Syria willing to transfer disputed Sheba Farms to UN custody

[Hassoun]

Syria willing to transfer disputed Sheba Farms to UN custody

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

Syria is willing to transfer the Sheba Farms to the custody of the United Nations as part of an effort to resolve the sovereignty dispute over the area, which is currently under Israel's control.

The new Syrian position was outlined in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, who visited Damascus last month.

Israeli political sources said Tuesday that Syria's offer is meant to put pressure on Jerusalem, which opposes any withdrawal from Sheba at this stage.
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Moratinos sent the letter to the UN secretary general two weeks ago, after discussing the matter with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.

In it, Moratinos, who was the European Union's special envoy to the Middle East before becoming Spain's foreign minister, wrote that Syria is willing to transfer the area to UN custody even before the international border between it and Lebanon has been fully demarcated. The UN has been engaged in marking the border for the past year.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said last year that he would also like to see Shaba transferred to UN custody.

The Shebaa Farms, situated in the foothills of Har Dov at the point where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria converge, used to be part of the French Mandate in Syria and Lebanon. The border, which followed a 1923 agreement between Britain and France, was never precisely demarcated.

In May 2000, following Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon, the UN ruled that Sheba was part of the Golan Heights, and was therefore Syrian rather than Lebanese. It also said that Sheba's future should be determined in negotiations between Israel and Syria.

However, Lebanon "claimed" that Shebaa was within its sovereign territory, and this provided Hezbollah with a pretext for continuing its military operations against Israel, in order to liberate the "occupied territory."

Following last year's Second Lebanon War, the UN began marking the international border between Syria and Lebanon, mainly in order to resolve the dispute over which country actually owns Sheba. Israel's position has been that there should be no discussion of Sheba's future until the UN makes a final decision on precisely where this border lies.

"There is no change in Israel's stance on the matter," a source in the Prime Minister's Bureau told Haaretz on Tuesday. "First, the demarcation of the border must be completed."

Senior Foreign Ministry officials told a Moratinos aide who visited Israel last week that there should be no discussions on Sheba "at our expense." They also warned that an Israel Defense Forces withdrawal from the area at this time would undermine Israel's interests and constitute a "prize" for Syria's ally, Hezbollah.

Israeli sources expressed dissatisfaction Tuesday at the fact that Spain did not officially inform Israel about the Moratinos letter to Ban Ki-moon. Israeli diplomats learned of its content by chance during talks at the UN.

The letter may contribute to the growing tension between Israel and Spain, initially sparked by a meeting Moratinos held with Hezbollah's deputy secretary general, Naim Qassem. Following that meeting, a Moratinos visit to Israel that had been scheduled for earlier this month was postponed until October.

UN mapping expert Miklos Pinter, who has been busy delineating the border area near Shaba, visited Israel two weeks ago to meet his Israeli counterparts. Next month, the UN is expected to publish a new report on the situation between Israel and Lebanon, and Pinter's findings may be included in the document.

Israeli officials are concerned that this report could spark renewed discussion of which country has sovereignty over Sheeba Farms.

[Halawala]

I though Sheba farms is in Lebanon!!

[Hassoun]

It's a lebanese land,but occupied by syria and israel.

READ THIS ARTICLE

The Truth About the Sheba Farms

Sami Moubayed | Bio | 15 Aug 2006
World Politics Review Exclusive

DAMASCUS, Syria -- There has been a lot of talk in the international community, and in Syria and Lebanon in particular, about the status of the disputed Sheba Farms. The small area, made up of 14 farms spread out over 25 square kilometers, has been occupied by Israel since 1967. The governments of Syria and Lebanon insist that Sheba is Lebanese, while Israel and the U.N. claim that it belongs to Syria, since it was under the jurisdiction of Syria at the time of its occupation in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. (Lebanon, after all, was not even involved in the Six Day War.)

Some contend that the intense dispute over Sheba arises out of a fabrication by former Syrian President Hafez al-Asad months before his passing in June 2000, when it became clear to him that the Israelis were about to leave South Lebanon. Supporters of this argument claim that Asad created the idea of Sheba belonging to Lebanon to justify the continuation of a militant Hizbullah in Lebanon. If all Lebanese land was seen to have been liberated from Israeli occupation, after all, it would have been very difficult for Hizbullah to maintain support among the Lebanese public for maintaining its arms. And for Asad, Hizbullah's arms were important because they were the main instrument of his own proxy war with Israel.

