http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20000526/t000049887.html
Friday, May 26, 2000
Know Now That Arab Lives Are as
Worthy as Israelis'
Israel's 22-year occupation was
universally despised and the many casualties inflicted were
discounted.
By Hussein Ibish, L.A. Times
As the Lebanese people have finally liberated themselves from more
than two decades of Israeli occupation, most American commentators
are reacting with only one concern: Will northern Israel be safe from
attack?
The focus on this misleading question is the result of a widespread
acceptance of the official Israeli line that its 22-year rampage in
southern Lebanon was in essence a futile quest for peace in a hostile
region. This view is consistent with the pattern of putting Israeli lives and
concerns over those of Arabs, but it is completely inconsistent with the
history of the occupation and the experiences of its Lebanese victims.
It is blind to the tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians killed by Israel
during the occupation, the hundreds of thousands made homeless and
the scores of destroyed villages and cities. It forgets the ghastly
massacres of unarmed civilians for which the Israelis have been
responsible in Lebanon, including the massacres at the Sabra and
Shatila refugee camps and the U.N. base at Qana. It ignores the
Lebanese civilians held hostage to this day in Israeli prisons and the
hundreds of Lebanese men, women and children held prisoner and
tortured at the notorious Khiam detention center run by the
Israeli-controlled militia, the South Lebanese Army. It does not
acknowledge the pain of the Lebanese nation at being divided for almost
a quarter of a century and subject to continuous attacks on its civilian
population and infrastructure.
No wonder, given this history, that the scenes of liberation from south
Lebanon have been truly extraordinary. Hundreds of Lebanese
streamed back into villages and towns from which they had been
expelled by Israel. Tears of joy flowed as relatives were reunited after
years of separation. Hundreds of civilians stormed Khiam, freeing about
140 prisoners and exposing the hideous apparatus of torture and terror
employed there.
These scenes have potentially far-reaching implications. Can others
in the Middle East living under foreign military occupation, such as the
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, have failed to register what real
liberation looks like?
Everywhere Hezbollah fighters, derided by the Israeli and U.S.
governments as "terrorists," conducted themselves in an exemplary
manner, handing prisoners over to government troops and ensuring that
the liberation was not marred by acts of vengeance. These supposed
fanatical terrorists were once again shown to be a disciplined and
responsible liberation force.
How quickly it is forgotten that Hezbollah is itself a product of the
Israeli occupation, founded in 1982 with the aim of driving out the Israeli
army and freeing the south of the hellish experience of occupation. The
fretting about potential Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israeli
towns is misplaced, given that since 1996 Hezbollah has almost always
carried out such attacks in response to Israeli killings of Lebanese
civilians, often only after repeated atrocities. By contrast, in recent
months Israel repeatedly attacked Lebanese civilian targets, such as
power stations, in response to attacks on its soldiers in Lebanon.
The Israeli army may have fled Lebanon in chaos and humiliation, but
not without issuing dire threats of massive attacks against Lebanon.
Israel's retreat from Lebanon is incomplete and insufficient. Israel was
driven out of most of southern Lebanon by an extraordinary campaign of
popular resistance, but continues to occupy the Shabaa Farms area. It
holds numerous Lebanese hostage.
There is every indication that Israel still feels it can attack the
Lebanese people with impunity. Israel's foreign minister, David Levy,
recently threatened that Israel would continue to target Lebanese
civilians "blood for blood, child for child."
The international community, while paying lip service to Lebanese
territorial integrity, failed to exert any pressure on Israel to end its
occupation. Instead it was left to resistance groups such as Hezbollah to
enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution 425, which in 1978 demanded
Israel's unconditional withdrawal from Lebanon "forthwith."
The United States, Israel's main patron, financier and arms supplier,
has been particularly culpable by repeatedly using its diplomatic muscle,
including its Security Council veto, to protect Israel from international
criticism after its invasions and atrocities. Rather than helping enforce
Resolution 425, which it voted for, the U.S. government line has been
that "all foreign forces should withdraw from Lebanon."
This was an obvious ploy intended to buy time and space for Israel by
drawing a false moral and legal equivalence between Israel's brutal and
illegal occupation of south Lebanon and the Syrian presence in Lebanon.
Syria's role there is controversial, supported by many and opposed by
others as overbearing, while the Israeli occupation was universally
despised, as was amply demonstrated by the instantaneous collapse of
its proxy militia. Had the United States been willing to stand by
international law rather than making disingenuous excuses for
outrageous Israeli conduct, the international community might have
been able to act responsibly toward Lebanon.
The obvious questions now are: Will Israel be forced to complete its
withdrawal from all of Lebanon, or will it be allowed to hang on to the
Shabaa Farms, where it has built a ski resort and a settlement for
Ethiopians? Will Israel be seriously pressured to release the Lebanese
hostages, or will it yet again be granted an exception to the most basic
international human rights norms? Will Israel be made to pay the
reparations it owes to the Lebanese for the invasions, bombings and
occupation, as is supposed to now be the norm for international
aggressors? When will the American government and media
acknowledge that Lebanese and Arab lives and rights are as important
and worthy as those of Israelis?
Finally, and most importantly, will the international community at long
last live up to its responsibility to prevent Israel from ever again invading
or bombing Lebanon and murdering its people?
Hussein Ibish
Communications Director for the American-Arab Anti-discrimination
Committee
