If not now, when?
The contested status of Samir Al-Qontar in the Israel-Hizbullah prisoners exchange deal leaves outsiders wondering if months of negotiation will amount to nothing. Mohalhel Fakih reports from Beirut
Samir Al-Qontar's supporters, along with family members and activists, held a candlelight vigil in downtown Beirut on Monday for the Lebanese man who has been jailed by Israel for some 24 years. His fate is now blocking a prisoners exchange deal between Hizbullah and Israel.
Al-Qontar's family called on human rights groups, Lebanese institutions, and officials to join in a campaign to win his release as part of a German-mediated exchange. "We thank this man [Hizbullah Secretary- General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah] who possesses the wisdom and ability to free all the detainees and prisoners from this ruthless enemy, with Samir Al-Qontar on the top of the list," Al-Qontar's brother Bassam told the rally in Martyrs Square.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet agreed to the exchange, excepting detainees with "blood on their hands", including Al-Qontar. Al- Qontar was sentenced to 542 years for killing three Israeli civilians in 1979 as part of a four-member Palestinian squad that carried out an operation in the northern Israeli city of Naharriya.
However Hizbullah's secretary-general hinted that failure to release Al-Qontar could be a deal breaker after Israel's agreement to release 400 Palestinians and dozens of detained Lebanese, Syrians, and other Arabs, in return for four Israelis captured by Hizbullah. Three of them -- Israeli soldiers -- are presumed dead.
"The conditions and demands of Hizbullah are clear, precise and public. We remain set on them in all respects," Nasrallah said in a statement on Monday. He said Hizbullah is awaiting official word on details of the deal that was narrowly approved by the Israeli cabinet. Hizbullah's leader also made clear the group would reject any agreement that did not free all Lebanese, including Al-Qontar.
It was the latest setback to face German negotiators, who had been able to convince Israel to go ahead with the exchange despite it not including missing airman Ron Arad. His fighter jet was shot down over Lebanon in October 1986 and his whereabouts remain unknown. Hizbullah has denied holding him. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom held Iran responsible for his fate, despite Tehran's repeated denial of involvement.
Zvi Rish, an Israeli lawyer defending senior Lebanese Hizbullah officials Abdel-Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, told Israeli public radio that Arad was held in Iran. "Dirani took Ron Arad prisoner, then transferred him to the Beqa'a Valley where the Revolutionary Guards of Iran kidnapped him and took him to Iran," Rish claimed. Tehran had been holding Israel responsible for a group of Iranians who were kidnapped during the Civil War in Lebanon in 1982.
The Israeli lawyer lashed out at his government for excluding Al-Qontar from a possible swap. "This vote has taken us in the other direction. The prime minister has backed off from his original premise that all Lebanese will be freed," he told AFP. "Because of Al- Qontar, months of negotiations have been thrown away. I think it's the end. Most likely the Germans will try to salvage the deal, but each side has gone too far in the negotiations."
Upping the stakes, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz suggested that Nasrallah himself could be captured and used as a bargaining chip to win the release of Arad. His comments have only ratcheted up already boiling- point Lebanese-Israeli tensions.
Ahmed Ayash, a prominent Lebanese analyst, warned that the current complications reflect a lack of will to expeditiously seal the deal. "Adopting the case of Al- Qontar so late into the negotiations, from the Lebanese and Israeli sides, has put a question mark on whether they are ready to engage in an agreement," Ayash said.
He argued that Sharon faces major popular and government dissent over any deal, and that Hizbullah appears to have also walked a thin line by linking a deal to Al-Qontar, who was sentenced by Israel for an operation inside Israel prior to the Muslim Shi'ite group's declared goal of ousting occupation troops from southern Lebanon. Hizbullah, which spearheaded the armed campaign that resulted in Israel's withdrawal from the region in May 2000, had vowed not to back a swap accord which did not include all Lebanese.
"Could it be that the major regional players, Syria and Iran, now find it costly to hammer out an agreement, losing a card that can be played in the Arab-Israeli conflict?" Ayash asked. The Beirut writer stressed that publicising a spat over Al-Qontar meant "someone somewhere" wants the process blocked. It could end up as one of the many accounts that needs to be settled as part of a comprehensive peace agreement.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 13 - 19 November 2003 (Issue No. 664)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/664/re7.htm