they called them terrorists during the south lebanon occupation
J O S É E
L A M B E R T
They Called Them Terrorists during the south lebanon occupation
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They Called Them Terrorists during the south lebanon ocupation
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Les Éditions Sémaphore 3962, Henri-Julien Avenue Montreal (Quebec) h2w 2k2 514 281-1594
[email protected] www.editionssemaphore.qc.ca isbn : 978-2-923107-01-2 (papier) trilingual publication isbn : 978-2-923107-88-2 (pdf)- english isbn : 978-2-923107-89-9 (epub)- english © Les Éditions Sémaphore and Josée Lambert, 2004 Legal Deposit: BAnQ and BAC, 2004 Diffusion Dimedia www.dimedia.com/ Distribution du Nouveau-Monde www.librairieduquebec.fr/ Electronic publishing: Jean Yves Collette, Anne-Marie Arel
[email protected]
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they called them terrorists during the south lebanon occupation
J O S É E
L A M B E R T
They Called Them Terrorists during the south lebanon ocupation
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. In 1995, I discovered South Lebanon: an isolated, relatively unknown area in the midst of complex regional tensions. I could never have grasped the situation and worked there without the help and hospitality of the following families: the Mansouris, the Cheikh Husseins and the Akhrass-Mourads in Montreal and Aitaroun, the Dahers in Brossard and Nabatiyeh and the AkhdarFahs in Montreal and Jibchit. I would also like to thank Sayed Nabil Abbas, Cheikh Ali Sbeiti, Marie Debs, Souha Bechara, Hussein Hoballah, Linda Matar, Youssef Nadaira, Mohammed Yassine, Najat and Hassan El Achkar, Nahla Chahal and the members of Lebanese associations here and in Lebanon. Without them, this book would not have been possible. The ex-detainees and their families welcomed me warmly and gave me the opportunity to record their stories. I am deeply grateful to them for it often took great courage to look back at such a painful time. For support, research and documentation, I would like to acknowledge the Follow-up Committee for the Support of Lebanese Detainees in Israeli Prisons, particularly Secretary General Mohammed Safa, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem. Over the years, my close friends have been very generous, patient and understanding. I am indebted to them all, especially, Nathalie Vaillancourt, Andrée Jobin, Marie-Claude and Mohammed
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Fleyfel, Christiane Lacombe, Raynald Adams, Ange Fournier, Isabelle Bleau, Benoit Melançon, Paul Aubé, Nadine Ltaif, Denis Marcotte, Raymond Legault, François Lavallée, Alice Bergeron and Eugène Dufresne. This book is the result of teamwork and I would like to express my gratitude to everyone involved and, in particular, to Lise Demers who had the delicate task of orchestrating it all. As well, I would like to sincerely thank my friends and the friends of Éditions Sémaphore who participated in the fundraising activities. Lastly, I cannot remain silent about the support I received from my family: they understood why I needed to devote so much time to families on another continent. For this show of solidarity, I dedicate this book to them.
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PREFACE. When I was invited to write this preface, several questions came to mind. How shall I treat the subject? Can I keep my distance, being so closely involved with everything this book is about? The subject concerns me, I greatly respect the people, the scenes are familiar and the author, Josée Lambert, is a good friend. Should I approach the book as a tribute to South Lebanese resistance or as a way to honour resistance in general? Do I speak about the book’s contents or do I express my opinion about the author and her commitment to defending human rights? Should I introduce her as an artist and writer, or would it not be better to describe her as a politically engaged human being? I must admit it is not easy to answer these questions. Although I may find it difficult to dissociate the author from her work and life, it is impossible to distance myself from the contents, events, people and Josée. I have formed a deep and lasting friendship with her during this struggle on various fronts, here and abroad. First and foremost, I would like to say that Josée Lambert travelled to this part of the world numerous times and spent many intense moments there. She is concerned about her subject: she fell in love with South Lebanon, the generous, unassuming people and the enchanting landscape. Through her activities here and in Lebanon, she has been deeply involved in the events, seriously implicated in the melee and, at the same time, extremely determined to not miss a detail or let a nuance slip by, large or small.
