GOI STILL WORKING OUT DETAILS FOR GHAJAR

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 000438

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2020
TAGS: PREL LE IS
SUBJECT: GOI STILL WORKING OUT DETAILS FOR GHAJAR
WITHDRAWAL

Classified By: Political Counselor Marc Sievers, Reason 1.4 (b) (d)


1. (C) According to Gilad Cohen, Advisor to MFA Director
General Yossi Gal, Israel remains committed to withdrawing
from Ghajar, but noted that the more the interagency team
gets into the details of withdrawal, the more complicated the
issue becomes. Embassy PolOff and PolOff from the Office of
the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace (SEMEP) met Cohen on
February 18. Cohen said that Ghajar was increasingly a
bureaucratic mess. He noted that the higher profile the
issue becomes, the more they must focus on the details to
ensure they are covered. (Note: Ghajar's residents are
Syrian Alawites but most of them were granted Israeli
citizenship in the 1970s.) "Once the lawyers got involved,"
he said, issues that had been fuzzy from 2000-2006, and are
even fuzzy under the current system, began to be scrutinized
"perhaps too closely" in order to prepare for potential
post-withdrawal legal challenges by Ghajar residents
remaining north of the Blue Line. Cohen said that under the
current system the Israeli telephone company is not always
willing to send a technician to service homes in northern
Ghajar, or will insist on sending Israeli Arab or local Druze
technicians when they are available, but this cannot continue
if there is a fomralized plan. MFA and other Israeli
government lawyers are insisting that these issues be
hammered out in detail with the appropriate Israeli
ministries, utilities and other service providers, as well as
with UNIFIL and the residents, before the IDF can depart.


2. (C) The MFA and IDF were working to improve communication
with Ghajar residents in order to correct misunderstandings,
Cohen explained, including many false rumors that have
received press play, especially via village spokesman Najib
Khatib. Many residents fear that withdrawal will result in
the physical division of the village, splitting families
across the Blue Line. However, the UNIFIL plan speaks of no
physical barrier, and indeed both the Israeli government and
UNIFIL are clear that villagers' movement across the Blue
Line will continue unimpeded. Israel also plans on looking
at easing the access regime as another incentive once the new
system is in place. Currently, all residents of Ghajar,
north and south, must pass through a tightly controlled IDF
checkpoint to enter and exit the village (Note: There is no
access from the village into Lebanon proper.). This is
especially difficult for Ghajar residents who hold jobs in
other parts of the Golan or Israel proper.


3. (C) Cohen noted that General Asarta, the new UNIFIL
commander, would meet Director General Gal in Jerusalem on
February 23 to continue Ghajar talks. General Graziano had
conducted three rounds of talks with Gal prior to Graziano's
departure on January 28; this will be Asarta's first meeting
with Gal. Cohen had no sense of how many additional rounds
would be required. PolOffs reiterated US support for a
speedy resolution of the details, urged continued
communication with the villagers, and emphasized that
resolution of the Ghajar issue within the context of UNSCR
1701 will make it easier to press Lebanon on its outstanding
1701 commitments.


4. (C) Israel is serious about resolving Ghajar, Cohen
emphasized, but as the issue gains additional political
attention, the Israeli government is forced to examine the
issue in greater detail in anticipation of possible legal
challenges. In addition, he said, Israel will not compromise
on its demand that any future change in the security or
political status of northern Ghajar, including the timing of
a handover of responsibility from UNIFIL to the Lebanese
Armed Forces, can only occur with Israel's consent. Finally,
Cohen worried that once Ghajar was resolved, UNIFIL, Lebanon,
and the international community would renew their calls for
unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Sheba'a. PolOffs
underlined that the two issues were absolutely distinct in
U.S. thinking, that any deal on Sheba'a absent
Syrian-Lebanese border delineation would require significant
Lebanese steps, and that this position had been made clear in
Beirut.


5. (U) SEMEP cleared this cable.
Cunningham