Ghajar Residents Refuse to Become Part of Lebanon
The elders of the border village of Ghajar visited the Knesset on Tuesday and insisted to Israeli Deputy Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee Ayoub Kara their rejection to divide their hometown.
The Jerusalem Post said Kara made a briefing to the elders on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu”s decision to assign Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman the task of preparing recommendations on a solution for their village as well as for the Shebaa Farms area.
Ghajar, located at the foot of Mount Hermon straddling the Lebanese-Syrian border, is perched on a cliff overlooking the Wazzani spring, which has been a source of continuous disputes between Israel and Lebanon.
It is inhabited mainly by Alawites, most of whom have obtained Israeli citizenship even though they consider themselves Syrian. The village is an extension of the Syrian Golan Heights plateau, which Israel occupied during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981.
According to a U.N.-drawn Blue Line marking the border between Israel and Lebanon, the northern part of the village lies on Lebanese soil while the rest is part of occupied Syrian territory. Israel is still occupying Ghajar”s northern part.
"We were born Syrians, and some of us served in the Syrian army, and after the war, when the Golan Law was passed, we accepted it and became faithful citizens of the state," said the village”s mayor, Suleiman Mohammad Abu Hassan al-Khatib.
The Jerusalem Post quoted Kara as saying that Ghajar”s leaders had requested that he set up meetings with Netanyahu, Lieberman and U.S. Ambassador to Israel James Cunningham to convince them to allow the village to remain in Israeli territory.
The deputy minister added that he intended to demand an urgent meeting with Cunningham, preferably to be held in Ghajar itself so the ambassador could see for himself the problems facing the village”s citizens.
However, Israel Radio quoted Netanyahu”s office as saying that the meeting was held based on Kara”s personal initiative and the Israeli deputy minister wasn”t instructed to speak on behalf of the government.