The 4th anniversary of the April Understanding: facts and figures about the Israeli aggression
Lebanon-Israel, Politics, 4/28/2000

April 26 was the fourth anniversary of the April Understanding, which was concluded following Israeli aggressions against Lebanon that started on April 11, 1996. This aggression was crowned by Israel in Qana massacre when Israeli artillery bombarded the premises of Fiji unity at Qana unit, after the people of south Lebanon resorted to the premises, being forced by the Israeli aggression to evacuate their villages. Some 106 Lebanese civilians including children, women and elderly were killed in this massacre and hundreds of civilians were wounded.

Nine days after the Qana massacre and after15 days of the large-scale aggression which covered all areas of south Lebanon and the western Bekaa and following intensive international efforts and diplomatic contacts, led by Syria, the April Understanding was reached to put an end to the Israeli aggression.

At 6 p.m. April 26, 1996, simultaneous announcement was made in Beirut, Damascus, Tel Aviv, Paris, and Washington on reaching this understanding. This understanding called for not targeting civilian areas in Lebanon by Israel, not making civilian areas areas for military acts and ensuring the right to self-defense, a matter which stresses the right of the Lebanese resistance to resist the occupation. It also set up a monitoring committee from the countries concerned ( Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the US and France ) and opened the door to filing complaints to this committee and organizing a consultation group to help meet the needs for reconstructing Lebanon.

The April Understanding committee held its first meeting on August 8, almost after three months from its announcement. The meeting was held at the Lebanese border town of al-Naqoura at the headquarters of UNIFIL, working in south Lebanon.

This meeting was dedicated to discussing organizational matters and was followed by two meetings on August 15 and the beginning of September.

Actual work by the April Understanding committee started in the meeting held on September 22, 1996 to discuss three Lebanese complaints and one Israeli complaint, and then meetings of the committee continued to discuss submitted complaints.

In each and every one of its meetings, the committee recalled for the provisions of the understanding and criticized Israel's targeting of Lebanese civilians through implanting explosives or expanding the scale of artillery bombardment to cover the towns and its residential areas or results of the raids carried out by the Israeli warplanes against the Lebanese towns and villages.

Between September 1996 until the end of 1997, the April Understanding committee held 33 meetings in which it discussed 76 complaints. Between 1998 and 1999 the meetings of the committee increased to 104 and by the beginning of the year 2000 the committee held on January 3 a meeting in which 30 complaints were discussed, including 14 from the Lebanese side. The group approved these Lebanese complaints and considered the Israeli bombardment as a violation of the provisions of the understanding. These were the last meetings held by the committee after Israel had obstructed meetings following the Israeli warplanes' strikes against Lebanese civilian installations on February 7 and 8, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called on members of the Israeli side to withdraw from the meeting of the committee.

Following the February aggression against Lebanon and its obstruction of the meetings of the understanding committee Israel tried to abrogate the understanding and to amend it. But all its attempts have been doomed to failure as a result of diplomatic efforts made by Syria and Lebanon in the international arena.

During the past four years, Israel had submitted several complaints to the committee claiming that the Lebanese resistance bombarded or attacked the occupation positions in populated areas. However, facts refuted these claims. Israel, however, intended by doing so to mislead the world public opinion according to the Lebanese. In most of the complaints submitted by Lebanon, the committee condemned Israel for these aggressions and considered them as violations of the provisions of the understanding.

In the morning of the 4th anniversary of the April Understanding (April 26) Israeli warplanes raided the areas of the western Bekaa and east Lebanon and dropped air-to-surface missiles carrying cluster bombs which are designed maximize human casualties, while the Israeli artillery bombarded more than 30 villages and towns on the areas adjoining the occupied part of south Lebanon and its western Bekaa.

However, despite all these Israeli aggressions, Lebanon stayed steadfast and the Lebanese resistance has succeeded in undermining the invincibility of the Israeli army and inflicted heavy human casualties and material losses. Following 22 years of Israeli occupation of parts of the south and the western Bekaa, the Lebanese resistance has managed to force Israel history to announce its plans for withdrawal from the occupied Lebanese territories. Lebanon has announced that it will not be responsible for ensuring Israel's security and that Israel's withdrawal does not mean the end of problems resulting from its occupation of south Lebanon.

Lebanon also held Israel responsible for any incident that might take place following its withdrawal as long as the pending problems have not settled as a result of Israel's obstruction of the settlement process, as Lebanon is with the assumption that reaching a settlement would solve all problems resulting from the Arab- Israeli conflict and that the settlement should be just, comprehensive and reached according to international legitimacy resolutions, the land-for-peace formula and withdrawal from the Golan to the June 4, 1967 border line.

Previous Stories:
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