Disputed Land: Chebaa Farms

Disputed Land: Chebaa Farms

 

Introduction

 

Government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel was interested in "direct, bilateral" talks and ready to put "every issue of contention" on the table, including the dispute over the Chebaa Farms enclave. A U.N.-drawn border calls the 15-square-mile parcel of wasteland part of Syria under Israeli occupation, but Hezbollah insists it belongs to Lebanon and has used it to explain its continuing attacks on Israel.

 

U.S. pressure may be behind the Israeli move. On Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced U.S. backing for a new diplomatic push to resolve the Chebaa Farms land dispute in a gesture to the new Lebanese government, and as a catalyst for solving bigger issues in the region.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080619/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians_48

 

What and where is Chebaa Farms?  Who is disputing the ownership of this currently occupied territory and why?  What is the history of this piece of land?  Why does so much controversy surround it?

 

Silly Factoid

 

Please compare:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Shebaa_Farms.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:National-atlas-delaware.png

 

I bet that you did not know that piece of land known as Chebaa Farms looks very much like the US state of Delaware if you rotate it counter-clockwise 45 degrees and reverse it!  That is very interesting information much like other factoids of little to no significance.

 

Facts about Chebaa Farms

 

The Shebaa Farms is a small area of land with disputed ownership located on the border between Lebanon and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights.

 

A U.N.-drawn border calls the 15-square-mile (40-square-kilometer) parcel of wasteland part of Syria under Israeli occupation, but Hezbollah insists it belongs to Lebanon and has used it to explain its continuing attacks on Israel.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chebaa_Farms

 

At this time, there appears to be a possible three way dispute as to the ownership of Chebaa Farms in a peace treaty between Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. 

 

In 2000, Lebanon disputed Israel's compliance with Resolution 425 (1978). Lebanon claimed that the Shebaa Farms area was actually Lebanese, and demanded that the Israelis should therefore withdraw from there as well. Lebanon asserted that the UN certification of the Israeli withdrawal was "invalid," because of Lebanon's claim to the Farms.

 

Lebanese officials point to land deeds, stamped by the Lebanese government, that were held by a number of area residents in the 1940s and 1950s.

 

The Lebanese claim to this area is asserted by Hezbollah for its continuing conflict with Israel, and its cross-border attacks after the Israeli withdrawal. Senior Lebanese officials also linked the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Shebaa to Hezbollah’s disarmament. "If the U.S. and friendly countries help us achieve the withdrawal of Israel from Shebaa farms, this would make it possible for the Lebanese forces to be the sole owner of weapons and arms in the country," Lebanese Prime Minister Foaud Seniora said. Those comments were echoed by Lebanese President Émile Lahoud who said that "the resistance should be kept until a just and comprehensive peace is achieved in the region", adding that "if the Lebanese army were deployed along the borders (with Israel) ... it would be turned into a police force to protect Israel's borders, and this is not acceptable."

 

Lebanese politician Walid Jumblatt has stated that Lebanon has no valid claim to the Shebaa farms area, though both the prime minister and president acknowledge that Lebanon does indeed have a claim to the Shebaa farms area.

 

Maps published on the Lebanese army website show different versions of the Lebanese southern border. While the Shebaa Farms themselves are not marked on the maps, it is evident from one map that the border runs north of the Shebaa Farms, while another map marks the border south of the Farms.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chebaa_Farms#Lebanon.27s_position

 

Syria has at times supported Lebanon's claim that the Shebaa Farms are part of Lebanon and not Syrian territory at the UN and in official government press releases. But at other times it has made contrary statements.

 

In August 1972, Syrian president Hafez al-Assad said, "Syria and Lebanon are a single country." Syria does not maintain an embassy in Beirut, which would indicate recognition of Lebanese independence. Similarly, a professor of political science, Daniel Pipes (Editor of Middle East Quarterly), and others have written about Syria's failure to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon. In addition, Lebanon does not appear as an independent state in maps in Syrian textbooks, but rather as part of Greater Syria.

 

The Shebaa Farms also appear as part of Syria on the large-scale map on the Syrian Ministry of Tourism's website.

 

In 2002 Israeli officials noted that Syria treated the area as its own over the years. They pointed to the fact, for example, that a Syrian census in 1960 included the residents of the Farms.

 

On May 16, 2000, the Syrian Foreign Minister, Farouq al-Shara, indicated to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a telephone conversation that Syria supported Lebanon's claim. This was made public in the UN Press Release SC/6878 of 18 June 2000 which stated "Concerning the Shab'a farmlands, both Lebanon and Syria state that this land belongs to Lebanon."

 

Support for the Lebanese claim was reiterated in January 21, 2006, by the President of Syria in a speech before the convention of the Arab Lawyers Union in Damascus and translated into English by SANA, the official state news agency of Syria. President Bashar al-Assad stated that there are two legal requirements for demarcating the border: first, the complaint must be registered with the UN; and second, engineers must precisely define the border. As neither Syria nor Lebanon have access to the area, Assad argues that resolution is waiting on Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territory.

 

In an interview with Assad reported by SANA on August 24, 2006, Assad flatly refused demarcation of the Syrian/Lebanese border near Shebaa Farms before a withdrawal of Israeli troops.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chebaa_Farms#Syrian_position

 

To me, that looks like a part of the Golan Heights and traditionally part of Syria, but looks can be deceiving.  Plus, the UN usually appears to get their facts right.  My assertion is merely an educated guess based upon the way that it is shaped and The Golan Heights are shaped!  I must say that from a personal sense of aesthetic, I like the Chebaa Farms going to Syria! 

 

The Shebaa Farms area has been depopulated since 1967 and includes heights overlooking parts of southern Lebanon and Israel to the west.

 

The only overland route between Lebanon and Syria south of the Mount Hermon ridge runs between these two lines.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chebaa_Farms

 

Clearly, this tract of land could become a semi-vital trade route in a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East following the development of a regional plan and the acceptance of a Palestinian peace treaty.  Unfortunately, Bush has been unable to pull together either of these despite the efforts of countless other people with considerably lower levels of resources to devote to these causes.