Sunday, May 17, 2009

May 17 2009, 26 Years on Foiling Humiliating Agreement with Israel


Al-Manar

"17/05/2009 In 1983, Lebanon was recovering from a fierce Israeli war launched under the pretext of crushing the Palestinian resistance. That same year, Lebanon nearly became the second Arab state to sign a peace deal with the Israeli entity, or did it?
On the 17th of may 2003, 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.

The events:

At that time Israel needed the deal 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......

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....."

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