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Josée has always had good judgment, even when danger puts her in an awkward situation. She experienced the power abuse of the militia occupying South Lebanon when she tried to cross one of their check-points. Considering the difficulties of entering South Lebanon at that time, being a politically engaged artist was a great advantage. Most artists would never have run such risks to take pictures. And a writer distanced from the Lebanese people’s struggle could never tell such absorbing accounts of their life. Josée’s commitment helped to open doors for her, for her writing and her photography. Moreover, how can one photograph an atrocity or an injustice and not take a stance ? How can one not tremble when men, women and children with terrible stories about their humiliating life are suddenly one’s focus? Is it possible or even imaginable that a perceptive, concerned artist who is in tune with what is going on does not express it with sensitivity in her work? Josée Lambert does not create detachment between her and her subjects—the instinctive mental protection professional photographers use to distance themselves from tragedy and grief. She wanted and I would say even endeavoured to lift the veils and remove the obstacles that separated her from them. She certainly does not make her photographs a mirror image, a ref lection without adding her two cents. For Josée, photography is a “crusade” for justice, to use an American term. Her subjects fascinated her and their human condition greatly preoccupied her. She passionately wanted to show the reality of these men, women and children who had lived through terrible atrocities. Her captivating photographs clearly reveal her state of mind and the touching stories accompanying them fully relate her feelings.
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This book recounts a period of South Lebanon’s history, exposing the pain, misfortune and humiliation but also, at times, the grandeur and joy of its inhabitants during the twenty-two year occupation. There are photographs of the men, women and children who were detained and tortured in prisons and detention centres run by the South Lebanon Army (SLA) , an army in the hire of Israel during the years they occupied part of South Lebanon. In this dark period of Lebanese history, people’s rights were non-existent while the everpresent SLA militia, heavily equipped, generously financed and fully supported by the Israeli government, was carefully trained to commit violent acts against the civilian population. Women were raped, men tortured, children terrorized, villages emptied and homes razed to the ground. Josée Lambert has worked patiently for more than ten years to collect these fragments of history. She has met thousands of people, got to know hundreds of individuals and photographed and questioned dozens of them, all very different one from the other. This work is a portrait of a place and a people that are dear to me and are in my thoughts, a country that haunts me. It is a moving tribute to a people’s struggle for dignity, and a lucid account of the human rights violations committed by mercenary soldiers. Josée Lambert celebrates life, fragile and difficult as it is. In her theatre piece, photographs and accompanying captions, she is not content to just show people, paint a picture and tell stories, she also creates a link between their universe and ours, life here and there. Josée gives us a portrait devoid of any sentimentality, very evocatively presenting the country, the dreams, the family and the friends that helped these people endure atrocities and continue to live. Ali Daher, ph.d. sociology
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INTRODUCTION. On May 25, 2000, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) left Lebanese territory unconditionally, having occupied South Lebanon for twenty-two years. During the summer of 2000, on my last trip to South Lebanon, I was amazed to see so many people strolling around so late at night in villages where electricity rationing very likely meant there was nothing to see. These nocturnal walks, no doubt, were the first impetus of a society longing to be reborn, to reappear. On these hot evenings, voices and laughter seemed to express a single thought: we are free! The history of Israel’s occupation of South Lebanon is exemplary, and its comprehension essential for understanding the complex situation in the Middle East.
An Overview of the South Lebanon Occupation. Lebanon’s present boundaries were drawn in 1920 when the League of Nations 1 set it up as a French mandate. The country became a republic in 1926 and gained independence in 1943. For thousands of years, South Lebanon has been located in a chain of hills called Jabal Aamel, which encompasses the Lebanese-Palestinian border. Until the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, a “virtual” border 1 In 1946, the League of Nations became the United Nations.
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separated southern Lebanon from northern Palestine—now the northern part of Israel. South Lebanon was prosperous: it was a major trade and communication route linking the main cities of Palestine and Lebanon. The economic basis for the inhabitants of these hills was agriculture. The Hebrew state’s hegemonic ambitions and territorial objectives for South Lebanon go back to the very beginning of Zionism. In a 1919 letter to the British prime minister, Lloyd George, Chaim Weizmann, one of the most important ideologists of the Zionist movement and Greater Israel, explained the necessity of including the waters of the Litani River in Palestinian territory. “The economic future of Palestine 2 depends entirely on water to irrigate and to produce electricity, water essentially from the slopes of Mount Hermon, from the sources of the Jordan River and from the Litani River.” 3 In 1921, Weizmann tried to convince the French administrator, General Gouraud, to include the waters of the Litani within the borders of a future Palestine. 4 In 1968, David Ben Gurion returned to this Greater Israel project. “We have been talking about a Jewish national homeland for forty or fifty years and it has always included all of Palestine. The borders were the Litani River and the desert.” 5
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Until the creation of the State of Israel, Palestine in the texts referred to the territory that the Zionists hoped to obtain. 3 Seguin, Jacques, Le Liban-Sud, espace périphérique, espace convoité, L’Harmattan, Paris, 1989, p. 108. For the issue of water, consult http:// www.lcps-lebanon.org “The Litani River Basin: The Politics and Economics of Water.” (translator’s note) 4 Ibid., p. 108. 5 Ibid., p. 108.
