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Israel preparing to hand northern Ghajar over to UN
[Haaretz Defense] Israel is prepared to hand the northern section of a divided village on the Lebanon border over to United Nations forces, in order to complete its withdrawal from the country as outlined in Resolution 1701. Foreign Ministry Director-General Yossi Gal has been holding consultations with representatives of the United Nations Force in Lebanon, to ensure that the peacekeeping force is prepared to take on security of Ghajar. Residents of the divided village are wary of the withdrawal. Earlier this month, the village staged an all-day demonstration to protest the division in the wake of ongoing international efforts to secure the Israel Defense Forces pullout. About 500 residents of Ghajar gathered in the town's square then marched toward the street where United Nations peacekepping troops are stationed, handing them a letter calling on UN chief Ban Ki-moon to end Ghajar's division. The secretary for the town's council, Hussein Khatib, also read a statement in which he stressed that Ghajar was Syrian. "Ghajar is Syrian, it's people are Syrian and its land is Syrian," Khatib said. The statement said Ghajar residents reject an Israeli decision to withdraw from the northern part of the town, adding that the town's division was "just like separating the son from his father or the daughter from her mother." Like the 18,000 Druze in the Golan Heights, Ghajar residents were Syrians when Israel occupied the region. But unlike the Druze, the villagers - who are members of the Alawite Islamic minority - accepted Israeli nationality when the Golan was annexed in 1981. Over the years, the village expanded northward. In 2000, when the UN demarcated the border, Ghajar's northern half came under Lebanese control and the other half remained Israeli territory. Israel retook the Lebanese part in its 2006 war against Hezbollah militants, and has since built a security fence to prevent militants from entering the enclave. Posted by: Fred 2009-12-28 |
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