Officials and residents of Christian-majority villages along the border in south Lebanon have rejected claims made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they requested annexation by Israel.
“Whatever he says, we've never asked anyone for protection,” said Joseph Attieh, mayor of the Christian border village of Debel. “We have the Lebanese state and we will stay Lebanese.”
Mr Netanyahu on Sunday claimed some Christian villages in the south had asked to be annexed so they would be protected from Hezbollah. “Christian villages in Lebanon, some of them have actually asked to be annexed to Israel, because we protect them against Hezbollah, Hezbollah fanatics who want to kill them, and we do the same things with Christians everywhere,” he told Fox News.
“Quite the opposite,” said Hana Daher, the mayor of Qlayaa, another Christian village on the border with Israel. “We've done everything they've requested of us so that they don't have an excuse to enter. We don't want the Israelis or Hezbollah,” he added. “Let them kill each other and leave us out of it.”
The Israeli army demanded the removal of “Hezbollah and anyone associated with Hezbollah” from the Christian border villages after invading southern Lebanon in March, strongly implying – and in some cases explicitly stating – that residents displaced from nearby communities could have ties to the group. Several village mayors told The National they felt they had little choice but to comply, expelling displaced families out of fear people affiliated with Hezbollah could be among them.
Officials in Rmeish, a largely Christian town, also rejected Mr Netanyahu's statement, while local authorities from more than a dozen villages described Mr Netanyahu's claim as “fabricated and not related to reality”.
“All we want is to live on our land, in our country,” Hassan Said, a local official in Rmeish, told The National. “It’s not even logical that we'd want to be annexed to Israel after working so hard to stay on our land to maintain a Lebanese presence in the south. Why would we ever trade our identities for another one? And we hope the residents from the villages around us will eventually be able to come back.”
Villages in south Lebanon where the majority of residents are not Shiite have largely been spared the destruction wrought in predominantly Shiite villages into which Israeli forces have advanced. However, they are effectively surrounded by Israeli troops, largely cut off from the rest of the country and facing shortages of basic supplies such as diesel, food and medicine, leaving them dependent on international aid convoys.
Fears of prolonged occupation
Lebanon and Israel agreed to a framework in late June aimed at disarming Hezbollah and restoring Lebanese state control over the south, ultimately leading to Israel's withdrawal. The framework sets no timetable for implementation and critics have dismissed it as too vague to be workable.
Despite several parallel diplomatic tracks to end the conflict, there is a growing fear that the Israeli occupation could persist and that the about 500,000 displaced people – predominantly Shiite Muslims – may not be permitted to return south.
Mr Netanyahu's indirect threat of annexation, which he projected on to Lebanon's Christian border communities, has added to that fear.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to carry out attacks against what it says are Hezbollah targets or “suspects” posing a threat to its troops.
An Israeli air strike near Nabatieh on Monday killed a schoolteacher, her mother, their migrant domestic worker and a Syrian worker, a member of Lebanon's Civil Defence told The National.
The three women had taken the Syrian worker to inspect their home in Nabatieh Al Fawqa, where no Israeli forces are present, when a sound bomb was set off nearby, prompting them to flee, Civil Defence member Saad Faran said.
“Then they [the Israeli army] chased them down and struck them in Nabatieh, in the middle of the town, basically,” he said.
He warned people not to come to check on homes on the outskirts of Nabatieh, where, even if some areas are not under Israeli occupation, they are in the immediate line of fire.
Israeli army chief Gen Eyal Zamir visited forces stationed near Beaufort Castle, a few kilometres from Nabatieh, on Sunday as Mr Netanyahu, in a separate speech at a state ceremony, reiterated that Israeli troops would stay in south Lebanon for “as long as necessary”.
The Lebanese army – underfunded, underequipped and rendered impotent by circumstances beyond its control – is unable to defend itself or the civilians who have chosen to stay in their home villages. It withdrew from positions near the southern communities in April.
Israel occupied an area covering about 7 per cent of southern Lebanon and began razing many border villages in what it described as a “security zone” to protect communities in northern Israel. The demolitions continue almost daily.
Although largely left alone, some Christian villages have faced Israeli attacks and forced displacement orders – with the village of Alma Al Chaab completely depopulated.
“Our nation is a red line,” said Mr Said, the local official in Rmeish. “We're Lebanese. That's it.”
