Israel Matzav

Arabs who would rather live among Jews

The small village of Ghajar sits on Israel's northeastern border, in the same area as Mount Dov (Shaba Farms). You will recall that Mount Dov was liberated from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, and is now claimed by Hezbullah for Lebanon in a dispute that Syria refuses to resolve in a bid to keep the pot between Israel and Hezbullah boiling.

When Israel unilaterally withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, the UN decreed that the 'blue line,' the international border between Lebanon, Syria and Israel (see map below) runs right through the town of Ghajar, with the northern half being part of Lebanon and the southern half being part of Syria that was 'occupied' by Israel. Despite the fact that Ghajar's inhabitants had willingly taken on Israeli citizenship when Israel formally annexed the Golan in 1981, Israel reluctantly withdrew to the Blue Line and cut the town in half (a situation that is similar to the situation in Rafah on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip since Israel turned the Sinai over to Egypt in 1982).

Surprise, surprise, northern Ghajar became a no-man's land for all kinds of drug and arms dealers going between Israel and Lebanon, and so when Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon after the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, at the town's request, Israel retained an IDF presence in Ghajar, and built a 'security fence' between the northern part of the town and Lebanon.

In the spring, Israel came under renewed pressure to withdraw from northern Ghajar, and it even considered withdrawing from the entire town so as not to cut it in half again. But it decided to wait it out because it did not want to turn the town over to Lebanon in the event that Hezbullah won the elections. Hezbullah lost the elections (although it may still be part of the government thanks to Obama administration obfuscation) and now Israel is once again being pressed to withdraw from the northern part of the town.

On Tuesday, a delegation from the town, including the town's Mukhtar, showed up at the Knesset. Guess what: They don't want the Israelis to leave. Here's why.

"We did not want to be refugees in Israel, and thus we took upon ourselves Israeli citizenship under the Golan Law, and we are not willing to become refugees in Lebanon and have Hizbullah massacre us," said the village's mukhtar, Suleiman Muhammad Abu Hassan el-Khatib.

"We were born Syrians, and some of us served in the Syrian army, and after the war, when the Golan Law was passed, we accepted it and became faithful citizens of the state," he went on. "The division of the village of Ghajar is a death penalty for us, and is equivalent to taking us out to be killed in the town square."

[Deputy Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee Ayoub] Kara [yes, an Arab deputy minister and from the Likud to boot - some racists we are. CiJ] said Ghajar's leaders had requested that he set up meetings with Netanyahu, Lieberman and US Ambassador to Israel James Cunningham to convince them to allow the village to remain in Israeli territory.

The deputy minister added that he intended to demand an urgent meeting with Cunningham, preferably to be held in Ghajar itself so the ambassador could see for himself the problems facing the village's citizens.

On Monday, Kara warned that should the village be handed over to Lebanon, Hizbullah would, he believed, take revenge on its inhabitants for their willingness to live in Israel.

And this, of course, is why there is an immediate, urgent moral need for a 'Palestinian' state reichlet to solve all the problems in the Middle East, eh Barack?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:42 AM