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The creation of the State of Israel and its borders in 1948 abruptly put an end to the ancestral way of life in this region. This was an unfortunate event for both the Lebanese in the south and the Palestinians in the north because the free circulation of people and goods was halted. To this tragedy was added the expulsion of some 800,000 Palestinians from their land, villages and homes so that the State of Israel could be formed. About 150,000 of these people settled in South Lebanon with the hope of one day returning to Palestine. 6 For Israel, these uprooted Palestinians ipso facto became a menace to its security, and to ensure its development, the government proceeded to tightly seal off the border. From one day to the next, South Lebanon, deprived of its historic trade routes, was reduced to being an enclave economically dependent on Beirut. The South became almost exclusively agricultural with large farms in the hands of a few landowners, focusing mainly on growing tobacco. Following accelerated and widespread impoverishment in the region, Beirut saw no need or any advantage in looking to the South and still less in providing its population with services. Protest movements very quickly emerged from within the population’s Shiite majority who was the most affected economically. From the beginning of the 1960s, the expelled Palestinians and the exploited Lebanese farm workers began to claim better working and living conditions. They created popular movements to question the feudal system directed by a handful of landowners. The Lebanese Communist Party, active until then mostly amongst the poor in Beirut, enjoyed exceptionally rapid expansion among 6
Rouleau, E., Les Palestiniens d’une guerre à l’autre, La Découverte, Paris, 1984, p. 127. Cited by Seguin, op. cit., p. 66.
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the tobacco workers. Even the “Social Movement,” initiated by two emblematic Lebanese figures, Imam Musa Sadr and Bishop Grégoire Haddad, was strongly supported by the population. This was a demand for more social justice and increased political representation from the South in the capital. 7 With the growing number of Palestinian refugees—they were 200,000 at the beginning of the 1970s—the South was in a turmoil and issues of justice, rights and equity took root. Sympathetic ties were created between the Palestinian refugees and the disadvantaged Lebanese. In September 1970, Arafat’s Fatah fedayeen left Jordan for South Lebanon. Their establishment here came after confrontations with the Jordanian army led to their expulsion to Lebanon and Syria. At the same time, the workers and farmers in the South started strike actions. The region was becoming an area of opposition, prompting Israel to react and weak- en the growing Lebanese-Palestinian alliance. Between 1968 and 1974, no fewer than 3,000 Israeli attacks were recorded on South Lebanon territory. 8
The Palestinian Question and the Emergence of Israeli Allies in South Lebanon. The ties created between the villagers in the South and the Palestinian refugees were a source of fear to both the Israeli authorities and the bourgeoisie holding power in Beirut: they looked unfavourably on the openly leftist tendencies. Some of the Christian right also considered the presence of Palestinian 7 Seguin, op. cit., p. 93. 8 Charara, W., Da Silva, M., “Résistance obstinée au Liban-Sud,” Le Monde diplomatique, November 1999, p. 12.
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bases in the South a danger to the country’s stability and fragile demographic balance. Palestinians represented six percent of the population at the beginning of the civil war. 9 Consequently, although the Middle East was still living under the effervescence of pan-Arabism, part of the economically advantaged Christian minority strategically chose to draw closer to the Jewish minority. This was how an alliance of interests began between the powerful Christian right and the Israeli authorities. At the beginning of 1975, Major Saad Haddad, in charge of the Lebanese army’s First Battalion in South Lebanon, defected and with four hundred officers and soldiers created his own militia. This militia came together [in 1978] with three hundred Phalangist 10 militia and members of the Guardians of the Cedars 11 to form the Free Lebanon Army (FLA) , forerunner of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) . 12 Etienne Saqr, Charbel Barakat, Rizkallah Fheili, Sami Shidiak, Sleiman Said and Jean Homsi were just some of the militiamen whose common objective was to fight against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and their leftists supporters in the South. 13 Thus, from 1975 to 1978, Major Saad Haddad maintained close links with the Israel Defence Forces in order to set up the militia that would occupy South Lebanon for twenty-two years. Young men were recruited, particularly in two Christian majority enclaves, Marjayoun and the three towns of Rmeich, Debel and Ain Ebel. 9 10 11 12 13
Rugirello, V., Khiam, prison de la honte, l’Harmattan, Paris, 2003, p. 21. Membres of the Christian right party founded by Pierre Gemayel. Members of the Christian right party founded by Etienne Saqr. Charara, Da Silva, op. cit., p. 12. For more about the beginning of the FLA, see: Hamizrachi, B., The Emergence of The South Lebanon Security Belt, Praeger, New York, 1988.
