Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 May 2000 Issue No. 483
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Liberation Hundreds of Lebanese flooded back to their liberated villages as Israel evacuated its forces from Lebanon One image summed up Israel's forced, humiliating withdrawal from southern Lebanon -- an Israeli helicopter gunship pounding missile after missile into a tank abandoned by the South Lebanon Army for fear it would fall into the hands of Hizbullah guerrillas. It was a fitting epitaph to Israel's 22-year imbroglio in Lebanon.

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IMAGES OF JUBILANT VICTORY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEFEAT: Israeli forces withdraw in confusion... Hizbullah guerrillas lead triumphant return... Lebanese children find a new use for an abandoned Israeli tank... flowers for freedom... SLA militiamen surrender to Lebanese army; photos: Reuter, AP&AFP

The vacuum left by the withdrawal has been filled by thousands of Lebanese residents returning to their villages, led by the resistance that enabled their liberation, the guerrillas of Hizbullah. Housed in villages within eyesight of the Israeli border, this is the "difficult, temporary new reality" -- described by Israel's Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh -- that no Israeli government is likely to endure for long.

The spontaneous reaction, and return, of people who have not been to their villages in southern Lebanon's occupied zone for over two decades resulted in the collapse of Antoine Lahad's South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia. The rapid developments in southern Lebanon on Monday and Tuesday took Israeli troops by surprise and caused mass surrenders by SLA militiamen.

News of the liberation of four villages in the zone's central sector on Sunday sent enthusiastic villagers, accompanied by armed Hizbullah fighters, rushing back to their homes.

Israeli troops, who had turned over their posts to SLA militiamen, opened fire to prevent people from reaching their villages. Five Lebanese civilians were killed and 21 wounded by Israeli helicopter gunships and artillery on Monday. This, however, did not prevent people from dashing back, forcing an estimated 300 SLA militiamen to surrender to either Hizbullah or the Lebanese army.

Triumphant Hizbullah fighters rushed to fill the vacuum caused by the collapse of the SLA. Returning residents were not the only people to celebrate. On Tuesday, enraged families of 145 detainees held in the notorious SLA-controlled Khiam centre broke into the prison and released their relatives.

The people's jubilant reaction also served to dispel expectations of possible tension in liberated areas as it became clear that all concerned parties -- the government, Syria and Hizbullah -- were determined to keep the situation under control and as peaceful as possible.

"Not one problem occurred in the south," said Hizbullah secretary-general Sayed Hassan Nasrallah who warned, however, that Hizbullah would retaliate if civilians continued to be targeted. On Tuesday a driver working for the BBC was killed by an Israeli shell, raising to six the number of fatalities since the start of the speedy withdrawal.

The Hizbullah leader affirmed that captured SLA militiamen would be handed over to the Lebanese army. He also extended assurances to the mainly-Christian area of Marjayoun, which served as headquarters of SLA commander Lahad, that its residents were "like family and would be protected by Hizbullah."

The SLA abandoned its Marjayoun headquarters on Tuesday afternoon, with most of the 1,400 fleeing militiamen and their families heading to Israel, hoping that they would be welcomed.

Some observers believe that the fate of the SLA, whose members may be the target of revenge killings, is one of several issues that may prove a flash point for violence in the liberated region, alongside the future of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel and the future of the Chebaa Farms -- an area which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 but is claimed by Lebanon.

Hizbullah has vowed to fight if Israel continues to hold Lebanese prisoners or maintains its occupation of the Chebaa Farms.

A report presented by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Security Council late Monday said Lebanon's claim to the disputed plateau at the foot of the Golan Heights could not be confirmed.

Last week, Hizbullah staged two attacks on the outskirts of the Chebaa Farms. Also on Tuesday, the Security Council endorsed a UN plan to verify Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and help re-establish the Lebanese government's authority over the area.

Another issue that is likely to be disputed is the role of UN forces in the areas evacuated by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak carefully avoided using the word "defeat" in describing the 72-hour collapse of Israel's self-declared "security zone" in south Lebanon. On the contrary, he told Israeli TV on Tuesday, "we are bringing home the boys to defend Israel from the inside." The task now was to "move ahead and change the situation fundamentally."

There are many, in Israel, Lebanon and Syria, who fear the "change" may bequeath a reality more dangerous than that which preceded it, including perhaps Barak. At the height of the SLA's flight from Lebanon on Monday, he warned: "Israel will soon deploy along the international border. And if a single hair should fall from the head of one of our civilians, Lebanon and Syria will bear responsibility and we will respond with all the power at our disposal".

The reason for such bellicose language is due not only to the depth of the defeat but is also born of fear. Of all the scenarios anticipated for ending Israel's occupation the one that came to pass is the worst as far as Barak is concerned. He had initially sought a "quiet" withdrawal "in the context of an agreement with Syria." Failing that, he had hoped that the vacuum left by withdrawing Israeli soldiers would be filled by enlarged UN peacekeeping force.

Asked about the meaning of Israel's "full-scale retreat" from Lebanon, member of Knesset and leader of the Shinui Party, Tommy Lapid, replied: "It means the chances of a war with Syria have increased".

Ranwa Yehia in Beirut,
Graham Usher in Jerusalem

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