Those who refute this argument raise a few obvious questions: If the dispute over Sheba was indeed due to Asad's scheming, why didn't Israel withdraw from Sheba after leaving Lebanon in May 2000? Wouldn't that have ruined Asad's plan and destroyed any excuses for the continuation of war between Hizbullah and Lebanon? Why doesn't Israel make life difficult for Hizbullah and foil whatever Hafez al-Asad had in mind by withdrawing from Sheba now?

The first answer is that it would be very difficult for Israel to leave Sheba, which is located on the northwestern slopes of Mount Hermon, because of the abundance of water found there. The gradual melting of snow in the spring and fall augments groundwater and increases the number of springs and water sources at low elevations in the Sheba Farms. The area is now desolate, but once was fertile and well-watered and produced tobacco, fruits and vegetables.

Dr Judith Harik, a professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and author of "Hezbollah: the Changing Face of Terror," supports this argument. "The Sheba Farms constitute a major reservoir for the water of Mount Hermon," she writes. "Whether it is Syrian or Lebanese, I don't think that Israel will give it up that easily."

Indeed, in 1919, during the Paris Peace Conference that ended World War I, the Zionist delegation presented a memorandum that read: "The Hermon is Palestine's real Father of Waters and cannot be severed from it without striking at the very root of its economic life." The document adds, "The Hermon not only needs reforestation but also other works before it can again adequately serve as the water reservoir of the country (future Israel). It must therefore be wholly under the control of those who will most willingly, as well as most adequately, restore it to its maximum utility."

This, along with the territory's strategic importance, might explain why Israel has been holding on to Sheba since 1967 and has refused to give it back -- to either Syria or Lebanon -- since the start of the Madrid Peace Conference in 1990.

But this raises another important question: If Sheba is so important, why was it so neglected by both Syria and Lebanon from 1918 until 1967? Surely a region with such an important resource would be a prized possession for either Damascus or Beirut. In fact, however, Sheba Farms was so unimportant to Syria and Lebanon that neither country bothered to claim clear jurisdiction over the area or mark its borders in a proper manner at the U.N.

The story of the farms is a strange one indeed, and its telling reveals why the confusion surrounding it is understandable. The present dispute over Sheba arose in 2000, when Israel withdrew from South Lebanon and claimed it had complied with U.N. Resolution 425. That U.N. resolution, passed in 1978, called on Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territory it had occupied in that year. In 2000, Israel was correct in claiming its full compliance with Resolution 425. The resolution's scope did not include Sheba Farms because the area was occupied in 1967, not 1978, and was Syrian, not Lebanese, territory.

In 1923, three years after the French Mandate was created in Syria, London and Paris reached the Anglo-French Demarcation Agreement, setting the borders for British-occupied Palestine, and French-occupied Syria and Lebanon. At the time, Sheba was clearly marked as Syrian territory. However, the farms of Sheba were all owned by Lebanese citizens, and these citizens paid taxes to the central government of Beirut.

Ironically, the first person to challenge the demarcation of 1923 was a Jewish historian at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Asher Kaufman. While rummaging through government archives in Paris in 2002, Kaufman found documents dating from 1920 to1941 showing that the French had accidentally placed Sheba in Syria instead of Lebanon. Mandate officials had realized their error and wanted to correct the maps, Kaufman found. (The maps had been drawn without surveyors or cartographic equipment because France's team in Syria was not professionalized until the mid-1920s, not immediately upon its occupation in 1920.) But for reasons that are still unclear -- perhaps because a military revolt against the French broke out in the Druze Mountains from 1925 to 1927 -- the mistake was never fixed. The mandate authorities considered the error unimportant at the time. Documents from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s show that the inhabitants of Sheba in fact paid taxes to the Lebanese government and not to Damascus, and they were registered as Lebanese citizens.

