The Shebaa Farms (Arabic: مزارع شبعا, Mazāri‘ Šib‘ā; Hebrew: חוות שבעא, Havot Sheba‘a or הר דוב, Har Dov) are a small uninhabited territory claimed by Lebanon, but occupied by Israel which claims that they are in the Golan Heights, a position the UN agrees with. Syrian policy is to vaguely accept the Lebanese claim, while refusing any binding demarcation until Israeli forces withdraw from the area.
The United Nations had to decide upon a "withdrawal line" for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon (for Security Council Resolution 425). The UN certified Israel's withdrawal as conforming to that line. However, to resolve the issue, the UN has proposed that Israel also withdraw from the Shebaa Farms and that it be considered international territory under UNIFIL.
Documents from the 1920s and 1930s indicate that some local inhabitants regarded themselves as part of Lebanon, but after the French mandate ended in 1946, the land was administered by Syria, and represented as such in all maps of the time, including 1949 Armistice Agreement maps and Syrian and Lebanese military maps. The Shebaa Farms were then occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Read more about Shebaa Farms: Geography, Etymology, Current Dispute, Background, Lebanese Claims, Syrian Claims, Israeli Claims, US Position, UN Position, Arab League, Research Findings
Famous quotes containing the word farms:
“Lead bullets flattened by human teeth have been found on the camp site. Soldiers who had been caught stealing food from nearby farms customarily chewed on a bullet as the lash was laid on their bare backs.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)