Persona non grata

16 
Persona Non Grata: Expulsions of Civilians from Israeli-Occupied Lebanon 
 
 
 
                                                                                                             
for National Security today (1.4.98) adopted the following decision: 
1. Israel is accepting UN Security Council Resolution 425, so that the IDF will leave 
Lebanon with appropriate security arrangements, and so that the Lebanese 
government can restore its effective control over Southern Lebanon and assume 
responsibility for guaranteeing that its territory will not be used as a base for terrorist 
activity against Israel.   
2. The government expresses its appreciation to the IDF soldiers and commanders 
who are engaged in the defence of the inhabitants of northern Israel. The IDF will 
continue its activity against terrorist threats in the "Security Zone", until the necessary 
security arrangements are effected.   
3. The government of Israel calls on the Lebanese government to begin negotiations, 
on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 425 to restore its effective control over 
territories currently under IDF control, and to prevent terrorist activities from its 
territory against Israel's northern border.   
4. Israel views the guaranteed security and safety of the residents of the "Security 
Zone" in Southern Lebanon and the soldiers of the Southern Lebanese Army as an 
integral part of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 425 and of any 
other arrangement for the restoration of security along our border with Lebanon.   
5. Israel will continue its efforts to achieve peace agreements with all its neighbors.   
Cabinet Decision - UN Security Council Resolution 425, Communicated by the 
Cabinet Secretariat, Jerusalem, April 1, 1998.”     
 

---

The Occupied Zone: An Overview 
17 
 
 
 
Despite this announcement, senior Israeli government officials continue 
to claim that Israel does not have “effective control” in the occupation zone, and 
that while it has influence over the SLA the militia is independent of Israel. In 
April 1999, for example, then-defense minister Moshe Arens described the 
relationship as closely integrated: “No one contests that the IDF [the Israel 
Defense Forces] and the SLA coordinate their military activity, since both forces 
are fighting the same enemy, and that the IDF has influence over the SLA.”
5
 In 
the same document, the defense minister maintained that Israel does not have 
“effective control” over south Lebanon, stating: “The IDF maintains a permanent 
presence in a very small number of military outposts in the Security Zone.    Most 
of the military outposts in the South Lebanon area are manned by SLA soldiers.   
In addition, from time to time the IDF carries out various activities also outside 
the outposts, in order to prevent terrorist activities by hostile elements.    The IDF 
does not maintain army bases in settled areas of South Lebanon, except for three 
[unnamed] locations.” 
                                                 
         
5    
 Response of the Minister of Defense, represented by the State Attorney, 
Ministry of Justice.  He was replying to a petition presented to Israel’s Supreme 
Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, by Israeli lawyers Dan Yakir from the 
Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and Tamar Pelleg from Hamoked (the Center for 
the Defense of the Individual).    The lawyers petitioned the High Court to secure the 
release of four Lebanese held in Khiam prison, meet with the four prisoners at the 
facility, and visit the prison to examine conditions of confinement and the condition of 
the detainees.  Suleiman Ramadan et. al. v. the Minister of Defense, High Court of 
Justice, 1951/99, April 22, 1999.   
 

---

18 
Persona Non Grata: Expulsions of Civilians from Israeli-Occupied Lebanon 
 
 
 
This comment reflects the general approach of Israeli officials in 
characterizing the SLA role under the occupation. Human Rights Watch shares 
the view of the international community and considers the zone to be occupied 
territory under international humanitarian law, with Israel the occupying power 
and the SLA its local Lebanese auxiliary force. Human Rights Watch believes 
that while Israel may dispute the extent of its control in the occupied zone, it 
cannot shirk its responsibility for the actions carried out by its client militia, the 
SLA, which is armed and financed by Israel and is widely recognized as being its 
surrogate in South Lebanon. 
Expelled residents of the zone interviewed by Human Rights Watch all 
noted dramatic declines in the population of their communities over the last two 
decades: some villages that once had thousands of inhabitants have been reduced 
in size to several hundred persons, most of them, according to testimony, elderly 
people or members and supporters of the SLA militia. For example, former 
residents of Markaba, a village several miles from the Israeli border, said the 
population had dwindled to 150 to 200 people from some 12,000 before the 
occupation. Lebanese knowledgeable about the zone estimate that the current 
population is about 120,000.
6
 Israeli estimates place the number of residents 
below 100,000.
7
    Contributing to the drain has been the exodus of teenagers and 
young men to avoid forced conscription into the SLA, departures that have been 
encouraged and often arranged by their parents (see “Punishing Flight from the 
Militia,” below). 
                                                 
          6         
Human Rights Watch interviews, Beirut, Lebanon, March and April 1999. 
          7         
"In 1985, when the strip was occupied, it had over 250,000 residents. In the last 
census, in 1996, it had some 106,000.    At present, some of the estimates range around 
the 90,000 mark.” Ariela Ringel Hofman, “Protect Me From My Friends,” Yedi’ot 
Aharonot, March 5, 1999, as reported in FBIS Daily Report, FBIS-NES-1999-0308. 
 

---