Civilians Summarily Expelled from Israeli-Occupied South Lebanon
Israeli Authorities Responsible, Says Rights Group
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, Press Release, July 1999
"South Lebanon is not just a security zone, it's an occupied territory where innocent civilians also live," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, "The abuse of those civilians has got to stop."
EMBARGOED FOR JULY 29, 1999 PAPERS (July 28, Jerusalem
and Beirut) -- For more than a decade, Israel and its
auxiliary Lebanese militia have been expelling innocent civilians
from their homes and villages in south Lebanon, Human Rights Watch
said today.
"South Lebanon is not just a security zone, it's an occupied
territory where innocent civilians also live," said Kenneth Roth,
executive director of Human Rights Watch, "The abuse of those
civilians has got to stop."
In a 56-page
report released simultaneously in Jerusalem and Beirut, Human
Rights Watch said that entire families have been expelled from the
occupied zone in a summary and often cruel manner, without due
process of law. The victims, who have included elderly men and women
as well as children, have been forced to leave their homes and
villages without any advance notice and were generally not permitted
to bring any personal possessions with them.
Human Rights Watch said that this practice has been in effect at
least since 1985, and that the number of expulsions increased
dramatically in 1998 and 1999. "South Lebanon is not just a security
zone, it's an occupied territory where innocent civilians also
live," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch,
"The abuse of those civilians has got to stop."
Human Rights Watch said that hundreds, if not more, have been
expelled since 1985, but the exact number is unknown because no one
over the years, including the Lebanese government, has maintained
comprehensive statistics. At least 46 Lebanese who were expelled in
1998 reported their cases to local offices of the International
Committee of the Red Cross. The US State Department, in sharp
contrast, reported that only 12 Lebanese were expelled in 1998 --
five women, four children, and three men.
Most Lebanese have been expelled as punishment for suspected
activities of their relatives. Those activities may include attacks
on Israeli troops in the occupied zone, membership in Hizballah and
other Lebanese groups that have military wings, and refusal to serve
in the South Lebanon Army (SLA), Israel's auxiliary militia in the
zone.
The expulsions are carried out in secrecy. Families are typically
bundled into unmarked civilian cars and taken to a local SLA
security office, where they are informed that they are being
expelled. They are not permitted to return home and gather personal
belongings, but are promptly transported to a crossing point at the
edge of the occupied zone and deposited into the no man's land,
where they must walk to the first Lebanese army checkpoint.
Israel has always denied responsibility for the actions of the SLA,
although it admits to funding, arming, and coordinating
intelligence-gathering with the militia. But as the occupying power
in its self-described "security zone" in south Lebanon, Israel bears
ultimate responsiblity for both its own actions and those of its
proxy militia.
Deportations and forcible transfers of civilian residents in
occupied territory are categorically prohibited by the Geneva
Conventions.
Human Rights Watch called on the U.S. and the member states of the
European Union to publicly condemn the expulsions, and to press
Israel to allow the expelled Lebanese civilians to return to their
homes and recover their property under safe conditions, free of any
form of coercion or initimidation from occupation security
authorities.
Roth said that Human Rights Watch had urged President Clinton and
other senior administration officials to discuss the expulsions with
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during his July 15-20 visit to the
US.
"Ehud Barak says he wants to make peace with Israel's neighbors,"
said Roth. "But violating the rights of civilians in South Lebanon
is not a very good way to make peace."
Human Rights Watch also called upon the government of Lebanon to
maintain complete and detailed files about expulsions of families
and individuals from the occupied zone, and make such information
available to the international community.
------- Khowlah Daleh, 64, and her husband, Ibrahim Hashem, 57, were
expelled from the village of Sheba', in the northeastern section of
the occupied zone, in May 1998. They returned home from a visit to
Beirut and found a senior South Lebanon Army (SLA) security official
waiting for them. He ordered them to report to a nearby SLA security
office the next day, which they did. SLA security operatives
questioned them for an hour about the activities of their adult
children who lived in Beirut, and then put them in a car, drove them
to the Zumrayya crossing point, and summarily expelled them from the
occupied zone. Mr. Hasem told Human Rights Watch that his request to
stop at their house and gather some clothing was refused.
The Hashem family lost their home and all its contents, as well as
about U.S. $6,000 in annual income from their orchards of cherries,
walnuts, and pomegrantes. "We invested all of our money in our house
and land," Knowlah told Human Rights Watch. "I cry myself to sleep
every night since this happened."
At 6:00 in the morning on September 17, 1996, soldiers of the South
Lebanon Army (SLA) surrounded the home of the Abdullah family, in
the village of Houla in Israeli-occupied south Lebanon. One soldier
told the family that they had to report immediately to a nearby SLA
post. Mr. Abdullah, 67, his wife Khadija, 57, and their two
daughters were transported there in an unmarked civilian car. "No
one talked to us for two hours," Khadija told Human Rights Watch. "I
thought they were sending us to prison."
Finally, two SLA militiamen told the family that they were being
expelled from the occupied zone. They denied Khadija's request to
return to her house and gather some possessions. The family was
placed in another unmarked car, driven to the Beit Yahoun crossing
point, and expelled from the zone.
Why were they targeted and punished? A week before the expulsion,
Khadija's 19-year-old son Ali, who had been forcibly conscripted
into the SLA earlier that year, had deserted the militia. This
family of farmers lost their house and all its contents, as well as
three cows, 60 chickens, and income from wheat, lentils, fava beans,
vegetables, milk and eggs. They now live in Sidon.
