from the UN’s Blue line and is turning this imaginary line into what looks like a new defense plan through building reinforcements and military positions,” added Khalil, who is an MP for the qada of Marjayoun-Hasbaya, which incorporates Shebaa and Kfar Shuba.
“This new aggression should be immediately dealt with by the United Nations without any delay. We’ll raise this issue at the highest levels, both locally and internationally,” he said.
Khalil could not be reached for additional comment.
The disputed stretch of border claimed by Khalil appears to be part of the Shebaa Farms occupied by “Israel” since the 1967 invasion of the Golan Heights.
The residents of Kfar Shuba also claim tracts of land under “Israeli” control opposite their village. Residents of both Shebaa and Kfar Shuba entered the occupied area on Sunday for the first time since 1967 and held a demonstration.
Prime Minister Salim Hoss chaired a meeting on Monday to prepare a petition against “Israel” that will be sent to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Lebanon wants the court to make “Israel” pay reparations for damages sustained during the occupation.

Fresh “Israeli” violations of Lebanese airspace…(6)

The warplanes of the “Israeli” occupation forces have once again violated the Lebanese airspace and sovereignty.

The enemy's aircraft at 11:10 a.m. Monday flew over the town of Yaroun towards Lebanese territories.

Earlier, an “Israeli” training plane violated the Lebanese airspace at 9:45 a.m. hovering over the towns of Malkieh and Salhieh.

On the other hand, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) troops set up nets on the barricades of al-Abbad post to bar Lebanese citizens from reaching it and getting close to the troops of the Zionist enemy.

Houneen people celebrate partial liberation…(7)

People of the occupied seven villages celebrated the liberation of a part of the Houneen Town.  They gathered at noon on Sunday on the liberated part of the village to demand the complete liberation of the town along with the six others that are still under “Israeli” occupation.

MP Mohammed Berjawi delivered a speech at the rally on behalf of the Houneen people.

Amal MP Ali Khalil underlined that the alliance between Hizbullah and Amal is the fruit of the will and sincerity of the people.

For his part, President of Hizbullah's Political Council MP Mohammed Raad stressed that "the Resistance alone can re-delineate the border correctly."

Raad condemned the demarcation that took place previously in a random and demagogic manner.

All speakers agreed that people of Houneen and the other six villages, who currently have Palestinian refugee cards, must be given Lebanese nationality.

1-       The Daily Star, 19-9-2000.

2-       Manar TV, 18-9-2000.

3-       The Daily Star, 19-9-2000.

4-       Manar TV, 18-9-2000.

5-       The Daily Star, 19-9-2000.

6-       Manar TV, 18-9-2000.

7-       Same source.

Mukhtar praised for Abbad scuffle…(1)

“A mukhtar from Nabatieh Fawqa who was visiting Sheikh Abbad hill and scuffled with “Israeli” soldiers was praised on Tuesday by President Emile Lahoud for his “exemplary national stand.”
Hussein Berjawi, 42, the mukhtar of Midan, a district of Nabatieh Fawqa, visited Sheikh Abbad Hill on Tuesday with his family to look at his original village of Hounine, one of the Seven Villages now located inside “Israel”.
Berjawi said that he was pointing out houses in Margaliot, an “Israeli” settlement located on the eastern slope of Abbad hill.
One of the soldiers cursed Berjawi and told him to return to the other side of the line. Berjawi refused and the soldier hit him with the butt of his rifle. According to the mukhtar, four other “Israeli” soldiers stepped in and pointed their rifles at him as he grappled with the first soldier.
Ghanaian UNIFIL soldiers then intervened and broke up the scuffle, asking the “Israeli” soldiers to back off.
Berjawi, who owns a lingerie shop in Nabatieh, said that Lahoud had congratulated him for his “brave stand.” He quoted the president as saying that ““Israel” would never consider to re-occupy our land as long as there are people like you.”
The telephone call from Lahoud to Berjawi was confirmed by the presidential palace. In turn, Berjawi heaped praise on Lahoud.
“It’s not unusual that the president of this country is so concerned with his people, especially the southerners, having stood by them and helped them defeat their enemies and liberate their land during his term,” Berjawi said.

