Democratic Palestine : 19 (ص 18)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 19 (ص 18)
- المحتوى
-
Resolution
425:
To Be
Unifil operational areas j Nabatlya
Strongholds: |
w Israel Defence Forces f+ LEBANON
QO South Lebanon Army 3 Liten
& Israel Defence Forces { 4 4-f 1
and/or SLA Tyre7 rf
ee Security zone in which
Unifil must work
alongside Israel Defence
Forces and SLA
FRANCE Zi, aoe é
Shemona
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
4
© dunes
= since 1967°" 3
O Mf&es 10
L : ___!
Or Not
To Be?
The attacks against the French units of UNIFIL in southern Lebanon,
which have been particularly intense in August and September, are a
result of the escalation of the conflict between Amal and Hezballah.
The main issue concerns the pros and cons of implementing UN reso-
lution 425, adopted after the Zionist occupation of southern Lebanese
territory in 1978.
This resolution stipulates that the
Zionists halt all military attacks on
Lebanon and immediately withdraw all
their forces. The resolution further
requires that an «interim» force be
formed, under UN auspices, «to gua-
rantee Israeli withdrawal» and «help
Lebanon to restore her sovereignty in
this area.» Needless to say, this resolu-
tion, even now in 1986, has remained
unimplemented. Moreover, due to the
‘extraordinary delay, and the conflicting
‘factors in the Lebanese arena, the Zio-
nists have had the opportunity not only
to entrench themselves in South
Lebanon and cultivate their own gang
of collaborators, but also to extend
their influence into the heart of Beirut.
Furthermore, local and regional deve-
lopments have resulted in the emer-
gence of various trends. Among these
are the fundamentalist Shiite trends
which have grown into a force to be
reckoned with, especially in the sou-
thern quarters of Beirut and the South.
The differences between Hezballah
and Amal on how to oust the Zionist
enemy from Lebanese territory have led
to military acts directed not at the Zio-
nist enemy, but at the French military
unit stationed in the South. This serves
to divert from the main struggle to
enforce the national demands through
armed struggle against the Zionist
occupation. It is thus a dangerous issue
to which all must be alert.
BACKGROUND
UNIFIL was deployed in South
Lebanon in the summer of 1978, after
the Zionist occupation forces withdrew
from some of the areas they had occu-
pied. In the border areas, the Zion-
16
ists installed the fascist militias of
Saad Haddad who set up their statelet
as a launching pad for Zionist attacks
against defenseless Lebanese civilians
in the South, aiming to drive them from
their homes, as a step towards perma-
nent Israeli control. The then 6,000
soldiers of the so-called international
peace-keeping forces, comprised of
units from nine countries, were
deployed in this area. These forces
witnessed the daily perpetration of
ruthless attacks carried out by the Zio-
nists and their fascist allies. However,
due to a predetermined political
understanding among the imperialist
countries, they were rendered incapable
of deterring these attacks or establish-
ing a secure situation to prevent the
mass migration of Lebanese families
northwards. On the other hand, these
forces were very capable of hindering
the attempts of Lebanese nationalists
and Palestinians to protect the popula-
tion, and attack the Zionist forces and
their fascist allies.
To give credit where credit is due,
however, some of the UNIFIL units
began to find it impossible to remain
indifferent to the brutal Zionist attacks
on Lebanese citizens, and to the glaring
injustice of the whole situation. Some
at times sympathized with the nationa-
list resistance movement, and acted on
this sympathy as well. As a result, these
units were sometimes targeted, along
with the masses, by Zionist and fascist
aggression.
The Israelis, of course, used their
1982 invasion of Lebanon to reinforce
their control over the border strip.
Furthermore, the Zionist lobby raised
hell until the US agreed to cut financial
support to the UNIFIL and push for the
removal of these forces from southern
Lebanon. In this way, the Zionists
anticipated a broader margin of
freedom which would facilitate their
atrocities on the inhabitants of the
South and their exploitation of its
natural resources, chiefly water. While
this aggression has not been actively
hindered by the UNIFIL forces, their
physical presence can result in embar-
rassment for the Zionist enemy’s impe-
rialist allies, if the Israeli forces act as if
they are not present at all. However,
the Soviet Union stepped in to com-
pensate for the financial deficiency
which the US left in the UNIFIL’s
budget, thus foiling the enemies’
expectations for the time being.
After the blow dealt to the Palesti-
nian resistance in Lebanon in 1982,
especially in the South, the Zionist and
imperialist forces worked to fill the
vacuum with collaborators, such as the
so-called National Guards. At the same
time, the Lebanese nationalists and the
Palestinian resistance began to reas-
semble their ranks, leading to the esca-
lation of armed struggle. This chal-
lenged the ‘undisputable military edge’
of the Zionist forces, and escalated to
the point of threatening their very pre-
sence..No method was spared in attack-
ing the enemy - sniping, booby-trapped
donkeys, remote-controlled explosions
and waves of missions carried out by
selfless guerrillas who gave their lives.
In 1985, 1165 military operations were
carried out in the South against the
Zionist occupiers and their local agents.
Not only were the enemy forces subject
to daily attacks in the South, including
in the heart of what they so arrogantly
claim as their ‘security zone’, the - هو جزء من
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