Persona non grata

34 
Persona Non Grata: Expulsions of Civilians from Israeli-Occupied Lebanon 
 
 
 
While I was waiting to be searched, they told me that I was not 
allowed to return.    I asked why, and they would not tell me.    I 
asked for the official in charge of the crossing, and they refused.   
I told them that I was growing my crops, and they still refused. 
 
She returned to another crossing two days later, in a futile attempt to 
return to the village. She was again refused entry, and again was not allowed to 
see the security official in charge. It was February    28, 1998. Asadullah said that 
he unsuccessfully sought assistance from the International Committee of the Red 
Cross (ICRC) and UNIFIL to reverse his wife’s forcible transfer.   
When Hoda was released from Khiam prison in April 1998, after being 
held for ten months withoutcharge, she was in poor health, suffering from an ulcer 
and a nervous breakdown. She was not permitted to leave Maroun al-Ras and had 
no medical care for the first two months. Through the intervention of the ICRC 
and UNIFIL, according to family members, Hoda finally was allowed to leave in 
July 1998. It was only with two medical reports — one from a general surgeon 
recommending a CAT scan, a high-technology x-ray — and ICRC assistance, the 
family said, that Asadullah was finally permitted to exit the zone. In early January 
1999, he said, he was instructed by a local SLA security official to leave the 
village immediately and never return to the zone.
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Opaque Aspects of Israeli Control     
Israel’s presence in, and control of, the occupied zone is transparent in 
some respects and opaque in others. The IDF, for example, maintains its 
permanent Lebanon headquarters in a former Lebanese army barracks in the town 
of Marjayoun inside the zone. An Israeli flag, with Lebanese flags on either side 
of it, flies atop the group of buildings in which the barracks is located.
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  Heavily 
fortified IDF military positions throughout the zone, strategically located on the 
highest hilltops, such as the position at the imposing Crusader-era Beaufort Castle 
which towers above the village of Arnoun, also fly Israeli flags.
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 Apart from 
these military positions, observed journalist David Hirst, “there seem to be...few 
Israelis in Israeli-occupied Lebanon.” He explained why:   
                                                 
          37
     Human Rights Watch interviews, Beirut, Lebanon, April 1999. 
   
 38   
    David Hirst, “South Lebanon: The strangest war on earth?,” Mideast Mirror, 
June 3, 1999. 
     
39
          Author’s personal observations from front-line villages in south Lebanon in 
1995, 1996, and 1999. 

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The Occupied Zone: An Overview 
35 
 
 
 
 
It is because, where possible, the Israelis move around in 
civilian cars.  Mercedes.  Armor-plated, of course.  The SLA 
use them too; but while the Israelis treat themselves to the de 
luxe model, they fob off their allies with a cheaper, inferior 
version.  You can tell the difference because the Israeli one, 
being heavier, is lower slung.
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Former residents of the zone, whose testimony is included in this report, described 
how SLA and Israeli  security officers arrived at their homes in unmarked 
civilian cars, often Mercedes. 
In April 1999, Israeli defense minister Moshe Arens told Israel’s High 
Court of Justice that “the IDF does not have effective control in civilian areas of 
the Security Zone, nor is the IDF interested in such control.  Although the IDF 
has a unit that provides civilian aid to the residents of the Security Zone, the said 
aid is very limited. Most of the civilian activity is performed by Lebanese 
government agencies.” The defense minister’s assertion was contradicted by a 
senior IDF officer who described to the Jerusalem Post an underlying Israeli 
strategy with respect to civilians in the occupied zone: 
 
“The great success of south Lebanon is the creation of a 
situation of dependency,” says a senior IDF officer in Lebanon. 
“That dependency leads to a freedom of operation and 
movement by the IDF.  Our  operations and presence in 
built-up areas in south Lebanon can only work as long as we 
can control the population. That is expensive,” says the officer, 
who could not be named in keeping with IDF regulations.
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40     
David Hirst, “South Lebanon.” 
 
          41         
Arieh O’Sullivan and David Rudge, “Fighting Against Time,” Jerusalem 
Post, July 31, 1998. One mechanism of control has been the selective provision of job 
opportunities inside Israel for residents of the occupied zone, made available to 
relatives of SLA militiamen.    “Joining the SLA begets...privileges. The soldier’s 
family is specifically favored for work in Israel, and if his family aren’t interested he 
can ‘sponsor’ someone else in return for a cut on his salary.    Perhaps 3,000 people 
commute across the ‘good fence’ everyday.”  David Hirst, “South Lebanon.” The 
“good fence” passage from Lebanon to Israel is located near the Israeli settlement of 
Metulah.    The U.N. reported that more than 2,500 residents of the occupied zone go 
to work in Israel daily. See Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations 

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36 
Persona Non Grata: Expulsions of Civilians from Israeli-Occupied Lebanon 
 
 
 
                                                                                                             
Interim Force in Lebanon (for the period from 16 July 1998 to 15 January 1999), 
S/1999/61, January 19, 1999.       
 
 

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