A Tree Grows in Israel...or is it Lebanon?

The Jerusalem Fund

Post under at 10:45 AM

Yesterday morning started with disturbing news from the Middle East. Cross-border fire left 3 Lebanese soldiers, 1 Israeli soldier and a Lebanese reporter dead. For months, tensions have continued to increase on the border between Israel and Lebanon as threats and allegations between Israel and Hezbollah have accelerated. This comes amidst months of rumors about Hezbollah's arms caches, alleged involvement in the Harriri assassination (a possible tinderbox for Lebanon's governing coalition) , the arrest of alleged spies on both sides and Israel's numerous border violations and infractions. Many anticipated a summer war.

So when the reports began to flood in yesterday about cross-border fire and causalities, many, including myself, experienced a sickening feeling while watching an eerily reminiscent scene. On the day Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was to give an anticipated speech, those watching the region experienced flashbacks to the moments when a cross-border incident sparked the 34-day war on Lebanon that resulted in immense human and infrastructural devastation in the hot summer of 2006.

And what was at the center of this incident?

A tree.

This may seem comical to some but keep in mind that the origins of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict can be traced back to Hatfield-and-McCoy-style grazing rights disputes in the coastal plain of Palestine. Nonetheless, this now infamous picture seems to show the Israelis crossing a fence using a crane to remove a tree.

So is this tree in Lebanon, or is it in Israel? Well, this would seem like an easy question to most. One just has to look at a map, determine where the location of the tree was, and determine which side of the border said tree was located in. This is where the problems start. It's impossible to point to a single, unified and mutually agreed upon border between Israel and Lebanon. You're probably wondering what the 'Blue Line' is that you keep hearing about. In this NY Times story, which ran with the headline "U.N. Supports Israeli Account of Border Clash" the Times states that the location of the incident was "in a gap between the so-called Blue Line, the internationally recognized border, and its security fence".

The problem here, lost on the scrupulous NY Times reporters, is that the Blue Line is not "the internationally recognized border" dividing Lebanese territory from Israeli territory, but rather a jointly acknowledged demarcation of the Israeli Army's withdrawal points after its two-decade occupation of Southern Lebanon. The actual border, from which the 'Blue Line' deviates in a number of places, is based on a demarcation put in place in 1923, before Israel's existence. One spot where the 'Blue Line' infamously deviates from the actual border is in the area between the Israeli Kibbutz of Misgaz-Am and the Lebanese Village of Aadessieh (this is the area where the Israelis insisted on landscaping yesterday). There was controversy over the location of the 'Blue Line' in this area when it was being drawn in 2000 because Misgav-Am was encroaching on Lebanese territory. This was a calculated move to secure strategic high-ground overlooking Lebanese territory. In an effort to appease the Israelis, the UN's 'Blue Line' adjusted to avoid cutting through Misgav-Am like, say, a wall in the West Bank would cut through a Palestinian village. Also, keep in mind that Lebanon's southern border, established in 1923, was then with mandatory Palestine and the Kibbutz of Misgav-Am was then the Palestinian territory of Shuqief-an-Nahla.

So was this a Lebanese tree or an Israeli tree (or a Palestinian tree)? In looking through various maps, going back to as early as 1922, the territory where this incident seems to have taken place would fall clearly within Lebanese territory even though it is south of the blue line. The space in question seems to be a couple hundred feet.

What should we make of all of this? Well, it's unclear to me why this tree just had to come down and why, in a historically and recently disputed slice of territory Israeli soldiers had to be involved in its removal during one of the most tense periods in that border's history. Or why, if it truly was in Israeli territory, they didn't just open a door in the fence and walk to the other side as they have done in the past. This is not the first time disputes have erupted over 'routine maintenance', so you would think someone would have learned from a previous teachable moment.

Ultimately, this underscores a significant problem on the border between Israel and Lebanon. UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force charged with stabilizing Lebanon south of the Litani River, is only operating on the Lebanese side of the 'Blue Line'. Given that it is Israel that occupies Lebanese territory, and has done so for decades, it makes no sense that there is no presence of this peace keeping force in a buffer zone in the disputed territory south of the 'Blue Line'.

Simple measures like this would make sure that there are no misunderstandings, like those that may possibly occur when high-ranking Israeli officers are involved in 'routine maintenance', along a hotly disputed and increasingly tense border.

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