But the faulty borders had been drawn, and the mistake was reinforced thereafter. In 1933 and 1945, the French produced maps, based on the wrong and poorly created maps of 1923, showing Sheba as part of Syria. When the French left Syria in 1946, the Sheba Farms were administered by Syria. During the Syrian-Israeli Armistice Agreement of 1949, Syrian President Husni al-Za'im produced a map showing the Sheba Farms as Syrian territory.

However, in 1951, Syrian President Adib al-Shishakli, a practical man of action who valued results, created a team of experts to determine the proper border between Syria and Lebanon, in coordination with Lebanese officials. The Syrian-Lebanese team continued its work, on and off, for 10-years (well after Shishakli left power) and finally produced a report in 1964 stating the Sheba Farms were part of Lebanon and had wrongly been placed on Syrian maps since the 1920s.

Some claim that the farms were "given" to Lebanon by President Shishakli in 1951, although they remained under Syrian jurisdiction. The agreement with Lebanon supposedly was verbal and the Syrian government did not bother to register it with the U.N. Shishakli purportedly did this because he believed it made little sense for Damascus to claim land owned and cultivated by Lebanese only because it was strategically important for Syria vis-à-vis Israel. Adherents of this version of events say Shishakli transferred Sheba on the condition that Syria could continue to use it for strategic and logistical purposes, while the crops and taxes would go to Lebanon.

This story has been challenged by many historians and analysts, as well as people who knew Shishakli well. They say it is not like Adib al-Shishakli, who valued every inch of Syrian land, to "give" Syrian territory to Lebanon.

In any case, in 1964, the findings of the Syrian-Lebanese commission were neglected by both the Lebanese administration of President Fouad Shihab and the new Baath regime in Syria. The Syrian regime was too busy combating an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama in 1964 to mind Sheba. The territory continued to be administered militarily by the Syrian government until it was occupied by Israel in June 1967.

To bolster their claim, Lebanese officials point to deeds, stamped by Lebanese authorities, that were held by the residents of Sheba in the 1940s. Another of the documents produced by the Lebanese government is a 1947 bill of sale for the Barakhta Farm in Sheba, registered with the real estate authority of Sidon in Lebanon. Another document relates to Syrian customs duties, dated 1951, which gives permission to a Lebanese citizen named Yusuf Musa Hamad of the Fashkul farm (also in Sheba) to herd his sheep in a nearby Syrian pasture. In other evidence, Ali Husayn Dahir, 75 and still living, says he was appointed mayor of Sheba in 1953 by the municipality of Sheba in Lebanon.

The international community has been calling on Syria and Lebanon to determine their exact borders in the vicinity of the Sheba Farms and register those borders at the U.N. Both countries have pledged to do so but no action has been taken. On May 15, 2000, the U.N. received a map from the Lebanese government, dated 1966, that showed the farms located in Lebanon. But the U.N. says it has 10 other maps, all issued on later dates from official Lebanese sources, putting the Sheba Farms in Syria.

The Arab League backs the present claims of the Syrian and Lebanese government that Sheba is Lebanese territory. At the 13th summit of the Arab League in 2001, the league asked for "complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese lands still under occupation, to internationally recognized borders, including the Sheba Farms."

In April 2001, the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Harriri told members of the U.S. Congress that Hizbullah's attacks against Israel in Sheba were "as legitimate as France's resistance to Nazi Germany's occupation." Writing in The Washington Post on Aug. 1, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said "Israel should withdraw from all Lebanese territory, including Sheba Farms."

Others in the West continue to support the argument that says Sheba is a fabrication by Syria's government to justify the maintenance of an armed Hizbullah. Among those who support this argument is Nancy Soderberg, who was U.S. ambassador to the U.N. when Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. "When it was clear the Israelis were going to withdraw fully from Lebanon, Syrian and Lebanese officials fabricated the fiction that this small, sparsely populated area was part of Lebanon," Soderberg wrote in a July 21, 2006, op-ed in the Florida Times-Union. "They even produced a crudely fabricated map to back up the dubious claim. I and United Nations officials went into the map room in the United Nations and looked at all the maps of the region in the files for decades. All showed the Sheba Farms clearly in Syria."

