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They were born in Lebanon but see themselves as Israelis

May 27, 2020
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Myriam Younnes was 5 years old when she fled to Israel in May 2000. Younnes says she still remembers the sudden escape with “shock and anxiety”.

Her father was a member of the South Lebanese Army (Tzadal) – an ethnically mixed Christian-dominated army that worked with the Israeli Army (IDF) for almost 25 years. Initially, the cooperation/' target='_blank'>cooperation was secret, but became an open cooperation/' target='_blank'>cooperation after the first Lebanon war in 1982 began. Tzadal helped the IDF after setting up a security zone in southern Lebanon in 1985 and until Israel’s withdrawal on 22-24. May 2000, writes the left-wing newspaper Ha’aretz.

The news that then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak would withdraw Israeli troops may have surprised the world, but it was an even bigger shock for Tzadal, who had fought cooperation/' target='_blank'>cooperation-with-israel/' target='_blank'>cooperation-with-israel/' target='_blank'>with Israel against Hezbollah and other Palestinian guerrilla groups, according to Ha’aretz.

-My father heard about the withdrawal after it began and he was afraid of retaliation from Hezbollah. We packed everything, hurried to the border and asked Israel to let us in, says Myriam Younnes.

Hundreds of Israeli-Lebanese have similar memories. Many of them do not remember their homeland, they grew up in Israel, they are integrated into Israeli society and speak Hebrew with each other, despite still speaking Arabic with their parents.

According to military correspondent Amos Harel, Israel expected about 2,000 former Tzadal soldiers and their families to cross Fatma Gate near the Israeli city of Metula during the withdrawal, but more than 6,000 arrived.

After the initial confusion, they former Tzadal soldiers and their families were allowed to enter Israel, but their unique situation created a unique problem, according to Ha’aretz.

Most Arab-Israelis saw the former Tzadal soldiers as traitors and gave them a cold welcome. Most Lebanese families settled in Jewish communities. In 2003, about 2,500 former Tzadal soldiers lived with their families in Israel, today it is estimated that about 3,500 live there.

According to Ha’aretz, tensions continue between Israeli-Lebanese and Arab-Israelis. Most Arab-Israelis consider them war criminals against Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners. The former Tzadal soldiers do not see themselves as Arabs, they see themselves as Phoenicians from Lebanon and they fought against the Israeli Ministry of the Interior to be registered as Lebanese – not Arabs.

-It is partly due to the fact that Arabic was used about the enemy during the Lebanese civil war. Although Tzadal was originally an ethnically mixed army, it ended up being dominated by Christians, Younnes says.

Among the Israelis, the former Tzadal soldiers are called zadalnikim . Many of them lived in poor conditions in Israel. Some former government officials believe Israel should have done more for their former allies.

-The former Tzadal soldiers received a lot of help from Israel, but not enough. It was a mistake when in the early 2000s, they were divided into two groups based on their rank in the army. This meant that former Tzadal soldiers in the elite group received help with housing purchases and this created anger among the other former soldiers, says Yossi Peled (79), former minister in the Knesset with responsibility for Tzadal affairs.

The young Israeli-Lebanese know which group their families belonged to, but the young generation does not want to discuss who got what, when or how. According to the young people, the subject fills more for their parents’ generation than the memories of the war.

The young generation of Israeli-Lebanese has a higher standard of living than their parents. Most have a higher education unlike their parents who were farmers and soldiers in Lebanon. The young generation does not have language barriers and does not feel alienated in the same way as their parents did after they moved to Israel.

Myriam Younnes is educated in media and communication in Italy and speaks four languages: English, Italian, Arabic and Hebrew. Like so many other young Israelis, she is also waiting for the Corona crisis to subside so she can find a job.

Her younger sister, 23-year-old Shilgia (Snow White) Younnes, served her national service (alternative to military service in the IDF) with the police and is studying architecture at Ariel University in the West Bank. Many young Israeli-Lebanese are seeking work in the Israeli security forces. Other young Israeli-Lebanese work in law and high technology.

Jonathan (Nisar) Elkhoury came to Israel with his mother in 2001.

-I remember my father talking feverishly on the phone on the day of the retreat. My father wanted to find out if we could stay in Lebanon or if it would be too dangerous for us, says Elkhoury.

According to Ha’aretz, Elkhoury stands out among the young Israeli-Lebanese who generally refrain from being publicly involved in politics and social affairs, often fighting instead of speaking with one voice. Elkhoury, on the other hand, is active on social media – for example on Twitter, where he expresses his right-wing political views.

Elkhoury

Most Israeli-Lebanese reject the idea of ​​voting for left-wing parties due to anger at former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. They blame him for not warning Tzadal about Israel’s sudden withdrawal and thus left them in koas to terrorist groups like Hezbollah. According to Barak, secrecy was necessary for security reasons.

Most Israeli-Lebanese vote for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, others support Yisrael Beiteinus’ leader Avigdor Lieberman, who they believe has been their mouthpiece in demanding more state aid.

According to Ha’aretz, the Israeli-Lebanese are not pro-Palestinian and therefore there is virtually no support for parties such as the Arab Party, the joint list which is against giving Israeli-Lebanese citizenship and state support.

Elkhoury stresses that the Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi (joint list) was discussed in the Knesset in 2004 in connection with the law on citizenship of Lebanese veterans, stating that “the Tzadal sons must pay for the sins of their fathers.”

“What have we done?” asks Elkhoury.