1-        The Daily Star, 20-9-2000.

Fadlallah: US-”Israeli” plan behind ‘political confusion’…(1)

The religious leader Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah accused the United States on Wednesday of being behind much of the recent “political confusion” in Lebanon and said the postponement of a conference of donor countries, scheduled to have been held in Beirut next month, was “in harmony” with a US-”Israeli” plan.
Speaking at a weekly press briefing, he called on the Lebanese “not to believe America and its promises” and urged politicians of various shades to join hands for the country’s national interest, both economic and political.
He was referring to the past week’s anti-Syrian protests by supporters of the banned Lebanese Forces in both Beirut and Mayfouq, Jbeil during which calls for ending neighboring Syria’s military role in Lebanon were made.
Reports speculated that the delay was meant to pressure Lebanon to deploy troops in strength throughout the South and along the border with “Israel”.
Fadlallah said that since the preliminary meeting of representatives of donor countries in July, he had cautioned that “what is awaiting Lebanon is further promises which won’t be fulfiled.”
He added that implementation of these promises would not take place “except via American-”Israeli” conditions which include the question of army deployment in the South ... and not out of keenness for Lebanon’s stability and sovereignty, as alleged.”
The leader added  that “We believe this postponement is in harmony with the American-”Israeli” plan drawn up for Lebanon following the liberation (of the South).”
Fadlallah continued: “We believe the US is behind much of the political confusion in Lebanon lately, notably enflaming the political atmosphere against Syria.”
He also accused the US of seeking to maintain discord in Lebanon through a deterioration of the economic and political situation and attempts to disrupt ties with Syria, “as if America tells us: ‘either you heed our conditions or expect repeated confusion and pressure’.”

“Israel’s” withdrawal signals Bastara’s bittersweet return…(2)