On May 16, 2000, shortly before the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon, then-Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara gave a public statement -- the first by a Syrian official, supporting what then seemed the strange claim that Sheba was Lebanese. Stronger support was given by President Bashar al-Asad on January 21, 2001, in a speech before Arab Lawyers in Damascus. Asad said that there are two legal requirements before borders are demarcated. First, the complaint must be registered at the United Nations by Lebanon. Second, engineers from both Syria and Lebanon must define the borders. Since neither Syria nor Lebanon have access to the area, this would be difficult to do so long as Sheba is occupied by Israel.

However, there is another question that is perhaps more important than whether Sheba belongs to Lebanon or Syria: If the Israelis withdrew from Sheba, would this put an end to Hizbullah? Clearly, the answer is no. Hizbullah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah has said repeatedly that his goal is to liberate all of what he considers Palestine, not only South Lebanon. Hassan Izz al-Din, a spokesman for Hizbullah, once said that if Israel withdraws from Sheba "we will not stop fighting them. Our goal is to liberate the 1948 borders of Palestine, [Jews] can go back to Germany or wherever they came from."

Nevertheless, the Sheba Farms are important because of their history and symbolic meaning. With such an uncertain history, it is only natural that they give rise to so much controversy among the Lebanese. It is clear that Syrian President Shishakli did not give the Sheba Farms to Lebanon in 1951. But he set the stage for recognizing the truth about Sheba: It belongs to Lebanon, not Syria. Unfortunately, this reality was not implemented before Sheba was occupied in 1967.

Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.

[NEWUSER]

Originally Posted by Hassoun

It's a lebanese land,but occupied by syria and israel.

Yah man and Gaza is also occupied by Syria too, right?

It's sad when people don't know who is occupying what...

[Hassoun]

lol,read the article above and you will know that shebaa farms was occupied by syrians when israel occupied it

[AmeriLEB]

Do you think this will pressure HZ or will there be a new excuse from them? Do you think the people would stop supporting them as much if its a "Lebanese resistance for Palestine" instead of a "Lebanese resistance for the liberation of Lebanon"

[Hassoun]

If israel withdrew from Shebaa farms, Hizbullah will at least lose 50% of its supporters if it kept its arms.i know so many people who say Hizbullah arms are justified koz israel still occupying LEBANESE LAND.and honestly,i tend to like this opinion,koz honestly i don't see israel giving this land to Lebanon anyway.it's a strategic piece of land,don't forget that israel using part of this land as a ski station as well,so ,they'll lose a strategic,historic,touristic piece of land.they just don't realize that this land belongs to Lebanon and not to Syria.

[NEWUSER]

Hezb'Allah's military wing will no-longer have a reason to operate if the Sheba farms issue is resolved and returned to Lebanon. Their Political wing will remain as they are represented in the Lebanese gov. - or were up till their rep. resigned.

IMO, if they wont to become a "Lebanese resistance for Palestine" they need to move there.

[Tomib]

Originally Posted by Hassoun

If israel withdrew from Shebaa farms, Hizbullah will at least lose 50% of its supporters if it kept its arms.i know so many people who say Hizbullah arms are justified koz israel still occupying LEBANESE LAND.and honestly,i tend to like this opinion,koz honestly i don't see israel giving this land to Lebanon anyway.it's a strategic piece of land,don't forget that israel using part of this land as a ski station as well,so ,they'll lose a strategic,historic,touristic piece of land.they just don't realize that this land belongs to Lebanon and not to Syria.

I agree. I don't see the Israelis letting go of their only ski resort. And the army letting go of this strategic place. But maybe if we knew that hizbullah (military wing) would be disarmed, then it would convince some people that it's okay. But I don't see them disarming even if they get the farms. please remind me, is the shebaa farms the only reason hizbullah exists? or are there more reasons?

[Hassoun]

Well,Hizbullah is saying he will remain Armed as long as there is occupied Lebanese land and Lebanese prisoners in Israel,once these problems solved,Hizbullah will lose its supporters Base,and it will have no Excuses for keeping the Arms.