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De Gaule Abou Tass from Rmeich said, “Saad Haddad’s men asked me to join them. That was in 1976, I was only seventeen, so I refused. They took me to Israel, to the town of Metulla and questioned me. Shortly after this, I left the South to work in the Gulf States. I knew that if I stayed in the village I would have problems, Haddad’s men already regarded me as a leftist or at least sympathizing with them.” 14
Religious Conflict. In fact, from February 1976 on, the region encompassing two majority Maronite enclaves, Marjayoun on one hand and Rmeich, Debel and Ain Ebel on the other, was under the control of Israeli authorities through the intermediary of Major Saad Haddad and his men. 15 On March 10, 1976, Israel opened a few checkpoints so the inhabitants could receive medical care. These posts were part of the “Good Fence” policy. 16 However, territorial objectives were hidden behind this humanitarian kindness. Seguin, in his book Le Liban-Sud, espace périphérique, espace convoité, cites Moshe Dayan who said in 1954: “The only necessary thing is to find an officer, even just a major. We should either win his heart or buy him with money, to make him agree to declare himself the saviour of the Maronite population. Then the Israeli army would enter Lebanon, occupy the necessary territory [...]. The territory from the Litani southward will be totally annexed to Israel and everything will be alright.” 17
14 Remarks made in August 2000 in Rmeich. 15 Remarks Rmeich inhabitants made in August 2000. 16 Seguin, op. cit., p. 123. 17 Seguin, op. cit., p. 125.
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During 1976 and 1977, the militia, under Haddad’s orders, led various attacks in the area around Ain Ebel to aggravate community tensions. Thus, the Shiite village of Hanine, located between the Maronite villages of Debel and Ain Ebel, was razedb and its some 4,000 inhabitants expelled from the area. These people were only able to return in May 2000 after the Israeli troops and the SLA departed. 18 To the concerns of a military attaché from the French government visiting the region, Major Sami Shidiak, one of Haddad’s strong men, responded: “We are destroying the village of Yarine and expelling the cannibals from there.” 19 In 1977, fighting between the PLO and their leftist supporters and the IDF and their allies was so violent and the Israeli air raids so frequent that more than half of South Lebanon’s 445,000 inhabitants took f light for Beirut and Sidon. The majority of them were Shiites. The Maronite villages under the protection of Haddad’s troops were spared the IDF raids. 20 On March 14, 1978, the Israel Defence Forces invaded South Lebanon for the first time to fight Palestinian “terrorism” and the leftists who supported them. The invasion was called “Operation Litani,” and accompanying the IDF were Major Saad Haddad and his militiamen. On March 19, the United Nations Security Council reacted and adopted Resolution 425, which “Calls upon Israel immediately to cease its military action against Lebanese territorial integrity and withdraw forthwith its forces from all Lebanese territory.” A peacekeeping force, the United Nations 18
For more about the village of Hanine, see Nasser, C., “Wounds of Occupation Still Raw in the South,” The Daily Star, Beirut, May 24, 2002. 19 Hamizrachi, op. cit., p. 107. Yarine was another Shiite village in the Maronite area. 20 Seguin, op. cit., p. 126.
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Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), was created and dispatched to South Lebanon straight away. This force had a mandate to stop the fighting and act as a buffer between the belligerent parties.
The Militia Takes Over. On June 13, 1978, a few months after the adoption of Resolution 425, the IDF withdrew from South Lebanon but refused to give up their positions—conquered territory—to the UNIFIL , turning them over instead to Major Saad Haddad. This gesture marked the beginning of Israel’s strategy to occupy South Lebanon. On March 19, 1978, this barely disguised subterfuge was borne out by General Ezer Weinzman, Israel’s defence minister at the time, who declared: “Commander Haddad is regarded as being a member of our forces.” 21 And on March 27, 1978, Major Saad Haddad announced the creation of the Free Lebanon Army (FLA), 3,000 men strong who had a mandate to control almost 1,000 square kilometres of land running along the Israeli border—the famous “security belt.” On April 18, 1979, Saad Haddad boldly went so far as to rename the area “Free Lebanon.” 22 Summer of 1982: The IDF Advance as far as Beirut and the PLO Departs International public opinion and the media were slow to grasp the Israeli occupation’s devastating effects on the civilian population. It was not until 1982, when the IDF invasion, Operation “Peace for Galilee,” reached Beirut, that discordant voices could be heard. With horror, the world learned of the fate of the Palestinian refugees, their massacre by the IDF and Christian militia at Sabra 21 Seguin, op. cit., p. 124-125. 22 Seguin, op. cit., p. 127.
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They Called Them Terrorists During The South Lebanon Occupation de Josée Lambert composé en Jenson corps 21 a été mis en ligne en mai deux mil treize.
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