The territory known as the Shebaa Farms comprises about 25 square kilometres south of the Lebanese town of Shebaa on the western slopes of Mount Hermon, and consists of 14 farms. The land was seized from Syria by Israel in 1967, and has been under illegal Israeli occupation ever since.
The media often describes the territory as "disputed", which is incorrect. The Israeli government's own Foreign Ministry website makes it explicit that it is not Israeli territory: "The Shebaa Farms area is not, and should not be, considered disputed territory...The United Nations views the Shebaa Farms area as Syrian territory." See 'The Legal Status of the Shabaa Farms':
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/about%20the%20ministry/ mfa%20spokesman/2002/the%20legal%20status%20of%20the %20shabaa%20farms%20-%208-apr-2002
Thus Israel links its withdrawal from the Farms to the fate of the adjacent Golan Heights, Syrian land also illegally occupied by Israel in 1967.
However, Lebanon and Syria both consider the Farms to be Lebanese territory, and insist that Israel must withdraw from them immediately in accordance with UN Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426 of 1978.
It was in 2000 that the issue of the Farms first entered the global spotlight. After Israel removed its forces from southern Lebanon, the UN declared the Israeli withdrawal complete.
The Lebanese, however, rejected this appraisal, insisting that Israel still occupied Lebanese land - the Shebaa Farms - and must withdraw from there as well to fulfill its international obligations. On these grounds, the Lebanese also rejected calls for the dismantling of Hezbollah: as long as Israel occupied part of Lebanon, continued resistance was justified.
Some commentators attempt to discredit claims that the Shebaa Farms are Lebanese as a ploy on the part of Syria and Hezbollah to extend the latter’s resistance activities against Israel.
However, these criticisms are beside the point. Regardless of why Syria has decided to concede the Farms, the decision should be embraced by the international community as a rare opportunity to peacefully settle a long-standing border dispute in accordance with the wishes and rights of the territory’s inhabitants.
Although the issue of whether the Farms are Lebanese or Syrian only came to international attention in 2000, it has been under dispute for nearly a century. From the early days of the French mandate - when the borders between Lebanon and Syria were first drawn - in several regions, including the Shebaa Farms, demarcations were fairly ambiguous. Since 1924, Lebanon and Syria have fought over the territory with varying degrees of intensity.
According to Israeli scholar Asher Kaufman, French mandatory records clearly show the Shebaa Farms as Lebanese in the 1920s and 1930s, but sloppy border delineations permitted Syria to encroach on the territory over the following decades. By 1967, the Farms were under de facto Syrian control; thus when Israel invaded, it seized the land from Syria.
Despite the ongoing territorial dispute over the Farms, the nationality of the area’s residents has never been questioned. Since the days of the mandate, the owners and residents of the 14 farms have all been legally Lebanese. Likewise, the town of Shebaa, from which the farms derive their name, is universally accepted as part of Lebanon.
In addition to self-identifying as Lebanese, the Farms’ residents insist that their land has been Lebanese for generations. Since at least the 1950s, taxes collected in the area were paid to the Lebanese government, and a large amount of documentary evidence dating as far back as the 1930s places the farms legally under Lebanese jurisdiction. This evidence includes bills of sale, title deeds, and even documents from Syrian customs agencies - proof that this designation was not a unilateral Lebanese move.
At the time of the Israeli withdrawal in 2000, the international community acknowledged that there was ambiguity over the nationality of the Shebaa Farms. However, in the absence of conclusive documentary evidence, the UN ultimately decided to stand by pre-existing determinations that designated the land as Syrian.
However, the UN and other international parties have indicated a willingness to reconsider the decision should conclusive evidence be put forward by Syria and Lebanon.
On 28 November 2005, a step was made in this direction at the Euro-Mediterranean Summit in Barcelona, during which Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa announced plans to officially concede the Farms to Lebanon.
No actions have followed his announcement, and though some believe that a diplomatic solution may yet conclusively end Israeli occupation of Lebanese land, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in an interview with the Times on 3 August 2006, poured cold water on this prospect. Asked about whether the Farms would form part of a deal to end the Israeli-Lebanese conflict, he responded: "As far as I am concerned it is entirely off the table."
At the end of the day, whether one considers the territory Lebanese or Syrian, the fact is that even Israel acknowledges that it has no sovereignty over it, and the UN recognises it as occupied Arab territory, so either way Israel should withdraw.