Elkhoury was 9 years old during the retirement and can clearly remember what happened.

-When the Hezbollah men came to plunder the houses of the families who had fled to Israel, they removed our color TV which was the only one in the village – and they also took all my teddy bears, says Elkhoury.

Elkhoury says Hezbollah troops marched through his hometown of Ain Ebel, with the leader of the Shiite group, Hassan Nasrallah, passing “right next to our house.” Elkhoury says Nasrallah gave the former Tzadal soldiers in the village three options: flee with the enemy, surrender and face the consequences or be slaughtered while embracing their mothers.

Most former Tzadal soldiers chose to flee to Israel after Israeli officers informed them that their fate was now in their own hands. When the situation calmed down after the withdrawal, “many former Tzadal soldiers traveled back to Lebanon and paid Hezbollah for their security with money provided by Israel. Others traveled over the years to third countries such as Australia and the United States, “says Peled.

Those who remained in Israel gained full rights as Israeli citizens and settled in northern Israeli cities such as Nahariya, Kiryat Shmona and Ma’alot, close to their ancient villages on the other side af border.

“We will always be Lebanese” is a phrase that the young Israeli-Lebanese in their twenties often say. “Even though we consider Israel our new land, our old land will always remain in their hearts,” says Myriam Younnes. / p>

“I joined the Israeli police and my sister joined the Israeli Army (IDF), but we will always be Lebanese,” said 20-year-old Elissa Attieh from Ma’alot, who was 10 months old when she left Lebanon with her family.

Attieh calls herself a “spokeswoman” in a movement that Myriam Younnes and her friends want to establish to promote reconciliation between their two countries and the memory of Tzadal in Israel.

“It is sad that our fallen soldiers are not commemorating Yom Hazikaron [Israel’s Day of Remembrance for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror] or the anniversary of the withdrawal from Lebanon,” Attieh said. (Read MIFF’s article on Yom Hazikaron here.)

-We must be in the history books. Only now do I realize that what my parents went through is true history, says Myriam Younnes.

-It is very frustrating that even now there is a focus on the forgotten story of the first Lebanon war in In connection with the 20th anniversary, our group continues to be forgotten in the Israeli media, says Elkhoury.

About 700 Tzadal soldiers died during the 24 years it existed, according to Window to the Backyard by Yair Ravid. Ravid was one of the first Israeli agents to build the alliance with Lebanese villagers in southern Lebanon in the late 1970s.

“A Tzadal memorial in Metula has been under discussion for 10 years,” said Elkhoury, referring to the Israeli city on the border with Lebanon. “Now the Department of Defense says they can not move forward with the plans because of Corona,” he adds.

Joanna Abu Ghanam left the Lebanese village of Ain Ebel when he was 2 years old.

-Many Israelis do not know who we are – especially in the southern part of Israel, “says the 22-year-old who wants to study medicine in Germany. “I find it refreshing that people in Germany do not ask so many questions when I say I am from Israel, but are Lebanese – they do not think it is so strange,” says Joanna.

According to Joanna, the big difference between the generations is that the young Israeli-Lebanese want to visit their old villages, but have no intentions of moving to Lebanon – unlike their parents who still miss Lebanon and their old lives. Almost all have relatives on the other side of the border, but can only meet in “third countries” such as Cyprus or Greece.

Abu Ghanam thinks her friends are naive when they say they hope for reconciliation between Israel and Lebanon.

Most young Israeli-Lebanese often know little about what happened in their homeland during the 25-year Lebanese civil war or what their parents did during the war. “When I ask my parents, they say, ‘I will tell you later,’ but the moment will never come,” said Abu Ghanam.

Many atrocities were committed during the Civil War. Tzadal, for example, was in charge of a detention center in the village of Khiam, notorious for ill-treatment of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners detained without trial.

According to Ha’aretz, young Israeli-Lebanese avoid criticism of their parents’ actions. “The Lebanese government did not protect us from [Yasser] Arafat’s PLO who behaved like the country’s new lord in southern Lebanon,” Elkhoury said. “In any case, we all need to close the door, leave the past behind and move on,” he adds.

Elkhoury’s activism on social media has created hostility towards him among many Palestinians and Lebanese. Still, he says he “dreams of becoming the first Israeli ambassador to Lebanon or the first LebaneseAmbassador to Israel – but we need support from Lebanon “, he added.

Attieh Says of Tzadal’s time in Lebanon: “It was a different time, a different universe. There was no state to take care of them, and Palestinians attacked Israel from the villages. They had to do what they had to do, ”she says.

According to Ha’aretz, there is hostility towards the Palestinians among young Israeli-Lebanese, a legacy they have inherited from the civil war, yet the hostility in their parents’ generation is even greater. “People in our minority have friends in the Arab community in Israel – but they are usually Christians, not Muslims,” ​​says Shilgia Younnes.

-Although the relationship is usually better with Christian Palestinians than with Muslim Palestinians, we still have separate churches – the most important ‘Tzadal Church’ is in Acre, says Younnes.

Da Myriam and Shilgia Youne’s father died in 2013, he was buried in Lebanon – the same goes for most former Tzadal soldiers. The grieving family was only allowed to attend the funeral until the border crossing with Lebanon.

20 years after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, Myriam Younnes has a dream: “I wish there was peace between my two countries and I could visit my relatives living in southern Lebanon, just a few kilometers away from where I live now and yet so far away. “

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