30 August - 5 September 2001
Issue No.549
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 30 August - 5 September 2001 Issue No.549 |
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Tensions in the Golan
Ghajar, a village divided between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, seems to be a new battleground for Hizbullah and Israeli forces. Michael Jansen visited the village
A week ago Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer spoke on the phone to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the threat posed to regional security by Hizbullah's activities in the divided village of Ghajar. Last weekend Amos Yaron, director of Israel's defense ministry, appealed to US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to call upon Syria to restrain Hizbullah. "We don't have any intention of opening a second front and we ask our American friends to send a message to [Syrian President] Bashar Al- Assad that there is no intention from our side to escalate the situation," Yaron told Armitage.
Ghajar, a threat to the peace? Rumsfeld and Armitage must have wondered why Israel is focusing on Ghajar while the conflict in Palestine escalates each day.
A tiny village inhabited by 1,800 Syrian Alawites, Ghajar straddles the UN- delineated "Blue Line." Two- thirds of Ghajar is in Lebanon, and one-third is in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The original village was entirely in Syrian territory but expanded north- wards into Lebanon and came under Israeli occupation 1967. After Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, villagers were issued Israeli identity cards. They work in Israel and depend on Israel for their water, electricity, services and supplies.
A week ago I accompanied a senior Indian Foreign Ministry official and the UNIFIL commander on a visit to Ghajar. At the Indian observation post near Ghajar village, we surveyed the landscape. Beyond a 200 metre band of scrub land, burnt to clear plastic mines that Israel laid during the occupation, Ghajar's cream and white blocks of flats shimmered in the heat of the afternoon. Ghajar is clearly a prosperous place, in contrast to most south Lebanese villages. But its peace and prosperity are threatened by the conflict between Israel and the Hizbullah.
After its withdrawal from south Lebanon, Israel proposed dividing Ghajar with a fence. The villagers protested and the UN reached an agreement with Israel and Lebanon that they would maintain the status quo. Since then Israel has thrice threatened to fence off the northern end of the village, violating the Blue Line and cutting off the whole of Ghajar from Lebanon. The UN blocked two attempts; the third threat was issued last week by Israeli Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh.
For 14 months Ghajar carried on as if the Israeli withdrawal had not happened. But the status quo evolved. At the end of July, Lebanese civilians, television teams and journalists entered the village through a hole in the fence. The Israelis felt exposed to infiltration by hostile elements. "The village was quiet," UNIFIL's outgoing deputy commander, Brigadier Ganesan Athmanathan, told me. But Israel grew concerned about "increasing contacts between the villagers and the Lebanese."
On 11 August, the UN evacuated a post just north of Ghajar. The road between Ghajar and the neighbouring Lebanese village of Abbassieh was opened, giving Lebanese civilians unimpeded access to both places. Unarmed Hizbullah men in plainclothes began to patrol the northern sector of Ghajar.
On 17 August Israeli troops violated the Blue Line by crossing into northern Ghajar to check the fence and warned villagers against cooperating with Hizbullah. The next day, Israel made the village a "closed military area," off- limits to non-residents, except Israeli soldiers on duty. This infuriated the Hizbullah's local commander, Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, who led a protest of 200 Lebanese to the northern sector of Ghajar the following day. "There was no violation of the Blue Line," stated Athmanathan. "Lebanese citizens went to Lebanese territory." But this alarmed the villagers who appealed to both sides to leave them alone. They dispatched an urgent letter to Syria's President Bashar Al- Assad, asking him to prevent a deterioration in Ghajar's sensitive situation.
The new commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Major General Lalit Mohan Tewari, pointed to cars parked on the roadside near the entrance to Ghajar. "Do you see those three vehicles? Those belong to Hizbullah. At first the Hizbullah men set up tents. Later they took over a former Israeli position," he remarked. An unarmed Hizbullahi sitting on a cot beneath a sun shade watched as I walked up to the gate to Ghajar. Others were standing around or sitting in the post pointed out by General Tewari. According to Lebanese sources, the Hizbullah has been asked by Beirut to exercise control over traffic from Lebanon into the northern sector of Ghajar. There is no flow from Lebanon into Ghajar and no movement from Ghajar into Lebanon. Nevertheless, Israel claims Hizbullah's presence constitutes a menace. I did not go into the village as the helicopters were waiting.
UNIFIL is closely monitoring the situation. "The frequency of patrols has increased significantly," General Tewari stated. "It's a classic UN situation. The sort of situation the UN can resolve through negotiations." He is optimistic that the Ghajar "issue" -- he does not call it a "crisis" -- will be solved.
Ghajar is only one of the flash-points on the Blue Line. Most of the others -- Shebaa Farms, Abbassieh, the Abad Hill -- are in this sector, monitored by Indian peace-keepers. For time being, Ghajar is the hot spot, as was the disputed Shebaa Farms area a few short weeks ago. Both are part of the legacy of the French colonial period when borders were drawn with no thought to demographic realities.
"Hizbullah has taken the initiative," stated Timor Goksel, the veteran UNIFIL spokesman and political adviser. "Both sides want to keep up a certain level of tension." But Israel, which is paranoid about Hizbullah, does not like it to have the edge. Hence, Israel's consultations over Ghajar with Rumsfeld and Armitage.
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