[AmeriLEB]

The prisoners should be a nonissue...most are being held without trial..and its political..they should just release them...they can do that in a day or 3...are you sure the ski resort is on that particuar lot(s) ...its on the golan but i don't think shebaa is that.

[Hassoun]

The Ski resort is in that area,the Mount Hermon is not part of the Golan Heights,it's a different Geographical aspect,the Mount Hermon is part ofthe Anti-Lebanon mountain Range.so it doesn't belong to the Golan Heights,and the occupied part(where the ski station is),is the south-western part of the Mount,and according to the border demarcation between Lebanon and Syria,All the Western Slopes belong to Lebanon and the eastern slopes belong to Syria.The Area where the ski station is Located is a farm called (mra7 al maloul) which is one of the shebaa farms.it's the higest farm.

[AmeriLEB]

Cool...i understand the skiing sucks anyway there LOL Slushy snow etc..But its about the water more than anything..i think about 15% of Israels water sources come from that area

[Hassoun]

Yes,But if they want peace,withdrawing is what they should do,not everything is Hizbullah's fault.

[AmeriLEB]

The land isnt theres so the water isnt there's either..So talk about "Making up 15% of ISRAELS water" isnt a true statment as i read

[NorthPole]

Just thinking:
1. If it's true that the Sheba Farms belong (due to the international law) to Lebanon, Israel will have to withdraw or to state officially there's a Lebanese territories under Israeli occupation (what has been denied for long time while Hezbollah claimed it). Dealing with this would be of course of great importance for Israel, as making Lebanese legal claims fulfilled could make Lebanon neutral (not hostile) neighbour.
2. Hezbollah (and Lebanese government too) will not accept the state of occupation of that territories
3. As I see for Lebanon these territories are of minor economical importance (the big problem is rather living under constant fear of war there), it's more about keeping face (especially for Hezbollah) and showing that Lebanon is able to protect its territorial integrity.
4. For Israel it's even more about economy (15% of water resources means crops for 1 mln Israelis and Palestinians and it means some 1 bln worth production with only water worth some 10-20% of it, so let's say at 200 mln USD / year) and maybe the only so "snowy" region for skiing etc. (even if "your snow is better than their snow" )

So what about selling part of the disputed Sheba Farms region to Israel for "some monies" (say dozen bln USD or so paid in 12 years with UN only military presence for that 12 years) and transferring it to the south of the country for infrastructural development under joint Lebanese/Israeli/UN supervision (while Lebanon and Israel are still formally in state of war, there's no possible for Israel to finance Lebanese army)?

Such solution would help keeping face for both countries, make money for Lebanon and preserve the Israeli agro-economy.

I guess the only loser would be Hezbollah, as its influence on the south would be significantly diminished and many Lebanese living there probably wouldn't have any problem with accepting such situation, as they would be beneficiaries of it

Just thinking.

[AmeriLEB]

Giving it to the UN is the imediate answer..Its an issue of soverenty..we arent going to sell the land to a foreign country or its citizens...If the boreders were open and peace reigned then Israeli citizens can invest like any others..but the land will be under the Lebanese flag..

[NorthPole]

But it doesn't solve the water issue, which is (as I see it) one of the biggest problems in the region (thou not as big as on Arabian Peninsula).

What is no problem at all in Europe (you don't see any river to be "consumed" by ppl) starts to be problem in the regions with low rainfall and relatively high temperature.

[IL]

hassoun, you are saying wrong things, have you ever seen a map of that area? have you ever been to that area?
i guess the answer is no..

so, as someone who knows that area well enoguh,
and have been to that area more than several times i know what i am talking about,
and i can tell you say such wrong things.
first, the israeli mount hermon has 3 western slopes and some slopes to east direction to syria.

the eastern slopes:




the eastern slopes are military area, and they are closed military zone although that israel is planning to expand soon the ski resort to some areas in the eastern slopes also.

as you can see in the pic - the Western slopes:





the western slopes are:

1. Si-on slope(shebaa farms)
2. shirion slope
3. hermon slope

the si-on slope also called "mount dov" which is shebaa farms area.
and BECAUSE it's the area of shebaa farms it's closed military zone.
all the other slopes have nothing to do with lebanon and shebaa farms,
they are free from closed army zone because there is no problem with them so israeli citizens can walk freely in shirion and hermon slopes.
the ski resort and all the military posts are on the other slopes, they are much more upper..
in the eastern slopes direction.. the ski resort located north-east between shirion slope to hermon slope. so it has NOTHING to do with lebanon or shebaa farms.

and to the water thing... even 1% of israel's water are not coming from si-on slope (shebaa farms) area. that area has no springs or something like that. the only important thing on that area is that we can have observations posts into lebanon...

and one more thing, "golan heights" isn't a geographical term,
it's a political term, and israel use the term "golan heights" for all the area that israel occupied from syria on the 1967 six days war. and the israeli law see all that area as "golan heights", include shebaa farms.
according to that law, that area is part of israel, annexed to israel, and in order to give up on some area from the "golan heights" the israeli parliament should vote in great majority.. which means more than 60 members out of 120 that agree to give up on some area.. and after all that.. there should be referendum among the israeli citizens that approves it..

so, i don't see israel gives up on si-on slope or any territory from the golan soon.

[AmeriLEB]

The Shebaa Farms (Arabic: مزارع شبعا, Mazāri‘ Šib‘ā; Hebrew: חוות שבעא‎, Havot Sheba‘a or הר דוב, Har Dov) is a small area of disputed ownership located on the border between Lebanon and the Golan Heights. The area is located about 3 to 12 km (2 to 7.5 mi) southwest of the Lebanese village of Shebaa and about 7 km (4 mi) northwest of the Druze village of Majdal Shams on the slopes of the Golan Heights. It is on the south side of a long ridge descending to the southwest of Mount Hermon.

The area is about 10 km (6 mi) in length, and averages 2.5 km (2 mi) in width, coming to about 25 km² (10 sq mi). Altitudes range from about 250 to about 1,500 m (825–4,940 ft).

Israel captured the Shebaa Farms concurrent to capturing the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 during the Six Day War. Lebanon was not an active participant in the war. Israel considered the Shebaa Farms to be part of the Golan Heights,[1] and subsequently extended Israeli law to the region when it annexed the Golan Heights in 1981.[2] The United Nations Security Council declared this extension of "[Israeli] laws, jurisdiction and administration... null and void and without international legal effect" in the non-binding Resolution 497.

The controversy arose following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from occupied territory in Southern Lebanon on May 25, 2000. On June 18, 2000, the United Nations affirmed that Israel had withdrawn its forces from Lebanon, in accordance with Resolution 425.[3] Syria and Lebanon disputed the United Nations certification that Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon was complete. Hezbollah cites the ongoing occupation of the Shebaa farms as the basis for its continued attacks on Israel.

For decades members of the international diplomatic community have repeatedly requested that Syria and Lebanon take steps to determine the exact boundary between them in the Shebaa Farms region and elsewhere, including officially registering the demarcated border with the United Nations. However, recently President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has refused to do so until Israeli troops withdraw.[4]. In early September 2007, the former UN cartographer Miklos Pinter came out of retirement to head a team that is to map the entire Shebaa Farms area as a prelude to an eventual negotiated determination of the political destination of that territory.[5]

Israelis refer to the northern, higher part of the area as Har Dov (Mount Dov) named after Captain Dov Rodberg of the IDF who was killed there in 1970).[47] Lebanese press and officials often refer to this area, just southeast of the Lebanese village of Kafr Shuba, as the Kafr Shuba Hills. This area on old maps is also labelled as Jebal ar Ru'us Jebel Rous or Jabel Rous.[48]

Shebaa Farms are the following 14 farms[citation needed]:

Marah Al-Malool مراح الملول
Brakhta برختــا
Kafr Dorah كفـر دورة
Al-Boraq House (Beit El-Boraq) بيت البـراق
Al-Rabi'a الربعـة
Al-Mashhad المشهـد
Ramta رمتـا
Qafuah قفـوة
Zobideen زبيدين
Khelat Ghazalah خلـة غـزالة
Al-Qarn القـرن
Fashkool فشكول
Al-Moieaz المعـز
Bastrah بسـطرة (the only farm situated north of the Blue Line)