Young Leadership Israel Advocacy Program visits Misgav Am on a trip organized by the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee in 2011. (Photo: Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee)
Two weeks ago Israeli authorities admitted that a kibbutz and popular tourist destination called Misgav Am is situated on land inside the borders of Lebanon. The admission came after the kibbutz residents filed an application with the Ministry of Interior to re-zone a section of the town from agricultural to residential, and the government responded that their approval was pending “the withdrawal towards Israeli borders and amending the Blue Line,” according to al-Akhbar, which picked up the story from the Israeli daily Maariv. al-Akhbar English says this is the first time Israeli officials have acknowledged that the kibbutz is partially built in Israel’s northern neighbor, on land confiscated from the village of Adaisseh.
The villagers of Adaisseh, Lebanon, have known since the 1920s that Jewish settlers were stealing their land. First the Sykes-Picot agreement (dividing Ottoman lands between the British and French, winners in World War I) gobbled up hundreds of dunams. Additional confiscations took place just before 1948 and again during the 1970s when Israeli forces occupied Southern Lebanon. In the late 1970s Adaisseh’s then-mayor filed a complaint with the United Nations. The current mayor told al-Akhbar that at the time the Israeli ambassador said, “the appropriation of land is a precautionary measure. When Palestinian fighters withdraw, we will leave the land.”
Then in 2000, Israeli soldiers withdrew from Lebanon and a decade later the region was de-mined. However, the Lebanese land was never returned to the original owners and now it is situated beyond a barbed wire fence and a 7-meter high concrete separation wall constructed in 2012. On the Lebanese side of the barrier is a flower garden that Israel complained about to the United Nations. Israel said the flowers were too high. Beyond the wall on the Israeli side–but not entirely in Israel–is Misgav Am, which doubles as a popular tourist location.
Israel’s admission leaves one organization in a very tight spot. Birthright, the program to provide free trips to Israel for young Jews who don’t live there, uses the kibbutz as a premier destination to preach about a Jewish homeland from the hills of Southern Lebanon. And the dramatic landscape of Misgav Am seems to do the trick, awakening some young people’s national Jewish identity. At nearly 3,000 ft. in elevation visitors can see the Mediterranean Sea, both Lebanon and Syria, and the farmland of the Galilee made arable by the Jewish National Fund’s infamous swamp-draining project during the early years of statehood.
“Today was awesome going to Misgav Am,” one student exclaimed in a blog post three months ago. “This is my HOME!”
Another Birthrighter who traveled to the kibbutz a year earlier glowingly described his “overwhelming pride” for his “homeland” in a separate entry:
Our next journey would take us to the Misgav-Am Kibbutz, where our goal was to hear the opinion of a very interesting and knowledgeable 4-war veteran Jew. The Kibbutz was located directly on the border of Israel and Lebanon, and as a result the man’s shpeil focused on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I cannot understate this man’s passion and pride for Judaism and Israel as a whole, and he fully outlined his very politically incorrect opinion on the subject. I cannot speak for the group but I know this interaction opened my eyes to the conflict that exists every day in the Middle East, and left me with an overwhelming pride for my religion and my homeland.
Unfortunately the Birthrighter was not only in Israel, he was over the Blue Line—in Lebanon. Misgav Am’s visitor center website lists Birthright as a distinguished client; and the kibbutz is named as a stop on Birthright’s website.
This is not the first time Birthright has wandered over borders in its eagerness to proclaim a homeland for Jewish youths. In July 2010 a video emerged of an Australian group visiting Hebron. Guide Daniel Goodman took participants to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and stated, “this is the roots of our people.” This move into occupied territory sparked admonishment from an American Birthright representative, but approval from an Israeli one. Haaretz reported that Robert Aronson, President of the Birthright Israel Foundation, said that visiting Hebron was “clearly against Birthright policy.”
But the Misgav Am journey raises a larger question about the concept of preaching a Jewish homeland in territory that is within the boundaries of another sovereign nation. There are no Jewish heritage sites at Misgav Am, but the kibbutz is situated on a strategic point that overlooks villages in Southern Lebanon. And what of the young recruits who discovered their Jewish identity on the hilltop? Birthright may not have known that its destination is over the border, but the mistake just shows the project’s purpose: cynically swindling college students with biblical-looking scenery.
These ‘Theftright’ tours are nothing if not educational.
This story is similar to the story of Shebaa Farms. Is thius story about Adaisseh the same territory or merely the similar story-line? In short, how broad is Israel’s devil-may-care ignoring of Lebanon’s territory (or, put otherwise, of the “blue line”)?
No it’s different. Lebanon says Shebaa Farms is theirs and Israel says that it was* Syria’s and is now part of the Golan that was officially annexed by the state. Syria has no official comment but the general thought is that they know it’s Lebanon’s but are unwilling to assist their neighbor in re-gaining territory.