“Israel’s” troop withdrawal to behind the United Nations-delineated Blue Line has resulted in a sliver of the Shebaa Farms coming under Lebanese jurisdiction, along with the only family to have remained on the occupied territory since 1967.
For over three decades, the extended Zohra family has struggled to survive in conditions of extreme poverty, isolated from their fellow Lebanese, without such amenities as electricity and running water and surrounded by the apparatus of “Israeli” occupation.
The family lives in two single-room stone hovels in the hamlet of Bastara, beside an abandoned “Israeli” outpost towering above the plain of northern Galilee and the hills of southeast Lebanon.
Bastara, one of the 14 Shebaa Farms, was included in an “Israeli” incursion zone, which saw the border fence pushed deeper into Lebanon about 10 years ago to annex part of the high ground with views stretching deep into the south.
Last Sunday, residents of Kfar Shuba and Shebaa villages entered the former incursion zone through the Ramta gate and drove 2 kilometers along the old “Israeli” patrol road to Bastara. For Layali Zohra, 17, they were the first Lebanese she had ever seen at her home.
“We were very happy to see them here,” she says, smiling shyly as she helps her aunt, Inam, kneed laundry in a basin of filthy water.
The home of Qassem Zohra, Layali’s father, is tiny. The only natural light filtering into the gloomy interior comes from the open door and a small glassless window.
“We’re tortured here,” says Ghalia Zohra, Layali’s aunt. “There’s no water. No electricity. We have to travel to Kfar Shuba each day to get water and buy food.”
All 11 members of Qassem’s family sleep on the earthen floor. Lining one wall are black plastic bags containing the family’s clothes and sacks of lentils, rice, salt and wheat ­ their staple diet.
An open fire in the corner fills the room with acrid smoke. A large cauldron of boiling lentils rests on stones surrounding the fire. The ceiling of corrugated tin is black with soot. Swarms of flies and wasps surround the entrance, attracted by piles of goat dung. Qassem has gone to Kfar Shuba, 6 kilometers north, to fetch the supply of water, which until recently had to be undertaken by mule.
To reach Bastara one must drive south out of Kfar Shuba along a gravel road to the Ramta Gate, which marked the limit of the former incursion zone. The final stretch was impassable to vehicles until two weeks ago, when the track was widened.
Once through the gate, there is the bizarre experience of driving on an “Israeli”-built road with signs in Hebrew, all the while peering through the three-meter high electrified fence into south Lebanon. It is easy to forget that the road is on Lebanese territory.
The road dips back onto the “Israeli” side of the Blue Line a few hundred meters east of the Zohra’s home. A barricade of bulldozed earth blocks the road. Lebanese flags and banners left by last Sunday’s demonstrators are still tied to the fence beside the barricade. “Stop Israelian attacks on UNIFL in Arkoub,” reads one banner ­ an out-of-date and mis-spelled message signed by the Arkoub citizen’s committee.
A Merkava tank, its barrel pointed menacingly at the barricade, is barely visible among the scrub and boulders on the other side of a small wadi. A soldier standing on the Merkava peering through a pair of binoculars yells a greeting and waves at the unexpected visitors to the frontier.
The “Israeli” soldiers were not always this friendly. During the occupation, Qassem and his uncle Mohammed, who lives in an identical stone building nearby, were subject to the whims of “Israeli” troops manning the Ramta crossing.
“We’d turn up there in the morning and they would keep us until the afternoon before letting us through,” says Mohammed.
Their only source of income was to sell olives and fresh goats’ milk in Kfar Shuba and Halta. “Very often the milk would go sour in the sun as we waited to be let through,” he says. “We would throw it at the fence and return home.”
Mohammed unleashes years of pent up frustration at the hardships he and his family have endured. “When they put the fence up 10 years ago and built this position,” he says indicating the security fence and abandoned outpost a few meters away, “they destroyed 500 of my olive trees. I only have two left now.”
He says that the “Israeli” had attempted to drive his family out of the area at the time by stealing his goats.
“They took 200 of them over two days,” Mohammed recalls.
He hurries into his house and returns a minute later clutching a yellowed photocopy of a statement he made to the police in Hasbaya. “I complained to the UN and the police but no-one did anything.”
Mohammed says he refused to be intimidated by the “Israeli” and remained in Bastara, despite the construction of an “Israeli” outpost beside his house.
“They kicked us out of my old home in Mazraat Qafwa and blew up the buildings when they invaded (in 1967). I owned land here in Bastara so I brought my family here. I was not going to move out again,” he says.
There are no Lebanese still living in the Shebaa Farms that remain under “Israeli” control. Most of the farmsteads have been occupied by Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia.
Mohammed’s grizzled face breaks into a smile as he recalls the district before 1967 when there had been no “Israeli” soldiers or steel mesh fences restricting their movement.
“The farms ran from Banias (in occupied Syria) along Wadi Aasal to Jabal al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon). We were all farmers and we harvested the land,” he says.
Having ceded their incursion zone, the “Israelis” are constructing a new border along the path traced by the Blue Line. The clank of heavy machinery is carried on the warm breeze from the southeast as “Israeli” engineers cut new roads through the mountainside.
But the Zohra family’s return to the authority of the Lebanese state has not been without its disadvantages.
“Before the liberation we used to be able to go to the rest of the farms. Now the “Israeli” shoot at us when we try to enter them,” says Mohammed.
The end of the occupation has raised hopes among the family that the state will provide them with basic amenities.
“We’ve been completely cut off here for years,” Inam says. “All we need is some electricity and water so that I can buy a washing machine then life here would be beautiful.”

1- The Daily Star, 21-9-2000.

2- Same source.

Lebanese civilian injured by “Israeli” landmine

A truck driver was wounded when a land mine, left behind by “Israeli” occupation forces, exploded, a security source said.
The mine detonated as Mohammed Hussein Ghibris, 39, was driving his vehicle near the former Swaida outpost near Nabatieh, the source said.
Ghibris was taken to the Popular Relief Hospital in Nabatieh for treatment. His doctors said he suffered moderate wounds.
“I was on my way to al-Wadi al-Akhdar between Kfar Roummane and Arab Salim to reopen my stone quarry when the explosion occurred,” Ghibris told reporters. “I took this road since government workers opened it with a bulldozer recently. No mines were found.”
According to police, nine people have died and 63 others have been wounded in land-mine and other ordinance explosions since “Israel” withdrew from the border area on May 24.
UN experts estimate that 130,000 mines and other explosive devices are scattered over the 850-square-kilometer area. The Ukrainian battalion of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon has started a large-scale process to clear landmines. But the battalion complains that “Israel” has refused to supply the mine sweepers with maps indicating the positions of the ordinance…(1)

On Wednesday, a 10-year-old boy lost three fingers and suffered wounds in the face and legs when a booby-trapped toy that he had found near his home in Ain Bouniya, east Lebanon, exploded, police said.

