This is how the stigma of labor persecutes the families of the SLA members in Israel

Between the attempts to integrate into Israeli society and the “stigmatization of employment”, families of the remnants of the South Lebanon Army live in the village of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, watching with longing looks the childhood and grandparents’ fields on the other side of the Lebanese-Israeli border, after they fled with their families the day after the announcement Israeli occupation army abrupt withdrawal in 2000.

Families still call the “labour fire” that their fathers branded after they were part of the so-called “Antoine Lahd Army,” which fought, with the support of the Israeli army, the Palestine Liberation Organization and Lebanese factions, during the civil war between 1975 and 1990.

While members of those families remained witnesses to the horrors of that period of the Lebanese civil war, a generation grew up whose eyes were opened in the arms of Israeli society and completely integrated into its official, social and even military institutions.

About 3,600 Lebanese live in most of the Israeli towns located in the north and closest to the Lebanese borders, such as Kiryat Shmona, Nahariya, Metula, Safed, Tiberias and others.

While some of them still suffer from difficult economic and social conditions, others have fully integrated into Israel, especially the young people who were born there or fled to it as children, but grew up there and no longer remember anything they spent in the plains of southern Lebanon.

These young men work in various professions, including the army and the police, without assuming high positions, and many of them believe that Israel protected and nurtured him, so he has a duty to “repay the favor” by serving it.

Joining the Israeli army guarantees to these young people rights that those outside the army do not get, such as obtaining land, a house, educational grants, and other benefits.

Attempts to integrate the Lebanese in Israel into the Jewish community began when the 1948 Palestinians refused to receive them in their villages and towns to live in and live there after fleeing Lebanon, so they sought refuge in Israeli towns.

The new generation of "Lebanese Israelis" are involved in the Jewish community through the kindergarten stage, through the basic stages of study, to universities and then the business world.

As for the first generation of officers and soldiers, some of them decided to leave Israel because of the social and living conditions and the difficulty of adapting to Israeli society.

Others remained in Israel and received aid from the Ministries of Absorption and Defense, but it was not sufficient for them to meet their living needs. They also suffer from a lack of job opportunities that fit their qualifications limited to military experience, which cannot be relied upon to work in civilian life in Israel.

They do not hide their disappointment with the treatment of successive Israeli governments due to their failure to secure a decent living for them as they see fit.

The problem of housing is one of the obstacles for these Lebanese, especially after former officers, with high positions and high salaries, received homes and aid that others did not receive.

And last June, Israel announced aid of about 150,000 euros for veteran members of the Lahad army, in preparation for solving the housing crisis suffered by 400 families who did not obtain adequate housing after their arrival in Israel, according to the Israeli army.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz - who served as commander of the liaison unit with Lebanon when the Israeli army withdrew its forces - said that this assistance "is a matter of historical justice for those who fought on our side and were expelled (...) from their country."

The roots of the case

The story of the remains of those families dates back to 1976, at the beginning of the civil war, when a militia known as the “South Lebanon Army” was formed, which was led by the officer in the Lebanese army, Saad Haddad, and then Antoine Lahd, and was sponsored by Israel to be a protective shield for it from the attacks of the Palestine Liberation Organization, with which groups lined up with it. Leftist, Arab and Islamic, and later from the Lebanese Hezbollah. Most of the members of the SLA were Maronite Christians from the southern villages who defected from units of the Lebanese army.

During that period, Israel was arming Christian militias and providing them with weapons, support and training. Israel's support was not limited to the military side, but also included medical and economic aspects.

And when the Israeli army withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, it dragged with it thousands of Lahad’s army and their families, whose number was estimated to be between 6,500 and 7,000, and the number was reduced to about half, after some of them returned to Lebanon in the period following the Israeli withdrawal, and were submitted to court trials in which judgments were issued. Reduced prison terms, while others immigrated to various Western countries.

return attempts

In 2011, the Lebanese parliament passed a law allowing the return of Lebanese who have sought refuge in Israel.

At the time, the representative of the Free Patriotic Movement bloc, Ibrahim Kanaan, told AFP that "those who will be allowed to return must not have a military or security file in dealing with Israel," and that family members of people who were affiliated with the South Lebanon Army can also return, provided that they subject to a fair trial.

The implementing decrees for that law are still being prepared at the Ministry of Justice, and Lebanon's successive crises at the political and economic levels have further complicated the issue.

Their case raises great sensitivity in Lebanon, as some describe them as "forcibly deportees", while others consider them "agents" of Israel, and refuse to return to Lebanon.

The Maronite parish made efforts to solve their dilemma, and opened 3 centers for them in Acre, Tiberias and Kiryat Shmona, close to the Lebanese border.

The Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai visited occupied Jerusalem to meet the Pope, which he described as religious and not political, after it sparked controversy at the time. During the visit, he met the Maronite community there, including the Lebanese who sought refuge in Israel.

The issue of the arrest of Archbishop Musa al-Hajj also sparked an uproar in Lebanon, after he was arrested at the Naqoura crossing on his return from Israel with about 460,000 dollars, which he said was aid to the Lebanese in light of the economic crisis in the country, while the government commissioner to the military court, Acting Judge Fadi Akiki, said that The money “does not belong to the church, but comes from clients residing in Israel.”

In previous press statements, Archbishop Moussa Al-Haj expressed the impossibility of the return of the Lebanese in Israel because of what he said was the overwhelming majority of them refused to return with or without conditions, especially in light of the political and economic conditions that the country is currently experiencing.

If the elderly are unable to return due to their fear of arrests or trials, the young among them "have adapted to Israeli society and do not want to leave Israel," according to Archbishop Al-Hajj, who is in charge of their case.

Despite the conversion of some of them to Judaism, and the integration of others into the Israeli occupation society, an identity crisis afflicts many of them, and time only makes it more entrenched, especially in successive generations.