While the Shebaa farms area, a part of the occupied Golan heights, has no significance for Israel, it has great significance for rule of law. In 2000, the UN examined Lebanese claims that Sheba farms belong to Lebanon and dismissed them. This rectangular area cuts a village in two, and takes an artificial looking bite out of the contours of the Golan heights and the Syrian border, leaving al-Ghajar sticking out between Israel and Lebanon.
The border was first demarcated in the Anglo-French agreement of 1923, which put Shebaa farms in Syria. All maps prior to 1966 except one, apparently a forgery, show the area as part of Syria. Syria has backed the Lebanese claim, but refuses to demarcate its border.
The
UN position on Shebaa farms until now is summed up as follows:
The United Nations stated: "On 15 May 2000, the United Nations received a map, dated 1966, from the Government of Lebanon which reflected the Government's position that these farmlands were located in Lebanon. However, the United Nations is in possession of 10 other maps issued after 1966 by various Lebanese government institutions, including the Ministry of Defense and the army, all of which place the farmlands inside the Syrian Arab Republic. The United Nations has also examined six maps issued by the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, including three maps since 1966, which place the farmlands inside the Syrian Arab Republic."[11]
In a June 18, 2000 statement, the Security Council noted that Israel and Lebanon had confirmed to the Secretary General, that identification of the withdrawal line was solely the responsibility of the United Nations and that both sides would respect the line as identified. Moreover, the Security Council took note, "with serious concern," of reports of violations - by Hizbullah[16] - that had occurred since June 16, 2000, and called upon the parties to respect the line drawn by the United Nations.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in remarks to the press with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Foreign Minister of Spain Josep Pique, Foreign Minister of Russia Igor Ivanov, and European Union Senior Official Javier Solana in Madrid, Spain, on April 10, 2002, said: "With reference to the disturbances along the Blue Line emanating from Lebanese territory, I call on the Government of Lebanon and all relevant parties to condemn and prevent such violations. The Security Council itself confirmed in June 2000 that Israel had withdrawn from southern Lebanon in compliance with UN Security Council resolutions 425 and 426. Attacks at any point along the Blue Line, including in the Shebaa Farms area in the occupied Golan Heights, are violations of Security Council resolutions. Respect for decisions of the Security Council is the most basic requirement of international legitimacy.
But now Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Annan and the Security Council, faced with Hezbollah blackmail, may be about to hand Shebaa farms over to the Lebanese. Eugene Kontorovich, an expert on international law, notes:
The most surprising aspect of international proposals for a ceasefire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict is their endorsement of Hezbollah's demand that Israel give it territory, known as the Sheba Farms, in exchange for a end to rocket attacks on Israeli cities... What is certain -- and yet entirely neglected in the discussion of the issue -- is that the proposal violates bedrock norms of international law.
...
Because Lebanon has no rightful claim to the territory, if Hezbollah's violence succeeds in re-opening the U.N.'s earlier decision, it would be clear to all Hezbollah's rocket campaign was the necessary cause of the new, presumably more favorable "delineation." Hezbollah's side of the "dispute" over the border consists of attacking Israel. If this kind of disputation can get borders changed, it is a defeat for international law.
Even if we ignore the legal aspects, we must be concerned for the effect that this concession would have on the standing of Hezbollah in Lebanon.