The boy, Hussein Ali Saifeddine, underwent surgery in a nearby hospital, they said…(2)

 “Israel” aims to subvert relations between Syria, Lebanon: Radio Damascus…(3)

“ “Israel” is trying to take revenge for its May 24 troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon by driving a wedge between Damascus and Beirut, Syria's official radio said Thursday.

"“Israel” wants to avenge its defeat in south Lebanon and the victory which Lebanon won over “Israel”," the radio said, describing the “Israeli” pullback as the result of "the struggle of Lebanese resistance forces and Syrian support which consolidated security, stability and unity in Lebanon."

"Damaging Lebanon's unity, and Syria's support for the country is a strategic priority aim," the radio said.

"For “Israel” success in undermining unity and Syrian support for Lebanon is the first stage in moves aimed at destroying joint Arab action," it added.

The radio commentary came a day after Maronite Christian bishops in Lebanon raised a storm by issuing a statement calling for Syria to remove the 35,000 troops it keeps in the country, now that “Israel” has ended its 22-year occupation.

The statement was roundly attacked by Lebanon's top two leaders and by the president and members of the government, while many of the country's newspapers used it to call for serious dialogue.

1-       The Daily Star, 22-9-2000.

2-       AFP, 21-9-2000.

3-       Same source.

New “Israeli” violation: occupation shoots at journalists, wounds civilian…(1)

A Lebanese civilian was slightly wounded in southeast Lebanon Friday when “Israeli” occupation troops fired at journalists across the border.

The incident occurred when three Lebanese journalists, including an Agence France Presse correspondent, drove from the frontier village of Kfarshouba up to the borders of the “Israeli”-occupied Shibaa farms.

As they arrived, three members of a group of some 18 “Israeli” soldiers in three vehicles immediately and without notice fired between their legs, AFP said.

The Lebanese civilian who was accompanying the journalists received light injuries in his leg from bullet splinters and was taken to a nearby clinic for treatment.

On September 12, “Israeli” soldiers fired shots in the air to scare off three Lebanese journalists in the same area adjacent to the Shibaa farms, occupied by "“Israel”" since 1967.

“Israeli” occupation forces retreated from southern Lebanon on May 24 following a 22-year occupation in which dozens of “Israeli” soldiers were killed by Resistance operations.

1- Manar TV, 22-9-2000.

Hizbullah warns against sectarianism: US pressure aims to weaken us…(1)

”Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General his Eminence Sheikh Nahim Qassem warned against "the temporary glamor of sectarianism and the tools of destruction under the headings of achieving rights and gains."

"It is also wrong to adopt positions without making calculations, for one cannot take standings without noting the services that the “Israeli” enemy will get from them," Sheikh Qassem said at the anniversary of the martyrs of the Arki town.

In the massive rally organized by the Islamic Resistance on the occasion, Sheikh Qassem said, "There is difference between the faith in which we believe as guide and instructor on the one hand, and sectarianism which is used by some as barricades to achieve gains and satisfy tribe spirit, on the other."

"Sectarianism brings down the homeland, whereas having relations with Allah builds the country. Sectarianism may build temporary apparent strength for those who use it as a barricade, but carries within itself all the essentials of enmity, destruction, treason, unrest and humiliation."

The deputy secretary-general asked, "What do the US and '“Israel”' want? And why are they exerting pressures on Lebanon, once in the name of the donor states and at other time demanding Lebanese army deployment in the south to protect '“Israel’s”' security, and other times through attempts to create internal confusion and unrest or unreal meaningless battles as far as timing, content and reasons (of these battles) are concerned."

