May 17: Humiliating Day… Thwarted by Honorable Resistance!

Wael Karaki - Hussein Assi

17/05/2010

Twenty-seven years have passed on the "black day" and Lebanon is still facing all schemes to attach it in the heart of the Israeli enemy…

May 17, 1983, was not a usual day in Lebanon's history… It might be one of the most humiliating days, the day believed to be "the blackest" in the history of the country, the day in which Lebanon nearly became the second Arab state to sign a peace deal with the Israeli enemy…

In 1983, Lebanon was recovering from a fierce Israeli war launched under the pretext of crushing the Palestinian resistance.

On the 17th of may of the same year, then Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, now a key figure in the March 14 bloc, represented by Antoine Fattal, signed the deal with the Israelis; a deal that was thwarted one year later…under the pressure of a popular uprising.

May 17, 1983, was a day of humiliation, surrender and humbleness… May 17, 1983, was a day in which a group of Lebanese sought to ignore the simplest values of humanity represented by safeguarding the land and protecting the sovereignty…

Yet, May 17, 1983, was also the day that created the principle of popular Resistance, Resistance that was born to put an end to all schemes to subordinate the country and to tell the enemy that honorable Resistance will impose its will at the end, far from all kinds of surrender and compromise…

SHEIKH HAMMOUD TO AL-MANAR: MAY 17 SYMBOL OF ARAB DEFEAT!

In the twenty-seventh anniversary of the humiliating agreement, Al-Quds mosque Imam Sheikh Maher Hammoud spoke to Al-Manar website about the event and its repercussions at all levels.

Sheikh Hammoud said that the month of May carries a series of related occasions, starting with the Nakba in May 15, passing through the humiliating agreement of May 17 without forgetting the Liberation and Resistance Day on May 25.

Sheikh Hammoud, who took part in the strike that thwarted the humiliating agreement, said that the Arab situation was at its worst position in 1982, recalling how Lebanon was recovering from a fierce Israeli war and how Arabs were still suffering their major loss of 1967. "At the time, a political and religious front was formed to stand against the Zionist scheme and its agents in the country," Sheikh Hammoud noted, adding that resistant forces emerged as well to face the occupation.

According to Al-Quds Mosque Imam, the foiling of the humiliating agreement of May 17 started on February 6, 1984, following the popular uprising, or Intifada, against the leadership of then President Ami Gemayel who was the head of the authority that was practically subordinate to the Zionist occupation.

Sheikh Hammoud stressed that the Resistance nowadays was stronger than ever, concluding that all conspiracies by the enemies and their allies and aides against it became useless.

Based on all these facts, Sheikh Hammoud made a comparison between the days of May 17 and 25 and emphasized the huge difference between the day of humiliation at one side and the day of victory at the other. "The political map completely changed following the year 2000 and the new balances were further consolidated in 2006 following the Divine Victory," he said, noting that the Resistance in Lebanon and Palestine made the change and constituted an important heritage to the Arab nation.

Sheikh Hammoud concluded his interview with Al-Manar website by stressing that the Resistance has proved that it was not a limited reaction or a reckless adventure but the right choice that was crowned with historic victory in 2000 and 2006.

SOME FACTS… FOR HISTORY!

Israel needed the so-called peace deal with Lebanon to achieve its other goals. The United Stated represented by its envoy Philippe Habib granted Israel its wish. Negotiations kicked off on the 28th of December 1982. 35 rounds of talks were held alternately between the Lebanon Beach Hotel in the Israeli occupied Khalde region and a ballet hall near the settlement of Kiryat Shmona. From the first round of talks, the Israelis never left any detail for coincidence; they even imposed the shape and dimensions of the negotiations table.

The term "normalization" was not mentioned in the text of the agreement which stated on forming a joint contact committee to hold regular meetings in Lebanon and "Israel". The committee was given the mission of developing bilateral relations, including controlling the movement of imports and exports, individuals, etc.

The Lebanese delegation sought to renounce terms which made the agreement look like a peace agreement, fearing Lebanon would be boycotted by Arab states as was the case with Egypt. So the deal was named "The Israeli withdrawal agreement." Yet it implicitly ended the state of war which was declared against Israel since the establishment of the Zionist entity.

The agreement gave Israel the right to establish a security zone in south Lebanon controlled by 4341 soldiers from both Lebanese and Israeli armies. Local forces, according to the text, would protect the zone, in an indication to the collaborating forces of Saad Haddad. The deal determined the makeup of the Lebanese army forces to be allowed to be present in this area, limiting their number to two brigades in addition to police and internal security forces.

However the deal never saw light. A campaign of protests was launched just after parliament endorsed the bill of the agreement. In 1984 the struggle broke out and the "February 6 Uprising" forced Gemayel to take back the agreement to parliament, to be annulled on the 5th of March 1984.

At that time, the resistance was carrying out operations against Israeli occupation forces and their collaborator until it forced them to withdraw from Lebanon on the 25th of may, 16 years later.


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian