Pages

Monday, May 28, 2012

Shebaa Farms can create momentum for peace, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West
Shebaa Farms can create momentum for peace
By Cesar Chelala

After Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah justified its attacks against the country by claiming Israel’s withdrawal was incomplete, that the Shebaa Farms belonged to Lebanon. Neither Israel nor the United Nations shared this perspective at the time. But there is now renewed interest in that area. During a visit to Lebanon last June, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “The United States believes that the time has come to deal with the Shebaa Farms issue.” Ms. Rice also called on the United Nations to use its “good offices” to deal with this issue.

The Shebaa Farms were captured during the 1967 Six Day War — concurrent with the capture of the Golan Heights from Syria, at a time when Lebanon was not an active participant of the war. Israel considered the area part of Syria, and extended Israeli law when it annexed the Golan Heights in 1981. This unilateral annexation was not recognized by the United Nations in its non-binding 497 resolution. That resolution, adopted unanimously, states that “the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect.”

http://newageislam.com/shebaa-farms-can-create-momentum-for-peace/islam-and-the-west/d/302


0 comments: