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Residents of Israeli-occupied Lebanon Prepare for the Inevitable
MEIB Staff
In the aftermath of the Israeli cabinet's unanimous decision to withdraw IDF forces from south Lebanon by July 2000, members of the Israeli-aligned South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia and other residents of the security zone are beginning to prepare for the inevitable. Prior to the beginning of this month, SLA officials had been conspicuously reluctant to display any concern the future. An Israeli newspaper reported as recently as February 28 that "unlike the IDF, which is making intensive preparations for the withdrawal, the SLA is making none."1
Senior SLA officials officially insist that they have no plans to leave south Lebanon after the Israeli departure and are ready to fight to defend their autonomy from Syria. "We have carried arms for 25 years, and we are ready to do it for the next 100 years to prevent foreigners from entering our land," said Colonel Nabil Abu Rafeh, the commander of the eastern sector of the security zone, addressing a crowd of 1,500 people in the town of Dibl earlier this month. ""If the Lebanese state wants to come into the border zone, we welcome it, but it has to prove its capability to control the situation in the region and to apologize for its attitude toward us."2
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| Druze residents of the security zone carrying the coffins of 3 SLA soldiers recently killed by Hezbollah |
In reality, however, few SLA members are seriously giving thought to staying in the security zone after Israel leaves. According to sources close to SLA Commander Antoine Lahad, SLA officials have recently begun compiling a list of senior military and security officers and their families who wish to leave Lebanon when Israeli forces withdraw from the security zone later this year. The list will be submitted to the French government, which has agreed to approve up to 1,500 applications for political asylum.3 There have also been reports that up to 1,000 members of the SLA will be settled in the Turkish sector of Cyprus. Rauf Denktash, the president of Turkish Cyporus, will reportedly be paid $25 million in compensation.4
Although the Israeli government is officially opposed to the resettlement of SLA members and their families in Israel, some residents of the security zone will probably be permitted to move there as well. A group of employers from the Bet Hillel area in northern Israel have submitted a request to the Israeli government for the resettlement of 90 residents of south Lebanon in Metulla. Representatives of the effort contacted the Israeli government earlier this month, claiming that their conscience does not permit them to abandon their employees, who have been working in Israel for several years despite the dangers of doing so.5
Such arrangements may be inadequate to accommodate the number of people desiring to leave the security zone. Several thousand residents of the zone--SLA soldiers as well as many who have worked in Israel--have already been sentenced to prison in absentia by Lebanese courts and thus have little faith in the Lebanese justice system. Those who can afford it are shelling out up to $3,000 for fake passports and visas (since the Lebanese government refuses to provide them with real ones) in order to flee abroad to destinations such as the US, Canada and various European countries.
Nearly all of the 203 SLA militiamen who surrendered to the Lebanese government after the SLA withdrawal from Jezzine last year were put on trial and sentenced to relatively short prison terms, ranging from a few months to a few years. However, Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad said earlier this month that SLA members will no longer receive lenient treatment in return for surrendering prior to an Israeli withdrawal. "For over two years we have been telling them to defect. If they decide to defect only now [after the Israeli cabinet's unanimous decision to withdraw by July], then they never took us seriously," Raad told the Daily Star.6 A few days later Hezbollah officials backed down from this statement, suggesting that SLA members who surrender within the next month can still receive reduced sentences. At least fifteen members of the SLA reportedly resigned from their posts, apparently in response to this offer. 7
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah recently warned France and other countries to reject asylum requests from SLA members. "Any country that grants these collaborators political asylum will be in the position of aggression on Lebanon," he said.8
Meanwhile, the estimated 125,000 civilian residents of the security zone have already begun cutting ties with Israel in order to avoid being targeted in the hunt for "collaborators" widely expected to take place once pro-Syrian Lebanese government and paramilitary forces take control of the area. A clear sign of this trend is the sharp reduction in the amount of Israeli goods being purchased in south Lebanon. Israeli sources report that residents of the zone are avoiding contact with Israeli officials. At the same time, there has been a "sharp increase" in contacts between residents of the security zone and pro-Syrian sources in Lebanon.9
SLA officials remain cautiously hopeful that Israel will at the very least obtain a pledge from Syria to ensure the safety of the south Lebanese people. A full-fledged Israeli-Syrian peace treaty, it is hoped, will provide for a blanket amnesty to all but the most senior SLA officials. However, Syrian officials reportedly rejected such an amnesty during the Shepherdstown talks earlier this year." Even if such concessions can be obtained on paper, it is feared that some members of Hezbollah will ignore the orders of their superiors and seek revenge. In any case, Israel's unwillingness to specify how exactly it will protect the residents of the security zone from Hezbollah reprisals or mass detentions by Syrian and Lebanese security forces has many doubting whether a negotiated settlement will provide adequate protection. "They tell us that there is nothing to worry about," said SLA spokesman Raymond Abu Mrad earlier this month." But without an agreement it will be very bad for us, Lebanon, and the region. We shall never let Hezbollah come here."
1 Ha'aretz, 28 February 2000.
2 "Israel's militia ally ready to bear arms for 100 years," Agence France Presse, 12 March 2000.
3 Al-Nahar, 4 March 2000.
4 IRNA news agency (Teheran), 25 February 2000.
5 IsraelWire, 19 March 2000.
6 "Tardy SLA defectors will be cut no slack," The Daily Star (Beirut), 11 March 2000.
7 Al-Safir, 15 March 2000.
8 Radio of Islam--Voice of the Oppressed, Ba'lbak, 10 Mar 2000.
9 "Security zone residents beginning to end ties with Israel," IsraelWire, 29 February 2000.
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