"The US wants to take from us our strength and deny us the means of victory and defense. It wants to bring down Lebanon's potentials to demand its rights and to argue as an equal opponent in the face of its enemies".

"Lebanon is strong by Syria and Syria is strong by Lebanon. If they separate at this stage, they will both be weakened," he concluded.

Lebanese man files lawsuit against “Israel” for killing his daughter…(2)

“A Lebanese man has filed a lawsuit against “Israel” after his daughter was killed when the “Israeli” army opened fire on civilians during its May pullout from southern Lebanon. Services were held for thirty-one year old Raymonda Rizk in her hometown Marjayoun in the south late yesterday. Her body was repatriated from “Israel” by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Raymonda's entire family had retreated with “Israeli” troops when they ended their 22-year occupation of south Lebanon. Her father, Raymond, was a former driver with “Israel’s” now defunct proxy militia. He filed the lawsuit against the “Israeli” army in the Jewish state. The entire family accompanied Raymonda's body back to Lebanon. She was treated in a Haifa hospital where she died. Raymonda's husband, who also fought alongside “Israeli” troops in south Lebanon, has been seeking political asylum in Switzerland. Hundreds of militiamen and their families have been returning to Lebanon, complaining of discrimination and poor living conditions in the Jewish state. Some six thousand fled to “Israel” with occupation troops. Beirut has urged the militiamen to return and face fair trials. Lebanese who collaborated with “Israel” and fought alongside occupation troops have been receiving sentences ranging from a few weeks in prison to the death sentence in absentia, which could be appealed. 

1-       Manar TV, 26-9-2000.

2-       Future TV, 26-9-2000.

More “Israeli” air and ground violations…(1)

Zionist warplanes at noon Wednesday violated Lebanon's airspace and flew over the areas of Zahrani, Sidon (south) and the capital Beirut where they broke the sound barrier.

Earlier, “Israeli” espionage drones flew overnight over some southern areas.

On the other hand, the “Israeli” occupation army has been trying to establish its occupation of Lebanese territories belonging to the town of Kfarshouba at the Hassan gate through annexing these territories to the occupied Lebanese Shibaa Farms, although the international demarcation which has become to be known as the Blue Line or Larsen Line states that these territories are part of Lebanon.

Reports from the border zone unveiled that the international troops in the area not only ignore this aggression but are also speaking about an "error" that has considered these territories Lebanese.

Al-Manar Television's correspondent Ali Shaib and colleagues from other media who had gone to the area to examine the “Israeli” violation were provoked by the Zionist occupation troops who pointed their arms at them.

Meanwhile, the enemy troops at the Abbad Hilltop proceeded with harassing Lebanese visitors.

“Israeli” soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with Lebanese citizens who had been trying to near the tomb. UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) troops had to interfere in order to put an end to the fight while the occupation troops used a Merkava tank that was positioned at the barb-wired fence near the hilltop with its gun barrel in the direction of the visitors.

Army chief: liberation not accomplished yet…(2)

Army commander Gen Michel Suleiman said liberation of south Lebanon and the Western Beqaa has reunited parts of the country which had been dismembered by a 22-year occupation.

Liberation has not been accomplished yet, for the Shibaa farms and the areas on which the state has voiced reservations are not recovered, Suleiman said during an inspection tour that took him to military units' positions in the south and the Western Beqaa, Sidon's Eastern Suburbs, Jezzine, Mashghara and Jib Jineen..

Furthermore, “Israeli” aggression still threatens our land, nation and stability, he added.

The army chief said, "Whenever the enemy stumbles in its negotiations, we see atmospheres of sectarian projects brought to life in a bid to harm the achievement of liberation and distort the image of national unity.

1-       Manar TV, 27-9-2000.

2-       Same source.

