http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=65529&mador=4&datee=01/09/00
Sunday, January 9, 2000
An occupation by any other name
By Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz
Just now, when Israel seems to have one foot
already outside Lebanon, we must stop and ask
ourselves just how it happened. How was it that
the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon - a
cruel occupation, not much less so than the
Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories
- lasted 20 years with nary a voice of protest in
Israel concerning its moral aspects? Two hundred
thousand people (today fewer than half are left)
lived there under conditions of occupation and we
did not care.Since the Litani Campaign up to the
present, there have been significant waves of
protest in Israeli society over the "Israeli
presence" in Lebanon - no one ever called it
occupation - but the protest always focused
exclusively on the blood of Israeli soldiers
spilled there in vain. Four Mothers, or Three
Fathers, or whoever - only the lives of Israeli
soldiers came up for discussion.
Nothing could have been more important than those
soldiers' lives, but it should not have been the
only consideration against Israel remaining in
Lebanon. The Israeli occupation of the territories
was also perceived once as something that could be
lived with, forever and forever, without any moral
qualms. Israel boasted then of the rise in the
standard of living in the territories - more
tractors and universities - as if this reflected
the blessings that occupation brought to the
residents of the territories. Many years of
occupation and one Intifada had to go by before
Israel began to understand that there was
something morally distorted going on in the
occupied territories in its own backyard.
None of this happened in southern Lebanon. Out of
sight and out of mind, the injustices of the
Israeli occupation of Lebanon interest almost no
one. The inaccessibility of the area to the
Israeli press and human rights organizations has
created a situation in which the security
establishment has become the almost-exclusive
provider of information about what is happening in
the northern occupied area of the country,
alongside the Lebanese and international reports,
which are automatically perceived as hostile.
That is why the occupied territory is not seen as
such by the public - after all, it is only a
"security zone." The lives, freedom and basic
rights of the 200,000 people living there do not
concern anyone in Israel. Here, too, it can be
said that Israelis believed they had come to a
land without a people. In the eyes of the average
Israeli, southern Lebanon is peopled only by
bloodthirsty Shi'ite terrorists, who deserve to be
punished, and by the white-hatted soldiers of the
IDF and SLA, who only want to safeguard the
security of Israel.
Without the High Court of Justice and the B'Tselem
human rights organization, those soldiers can do
almost anything they like there in the name of the
security of Israel's northern settlements.
Deportations, arrests without trial, torture,
restrictions on movement, the use of prohibited
weapons - up there anything goes. The security of
the Galilee, you know. And what about the security
of the residents of southern Lebanon? That
question is never asked.
Recently, however, the High Court of Justice and
B'Tselem have awakened from their slumber. The
High Court of Justice recently handed down
decisions in the matter of the "bargaining chips"
- the abducted Lebanese citizens held in Israeli
prisons - and now, perhaps too late, B'Tselem has
published its first report on the occupation of
southern Lebanon. After 10 years of activity in
the territories, the importance and influence of
which cannot be overstated, and after having
created a name for itself as a reliable source
whose publications cannot be ignored - not even by
the security establishment - B'Tselem has decided,
despite the objective difficulties involved, to
try to shed a little light on this dark corner of
Israel too.
The result - a 66-page document, published by
B'Tselem today, telling us things we knew but took
no interest in, together with things we did not
know about the deeds of Israel and its lackeys in
the "security zone."
Roadside bombs? Those are the weapons of
terrorists, right? But according to the report,
Israel also planted its own roadside bombs, often
at the entrances of homes of innocent citizens. In
1997 alone, at least seven Lebanese citizens were
killed and six injured this way. In December 1998,
a 13-year-old Lebanese boy was killed in this way.
Israel has signed a convention forbidding the use
of explosive charges in areas populated by
civilians, but who cares? The laws of war also
prohibit the use of phosphorus against civilians.
But according to the report, at least two children
and a number of adults have been killed or injured
by phosphorus bombs sent by Israel.
Then there are the shells that go off in the air,
sending tens of thousands of steel nails in all
directions - these, too, are part of Israel's
arsenal, according to B'Tselem. The report
presents shocking testimonies of torture in the
Al-Hiyyam prison and the arbitrary deportation of
hundreds of people to the north; of extended
arrests without trial; of cruel means used to
recruit collaborators; of closures and home
demolitions, roadblocks and travel passes.
Occupation is occupation, even if you call it a
"security zone."
Of the 200,000 people in southern Lebanon, fewer
than half remain. They apparently had nowhere else
to go. They also have the right to security and
basic human rights, but they are not Jews living
in the Galilee. They are only Arabs living in
southern Lebanon
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