Persona non grata

40 
Persona Non Grata: Expulsions of Civilians from Israeli-Occupied Lebanon 
 
 
 
working in the area to be coordinated.    He selected Uri Lubrani 
for the job; to this day, Lubrani serves as coordinator of 
government actions in Lebanon.
45
 
                                                 
          45         
Ronen Bergman, “Fighting blind.”   

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The Occupied Zone: An Overview 
41 
 
 
 
 
According to the Jerusalem Post, for years Uri Lubrani’s deputy has 
been Col. (Ret.) Reuven Erlich, “a former chief intelligence officer for the IDF 
Liaison Unit to Lebanon” and “[i]ntimately involved in every link with the 
SLA.”
46
  As noted above, Mr. Lubrani did not reply to the letter that Human 
Rights Watch sent to him in June 1999.   
                                                 
          46         
Arieh O’Sullivan and David Rudge, “Fighting Against Time,” Jerusalem 
Post, July 31, 1998. 

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42 
IV.  COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT   
 
“It was very cold in the winter.  The house had no windows 
and we used cardboard in place of glass. You will not believe 
this, but it was so difficult for a while that we were living on 
potatoes and water.” 
 
—Nejla Shahrour, describing her family’s 
situation after she was expelled with her 
father and two brothers from the village of 
Kfar Hamam in January 1989.    Her mother 
was expelled in December 1988.     
 
 
Some of the expulsions of civilians from occupied Lebanon have been 
carried out in swift and punishing reprisal for the known or suspected activities of 
family members. A teacher from the village of Rihan who was expelled in 1988, 
with his wife and five children aged twelve to twenty years,    told Human Rights 
Watch that he was questioned about a distant relative who belonged to the 
resistance and then was informed of his family’s expulsion with these words: 
“Your relatives are a source of danger for us. Go to them.”
47
 Cases similar to 
these, described below, constitute collective punishment, a violation of article 33 
of the Fourth Geneva Convention (see “Violations of International Humanitarian 
and Human Rights Law,” below). 
                                                 
          47         
Human Rights Watch interview,  Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, March 1999. Name 
not provided to Human Rights Watch. 

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Collective Punishment 
43 
 
 
 
The age of persons targeted for expulsion clearly has not been a factor 
when decisions have been made. Men and women from sixty to over ninety years 
old have been expelled from towns and villages where they were born and lived 
all their lives. Some of them have endured this traumatic experience alone, while 
others have been expelled with their children. For example, on January 25, 1989, 
eleven members of the family of  teacher Yehia Ali were expelled from the 
predominantly Sunni Muslim village of Sheba’ in the northeastern section of the 
occupied zone. The group included his father, Assad, seventy-seven, and his 
mother, Fatima Nasr, seventy-five, as well as his wife and eight children, aged 
four to sixteen.
48
 
The abrupt dispossession has imposed difficult and enduring economic 
hardships on expelled families. Human Rights Watch found former homeowners 
living in small, overcrowded, rented apartments in the suburbs of greater Beirut 
and other urban centers. They said that their houses in the occupied zone sat 
empty, or in some cases were occupied rent-free by SLA militiamen. Families 
were forced to leave without personal possessions such as clothing, home 
furnishings, and vehicles, adding to their financial loss. Valuable 
income-producing livestock, most typically sheep, chickens, and cows, had to be 
left behind. Many families have been reduced to poverty because of lost income 
from agricultural land and small businesses in their villages. Farmers expressed 
deep concern about the deterioration of their idle land, particularly olive groves 
and orchards, from lack of care. Those men and women who managed to find 
some type of employment in Beirut earned meager salaries that did not match 
former earnings in the occupied zone, and their standard of living has been 
dramatically reduced. This was particularly true for families who were farmers 
and had minimal food costs because of a high degree of self-sufficiency. 
The cases below describe some of the expulsions from the occupied zone 
between 1988 and 1999 that represented arbitrary punishment that was collective 
in nature. 
 
                                                 
          48         
Yehia Ali described to Human Rights Watch his history in Sheba’ as an 
outspoken and peaceful opponent of the occupation, and his opposition to Israeli 
attempts since 1984 to gain the support of prominent residents for the establishment of   
a Civil Administration. He escaped expulsion with his parents and family because he 
was in another house when Israeli and SLA forces entered the village at five o’clock in 
the morning to assemble the families. Ali said that three days later he fled the occupied 
zone through the mountains. Human Rights Watch interview, Beirut, Lebanon, March 
1999.   

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