Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Lebanons border Christians - Life under Israeli military restrictions

Transcript

Lebanons border Christians - Life under Israeli military restrictions · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Just a few kilometers from the Israeli border lies the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Lebanese Christian town of Debir. It's inside what Israel calls a, quote,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: yellow zone, an Israeli self-declared security zone, which stretches from
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Israel's northern border some 10 kilometers into southern Lebanon. It's
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: one of three Christian towns in southern Lebanon where residents
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: have maintained a presence. Other nearby towns, predominantly Shiite, have
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: been evacuated and partially or entirely destroyed by the Israeli military.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I am travelling with an aid convoy from Beirut to
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: southern Lebanon. These are regular trips, as often as twice
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: a week, bringing supplies to Lebanese towns near the Israeli border.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Sometimes the convoys also bring residents back to their hometowns,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: people who had to travel to Beirut for private reasons
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: or urgent medical help. After nearly two hours, we arrive
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: at the last Lebanese army checkpoint before the area occupied
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: by the Israeli military. Here, Christian Lebanese travelling to the
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: south have to get final clearance before crossing back into
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: the Israeli self-declared security zone. Some tell me about their
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: harrowing journeys to get medical care.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Sometimes we spent more than 11 hours on the road.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: We're fed up. This man was having a heart attack.
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: I took an under-equipped ambulance car. It had no oxygen, nothing.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: He was given morphine throughout the journey to ease his pain.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: I was this close to death.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: The returning residents have to wait here for hours for
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the final clearance. They say movement has become so heavily
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: restricted that many families in southern Lebanon can now only
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: survive on the weekly deliveries of food and medicine brought
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: from Beirut by humanitarian organizations and private initiatives.
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: We have been following this convoy since early morning as
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: it made its way from an area near Beirut. But
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: we have to leave it here. We did not receive
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: clearance from the Israeli military to accompany it into the
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: so-called yellow zone. The convoy is carrying much-needed food and
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: medicine for more than 500 families who have remained in
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: Debel throughout the conflict. Just a few kilometers from the
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: Israeli border lies the Lebanese town of Debel. This is
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: Alex Said, an undergraduate agriculture engineering student. Like many people here,
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: he had the opportunity to leave when fighting intensified between
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: Israel and Hezbollah, but he stayed. Filming inside the zone
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: is extremely dangerous, and as our access to the town
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: has been denied, we're speaking to Alex via video call.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I was born and raised in Debel. I'm 23 years old.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: I went to Beirut to study for five years, but
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: I would always leave Beirut and return to Debel as
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: soon as the semester ended. I love the beauty of
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: this town. It's where I come to relax. And it's
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: where I work the land I grew up on, the
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: land I inherited from my grandfathers. This is a land
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: that Jesus Christ visited, and we believe that every part
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: of it is sacred.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: His message is simple. He says he rejects Hezbollah's military
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: presence in the area, but he also rejects any suggestion
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: that he wants Israel to govern this town. Like many residents,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: he says Debel belongs to Lebanon and should remain Lebanese.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: We are Lebanese.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: And we will preserve our identity. We stayed here to
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: say that this area is and will remain Lebanese. We
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: want the Lebanese state to set the priorities and make
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: decisions in the best interests of the Lebanese people. We
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: refuse to let anyone else decide our future. Only the
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Lebanese state represents our interests.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: But for that to happen, the state has to take
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: an active lead. something the Christians at the border say
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: has been missing for decades.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: We've been left to fend for ourselves. We're relying on
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: the Lebanese state. We've always put our faith in state
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: institutions under the protection of the Lebanese army and Lebanese flag.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: But where is the Lebanese state to support us? We
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: are besieged and the state is nowhere to be seen.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: It is time to cross.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: First, a check by the Lebanese army. Then, a second
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: check by the United Nations peacekeepers. And finally, a third
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: security check by the Israeli military once they cross. The
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: supplies may help meet the town's immediate needs, but the
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: local economy has largely come to a standstill. Until Israel
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: withdraws from southern Lebanon, that is unlikely to change anytime soon.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: And let's get more on all of this. We are
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: joined now by Makran Raba, lecturer of history at the
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: American University of Beirut. Welcome to the program and thank
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: you so much for your time. Can you walk us
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: through the strategic significance of these Christian villages that are
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: inside or adjacent to the yellow zone?