AFP protests against “Israeli” shooting at Lebanese Journalists

Boy shot in the head by “Israelis”…(1)

A 12-year-old boy was wounded on Thursday by “Israeli” fire while he was throwing stones at soldiers near the Fatima Gate.
Hussein Sirhan, from Kfar Kila, was shot in the head and was taken to a hospital in Nabatieh.
Meanwhile, the media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres protested on Thursday against what it said were incidents of “Israeli” soldiers shooting at Lebanese journalists on the border.
The Paris-based group said in a statement that it had sent a letter to “Israeli” Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who also holds the defense portfolio, calling on him to immediately open an inquiry into incidents that allegedly occurred earlier this month.
RSF quoted Taher Abu Hamdan, a journalist with Agence France Presse, as saying that “Israeli” soldiers fired without warning at journalists on Sept. 22.
“This act is very worrying because it’s the second time in a month that such an incident has occurred,” said Robert Menard, general secretary of RSF.
The statement said that “Israeli” soldiers also fired into the air on Sept. 12, “apparently to frighten three Lebanese journalists who were at the border to take pictures.”
The organization requested that those responsible for the incidents be punished.
No immediate comment was available from the “Israeli” Defense (War) Ministry.

Occupation violated Blue Line again…(2)

As part of the Zionist encroachments into Lebanese territories, an “Israeli” military seven-strong foot patrol on Wednesday advanced from the outpost of Tallet as-Sumaqa in the occupied al-Arqoub Hilltops.

The enemy patrol entered the Jal al-Ahmar area (outskirts of Kfarshouba) from which the occupation forces had retreated on May 24. They stayed there for thirty minutes before returning to their outpost in occupied Tallet al-Sumaqa.

A UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Indian patrol arrived afterwards in the area but after it was too late.

1-       The Daily Star, 29-9-2000.

2-       Manar TV, 28-9-2000.

Former detainees head to Italy to make their case…(1)

A delegation of former Khiam prisoners and children from Arab Salim will travel to Italy this week to lobby for the release of detainees in “Israeli” prisons and the liberation of the Shebaa Farms.
The Follow-Up Committee for Lebanese Detainees in “Israeli” Prisons and representatives from the Italian Embassy announced the group’s itinerary at the Press Federation on Monday.
“I’m happy I’m going. I want to tell them about how “Israel” treats us,” said 13-year-old Hussein Harb, who survived a bombardment of his school in Arab Salim on Dec. 16 last year.
“We weren’t doing anything to them. We were just sitting in school trying to study,” he said as he fidgeted in his seat.
The school, on the frontline of the former occupation zone, was hit by three mortar rounds fired from a nearby outpost manned by the now defunct “Israeli”-proxy militia.
Eighteen children were wounded in the bombardment, two of them seriously.
Hussein underwent two operations but still has shrapnel lodged in his back and suffers permanent nerve damage to his arm.
“The main purpose of the trip was to ease the pain of those who suffered horrible torture in Khiam detention center,” said Rabah Shahrour, who spoke on behalf of committee chief Mohammed Safa.
But the trip has a political angle and includes meetings with Pope John Paul II, Amnesty International and Italian non-governmental organizations.
Hussein and his parents will be joining 17 former Khiam detainees on a four-day trip to Italy courtesy of the Italian Embassy and Alitalia.
The group was selected based on gender, political affiliation and length of detention.
Suleiman Ramadan, whose stay in Khiam between 1985 and 2000 was one of the longest at the notorious center, is part of the group traveling to Italy.
“It’s a huge honor to host these guests in Italy because they suffered torture on our behalf and on behalf of all Lebanon,” said Italian Media Officer Shibli Issa Khoury, who introduced himself as half-Lebanese.
“I only regret that they won’t be joined by those who are detained in “Israel” and that the Shebaa Farms are still occupied.”
The Follow-Up Committee said on Friday that it considered the implementation of UN Resolution 425 to be incomplete because 19 Lebanese are still held in “Israel” and the Shebaa Farms are still occupied.
Shahrour said he hoped other countries would follow the Italians’ example and invite former detainees to visit them.
He argued that Lebanon exhibits a lack of concern for the plight of these “national heroes.”
“Italy is honoring our Lebanese detainees, but does Lebanon?” he asked.
“The government has only provided a few of our needs over the years and has yet to devise a plan for the care and reintegration of the former detainees.”

1-     The Daily Star,f 26-9-2000.