Ghajar in the spotlight

The territorial issues surrounding the village of Ghajar are probably understood well by only a few hundred Americans — and, truth be told, the village’s history is not known all that much better in Lebanon. Nevertheless, there have been three stories on Ghajar in major U.S. publications in the past week: The Wall Street Journal released their article last Friday, the New York Times published their piece today — and, of course, Foreign Policy produced the best article on Ghajar, which we put out last night.

This is curious because Israel administers the village as a military zone — foreign correspondents need the IDF’s permission to enter the village, and are escorted by the Israelis as they do their reporting. It is one of those issues where Israel is able to shape pretty easily what media accounts, if any, come out of the area.

So, why would the Israelis open the floodgates to Ghajar reporting at this time? As you’d know by reading our article, Israel is currently in negotiations with the United Nations and Lebanon over returning the northern part of the village to Lebanese sovereignty, while the area would be administered by soldiers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Those talks have currently hit a few snags: Israel is leery of the precedent set by a deal which would place Israeli citizens under international control. By letting reporters interview the village residents, who oppose the deal because they want to be reintegrated with Syria, not Lebanon, the Israelis could be attempting to gin up public pressure which will give them a reason to drag their feet further on negotiations.