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: Well, the importance of these villages at the moment is
• 5:33
  Speaker 6: that these are right in the middle of the conflict
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: and they are very problematic because they're supply lines are
• 5:40
  Speaker 6: disrupted by the actual fighting. But more importantly the reason
• 5:44
  Speaker 6: why these people are still there is because throughout the
• 5:47
  Speaker 6: last two decades they have fought Hezbollah who basically were
• 5:51
  Speaker 6: digging trenches and digging tunnels in other adjacent villages. The
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: reason why the Israelis have saved these villages is not
• 5:58
  Speaker 6: because they care particularly about the Christians or the non-Shia
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: living there but the fact that these villages are not
• 6:06
  Speaker 6: militarized in the sense that they don't really form any
• 6:10
  Speaker 6: kind of threat directly on the Israelis. However, the ongoing
• 6:14
  Speaker 6: war has caused the international community and many of the
• 6:17
  Speaker 6: Christian NGOs in Lebanon to try to help these people
• 6:22
  Speaker 6: stay in their land. And it goes beyond just simply
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: food and some supplies. It goes to communication, it goes
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: to medicine, it goes to their ability to pump drinking water.
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: So in a way, the problem is that these villages
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: are in limbo in a sense. Other non-Shiite villages, particularly
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: Druze as well as Sunni villages which don't have Hezbollah,
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: have been surviving, but logistically and geographically they are not
• 6:52
  Speaker 6: totally disconnected from areas which are not in warfare. So
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: the Druze and the Sunnis of that area have also
• 6:59
  Speaker 6: equally stood up against Hezbollah. But the only difference is
• 7:03
  Speaker 6: that their supply lines are not disrupted by the ongoing wars. Nevertheless,
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: many of the people there are living in a war zone.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Who effectively exercises sovereignty there today?
• 7:16
  Speaker 6: Well, unfortunately, there used to be a number of Lebanese
• 7:21
  Speaker 6: police and Lebanese army. The funny part here is that
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: people of these villages woke up one day to see
• 7:27
  Speaker 6: the Lebanese army actually evacuating. which was sending a very
• 7:31
  Speaker 6: bad message. So in the moment, you have some police
• 7:34
  Speaker 6: officers and internal security force, as well as some elements
• 7:38
  Speaker 6: of the UNIFIL, the UN Peacekeeping Force, which are there.
• 7:42
  Speaker 6: And around them, they have the IDF, the Israeli army,
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: which technically doesn't enter these villages, but they have a
• 7:50
  Speaker 6: kind of unofficial line that goes through the UN, which
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: allows these people to stay there. Their staying there is
• 7:57
  Speaker 6: a kind of a political challenge statement because many of
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: these people believe that if they leave their villages, they
• 8:03
  Speaker 6: will never go back to see the lands of their ancestors.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you more broadly about the situation
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: in the south and whether or not you're seeing the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Lebanese army being able to realistically replace Hezbollah as the
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: security actor there. You know, there's this sequencing debate, of course,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah says that Israel must fully
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: withdraw from Lebanon before any disarmament If Hezbollah refuses full disarmament,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: which options does the Lebanese government have without risking internal conflict?
• 8:35
  Speaker 6: Well, the main problem here is that Hezbollah is trying
• 8:38
  Speaker 6: to impose its own narrative on things. First of all,
• 8:40
  Speaker 6: Hezbollah was never a source of stability and protection for
• 8:43
  Speaker 6: the people of the south. On the contrary, over a
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: million Shiite displaced from the south of Lebanon were displaced
• 8:52
  Speaker 6: because of the fact that Hezbollah used their villages to
• 8:55
  Speaker 6: dig trenches and to dig weapon depots. The problematic part
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: here is that the Lebanese army tries to lazy off
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: in a sense. They don't want to confront Hezbollah. Confronting
• 9:09
  Speaker 6: Hezbollah does not really begin in the south of Lebanon,
• 9:12
  Speaker 6: but in other areas where Hezbollah has freedom of movement,
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: particularly in Beirut and in the Bekaa. And more importantly
• 9:19
  Speaker 6: for our audience, Hezbollah is part and parcel of the
• 9:22
  Speaker 6: Lebanese government. Hezbollah has two members, and the cabinet so
• 9:27
  Speaker 6: in a way they're acting as if they are renegades
• 9:29
  Speaker 6: but at the same time they're taking advantage of the
• 9:32
  Speaker 6: resources provided by the state. So ultimately first of all
• 9:36
  Speaker 6: there's no such thing as the Lebanese army. The Lebanese
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: army answers to the political authorities in Lebanon and the
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: commander of the armed forces is the Lebanese president who
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: is himself a former army commander. So going back to
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: the basics, the Lebanese army has no option but to
• 9:54
  Speaker 6: defend the people of Lebanon, be it in the south
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: of Lebanon or elsewhere. And whatever happens, one has to
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: understand that at this particular moment in time, Sarah, we're
• 10:03
  Speaker 6: no longer dealing just with Hezbollah. The people who are
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: commanding the fighting and moving troops in the south of
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: Lebanon are the Iranian Revolutionary Guards directly, because of the
• 10:13
  Speaker 6: sheer fact that many of the commanders of Hezbollah were
• 10:17
  Speaker 6: killed in the last two years. This is very important
• 10:19
  Speaker 6: to understand that the Israeli occupation of south of Lebanon
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: is brought about by an equally Iranian occupation of Lebanon.