Adaisseh’s land was taken around the same time as Shebba Farms. But of course the biggest difference is that Israel said straight-up that the land is in Lebanon and Israel does not have the ability to make zoning changes to the property. With Shebaa Farms the land is now “legally”–according to Israeli law, part of the country.
But the Misgav Am journey raises a larger question about the concept of preaching a Jewish homeland in territory that is within the boundaries of another sovereign nation.
That’s a trifle compared to the more damaging effect on territorial integrity of making the sovereign nation of Lebanon home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees for generations on end and giving up its own territory for use in one of the 12 UNRWA camps located there.
I will choose to be skeptical about this “story” for now. No links to Maariv, no quotes from Maariv (translated or otherwise), a story that only appears in anti-Israel blogs and the Lebanon Star?
Please provide the link to the original Maariv link.
what part don’t you believe? Misgav Am says it works w/birthright on it’s website.
link to misgav-am.com
are you doubting it’s location?
Here’s Maariv (it’s in Hebrew only, sorry):
link to nrg.co.il
>> mondonuteee: I will choose to be skeptical about this “story” for now. … Please provide the link to the original Maariv link.
>> A.D. and Hostage: link to nrg.co.il
mondonuteee: “Yeah, well, you’re all just Israel-hating anti-Semites who want to see the Jews wiped off the map and pushed into the sea and Israel’s still better than Saudi Arabia and Mali and
two-six-thousand years of history and the Holocaust!”I will choose to be skeptical about this “story” for now
No need to be skeptical at all. Here’s a link to the kibbutz.org.il story on Misgav Am. It gives all the gory details including a thumbnail of the Maariv article: link to kibbutz.org.il
Maariv is almost bankrupt, and has only a small fraction of the journalists it used to have. So it likely can’t cover the stories it used to cover.
So why is Maariv almost bankrupt? They were competing with a free newspaper, subsidized by Sheldon Adelson.
So if you don’t find a lot of links to Maariv, that could be the reason.
How sticky are birthrighters? Do any of them descend and become israeli ?
I could definitely sense a heightened Jewish nationalist pride at the end of my trip. In the year since, that has in large part faded (i’ve kept up with/ kept an eye on many via facebook). Still, almost all of my trip mates will be more reflexively supportive towards Israel, barring some major jolt. Granted, n = 40, i can’t really speak to larger trends.
Incidentally, the “4 war veteran Jew” who gives a speech at that Kibbutz is a racist facist lunatic. That was actually one of the more satisfying days of the trip for me, as many of my companions were clearly repulsed by him (and hopefully by his message too).
RE: “Israel admits popular tourist attraction is located on Lebanese land”
MY COMMENT: Israel has every intention of taking all of Lebanon below the Litani River. It’s just a matter of time.
Jabotinsky wrote in his Iron Wall essay that “Jews [must] unilaterally decide its [Israel's] borders.”
FROM WIKIPEDIA [Iron Wall (essay)]:
SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org
• ENTIRE ESSAY: The Iron Wall (We and the Arabs), By Vladimir Jabotinsky, 1923 – link to marxists.de
P.S. RE: “Israel has every intention of taking all of Lebanon below the Litani River. It’s just a matter of time.” – me (above)
SEE: ICE Case Studies [American University] • Case Number: 14 • Case Mnemonic: LITANI • Case Name: Litani River and Israel-Lebanon • Case Author: Angela Joy Moss
ENTIRE CASE STUDY – link to www1.american.edu
P.P.S. FROM WIKIPEDIA [Revisionist Zionism]:
SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org
* Map showing an interpretation of the borders of the Land of Israel, based on scriptural verses found in Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47 - link to en.wikipedia.org
did you know that it is only 32 km from misgav am to tyre as the crow flies……….The Bible makes several references to Tyre, including
the Book of Isaiah (23),
The last “burden” in this section pertains to the city of Tyre
(23:1-18). Those who traded with her will be dismayed when they hear of
her fall, a destruction to come at the hands of the Chaldeans. For
seventy years Tyre will be forgotten, but then restored. The fruit of
her “labor” will be devoted to the Lord and His people.
the Book of Ezekiel
3 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
the Book of Mcohen
as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
And your point is…..
…that the Zionist landgrab won’t be complete without those square km of Lebanon. Is the Litani still an object of desire these days?
Is the Litani still an object of desire these days?
No. Lebanon diverted the bulk of the flow of the Litani into the Awali river using the drop to generate electricity and provide irrigation to the Awali valley. Ariel Sharon described the remaining flow in the Litani as “a trickle” not worth the bother. That’s probably irrelevant to the national religious parties. The Talmudic view is that everything South of Abraham’s old home in Damascus was part of “Eretz Israel”, the land subject to the tithes and offerings prescribed in the Torah. According to Shertok’s diaries, Ben Gurion and Dayan frequently discussed schemes to invade and conquer Syria and Lebanon, not just the territory south of the Litani
>> did you know that it is only 32 km from misgav am to tyre …
Only 32 more kilometres of land to steal! Or, perhaps more correctly, at least 32 more kilometres of land to steal…