The silent war between Hezbollah and ‘Israel’

Posted on July 15, 2023 by uprootedpalestinians

14 Jul 2023

The silent war between Hezbollah and “Israel”

The Israeli government’s dealing with the tents planted outside the Shebaa Farms has been hysterical as the political and military command fails to make a decisive move.

Following its failure in the war in Lebanon, the Israeli government sought to address the emerging problems through a new strategy that relied on three key elements.

“In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles,”

David ben Gurion, prominent Zionist leader, founder of the Israeli occupation regime, and first serving Prime Minister

The Israeli government has gone into a frenzy after the Lebanese Resistance, Hezbollah, planted reconnaissance tents in the Bistara Farm that borders the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms.

The move came after increased Israeli hostilities on Lebanese territories in which bulldozers were deployed on the outskirts of the Kfashouba hills to dig up trenches in order to push further into liberated Lebanese areas. This marked yet another Israeli provocation to Lebanon’s territorial integrity entrenching on the properties and the lives of Southerners.

Continuous provocations come in line with Israeli attempts to enforce and solidify its presence in occupied Lebanese territories, which hold notable economic, military, and strategic value. This piece will highlight the importance of the occupied Shebaa farms as a fortress to the occupied Syrian Golan heights and the Syrian and Palestinian interior.

History of Shebaa Farms and Bistara

The Shebaa and Bistara Farms belong to a pivotal intersection point between various topographies. Britain and France occupied these areas after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, creating political entities in which they would exert their colonial subjugation along arbitrarily drawn lines. These newly formed states would take into account solely their economic and military interests while disregarding historical roots, topographies, and most importantly the societies which inhabited these areas.

The Shebaa Farms are located at the South Eastern borders of the Lebanese territories, placed at an intersection between the Syrian Golan Heights and the Jabal Aamel; a mountainous range that extends from Lebanon into Palestine.

“Shebaa” in Shebaa Farms corresponds to the name of the village from which Lebanese villagers descended as they where partook in a journey to develop the strip of land for agricultural purposes. In 1967, “Israel” unilaterally annexed the Golan Heights and the Shebaa farms, pushing its dwellers into the Bistara village. Those people followed their peasant tradition and developed the Bistara to fit their agricultural purposes. It is important to note that the Israeli annexation of these territories has not been recognized by any country or international organization other than the United States, which did so under the Trump administration.