Israel holds on to disputed land
2001-07-20 08:57
Chebaa farms - It's a tiny patch of scrubby hills dotted with a few ruined stone houses - a few square kilometres where three Israeli
soldiers have been killed and three others kidnapped in the year
since Israel pulled its troops out of south Lebanon.
Lebanon officials and Hezbollah guerrillas insist Israel should
have pulled back from Chebaa Farms, too. They have used that
argument to justify continued Hezbollah attacks on Israeli forces.
Israel withdrew behind a line drawn painstakingly by the United
Nations.
The disputed swath of uninhabited land sites on the difficult
intersection of Lebanon, Israel and Syria. Israel has spent heavily
to lay land mines and build new roads, fences and outposts there.
The only point everyone agrees on is that Chebaa Farms is not part
of Israel.
Israel insists it captured the corner of land from Syria along with
the Golan Heights in 1967. But Lebanese farmers in southern
villages say they used to live in the small stone houses there.
Beirut wants Israel to hand it over as part of last year's troop
withdraw from south Lebanon.
Israel says Lebanon's claims on the land are a pretext to keep the
longtime border conflict simmering, and warns that Lebanon's
patron, Syria, will be held responsible for any further attacks.
From the patch of high ground on Chebaa Farms, Israel can keep a
protective eye on the Jewish villages below on one side and peer
out over Syria on another.
Israeli troops can also watch out over Lebanon, where the
Iran-backed Hezbollah has followed Israel to the new line, manning
outposts in just a few metres from the Israeli side.
The region is growing more volatile.
"The fact that Hezbollah is acting now in southern Lebanon ... and
now that they have rockets that can arrive to the (Israeli coastal)
city of Haifa ... it's a fact that can be the lighter that can
light the fire of the whole northern part of the Middle East," said
Shuki Shachror, chief of Israel's northern command.
The general, with a shaved head, dark sunglasses hanging around his
neck and wearing green fatigues, charged that Syria allows
Hezbollah guerillas free rein in south Lebanon while preventing
Lebanese soldiers from restoring order.
On July 1, Israeli warplanes destroyed a Syrian radar installation
in Lebanon to punish Syria for Hezbollah guerrilla action.
"This is exactly what they (Hezbollah) are trying to do - to push
all of us, Lebanon, Syria, Israel into the same fire," he told
reporters Thursday in Safed, at Israel's main northern military
outpost.
Israel has stepped up patrols
Since three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped in October, Israeli
patrols are larger and use more advanced weapons, Shachror said.
Since it pulled out of Lebanon a year ago Israel has spent $286 million to reconstruct about half of the
140-kilometre border - laying land mines and building electronic fences topped
with coiled barbed wire - sometimes moving the fence just a few
metres south, an Israeli officer said. The army has also
built new roads and new outposts for military patrols.
In Chebaa Farms, the military just completed a road of sharp
switchbacks snaking up the hills to connect several army outposts,
watchtowers rising into the sky.
Even though the road on the Israeli side of the hill doesn't face
Lebanon, there are still dangers for the troops traveling in Chebaa
Farms. In the past two weeks mortars and anti-tank shells have
landed in the area.
Backing up the claim that Chebaa Farms is part of Syria, Shachror
showed reporters a magnified illustration of a 100 Lebanese Lira
note with an image of Lebanon, the country's southern tip separated
from Syria and what he said was Chebaa Farms by a small dotted
line.
The swath of land overlooks an Israeli agricultural valley, chopped
into squares of apple and pear orchards and brown and yellow fields
dotted with bales of hay.
In the middle is Kiryat Shemona, an Israeli town that was a
frequent target for Hezbollah Katushya rockets fired from Lebanon.
Now, it's a typical Jewish suburb of fast food joints, hitchhikers,
army barracks and red-tile roof condominiums.
Since the withdrawal last year in May no rockets have been fired
and no one has succeeded in crossing the border, said Mitch
Pilcer of the northern command, looking out over the hazy valley.
Still, Israel is on alert, Shachror insists. "We are preparing
ourselves not for what may happen but for the worst situation that
may happen," he said. - AP
- SAPA