ISRAEL: Villagers in divided village on Lebanese border protest partial evacuation proposal.

Record ID: 398499

  • Title: ISRAEL: Villagers in divided village on Lebanese border protest partial evacuation proposal.
  • Date: 4th January 2006
  • Summary: CLOSE OF SIGN READING, 'NOBODY WILL EXPEL US FROM OUR HOUSE ONLY DEATH WOULD' / MORE OF DEMONSTRATION
  • Embargoed: 19th January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAA9CWZN2WD16WW5Q6WSC88FWUU
  • Story Text: Residents of a village that straddles the tense Israel-Lebanon border protested on Tuesday (January 3) against a proposal to evacuate parts of the village, a regular flashpoint between Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli soldiers.
    Israeli officials said Israel's internal security agency has recommended evacuating the northern part of the divided village of Ghajar which is located inside Lebanon.
    Several thousand Arabs in the village -- many of whom have taken Israeli citizenship -- took to the streets to express their objection to the plan.
    "We're not leaving our houses, even if you are demolishing our house over our heads, children, women and men. We are going to stay here. We are not leaving our houses, we've been living here for 37 years," one resident of the village said.
    But a source in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said the proposal was unlikely to be adopted after a discussion to be held on Wednesday (January 4) because of opposition from the Defence Ministry, which believes it would look like withdrawing under fire.
    Israeli media said residents were also opposed.
    The southern part of Ghajar lies on Israeli-occupied land that was captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. The north is inside Lebanon.
    Officials said that the Shin Bet security agency proposed bringing residents with Israeli citizenship to the southern part of the village and then cutting Ghajar in two permanently.
    Ghajar is a particular point for friction on a border where violence has erupted sporadically since Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000 to end more than two decades of occupation.
    The latest clashes in Ghajar were in November. Three Hizbollah guerrillas were killed in a botched raid aimed at capturing Israeli troops. Eleven Israeli soldiers were wounded in the fighting.
    The officials said the proposal for evacuation was floated over a year ago, but gathered momentum after the attack.
    A report on Channel Two television said that the plan proposed that residents who had to move would get compensation similar to that which Jewish settlers were entitled to after being removed from the Gaza Strip last year.
    But the source in Sharon's office said that the Defence Ministry rejected anything that could be seen as a concession to Hizbollah and favoured shoring up positions in Ghajar as a way to prevent further attacks.
    Further complicating the issue is the fact that many residents don't want to be a part of Israel or Lebanon but would prefer to be ruled from Damascus.
    "This is a Syrian village and nothing connects us to Lebanon. We will never be a part of Lebanon. The government of Israel is offering us compensation money and we refuse to take it. We don't have any problem if they want to move us under Lebanese control with all our lands which were occupied in 1967, some 3,000 acres. Temporary we will go to Lebanon, later we will leave for Syria. But they want us to leave our houses and to move to the south of the village. This is impossible. We will do it only with our dead bodies," said one resident.

    ENDS.
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