Lebanese Patriarch Renews Debate over Syria Border Demarcation in Shebaa Farms

Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai. (NNA)
Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai. (NNA)
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Lebanese Patriarch Renews Debate over Syria Border Demarcation in Shebaa Farms

Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai. (NNA)
Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai. (NNA)

Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai revived on Sunday debate over the demarcation of the Lebanese-Syrian border in the southern Shebaa Farms region.

He made his remarks days after parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced that a framework had been agreed upon to begin indirect US-mediated talks with Israel on land and maritime border demarcation, which will be led by the Lebanese army.

"We should work to demarcate the borders with Syria in the area of Shebaa Farms to end the abnormal and ambiguous situation there," the Patriarch said during Sunday mass.

Rai welcomed the framework agreement, which will allow Lebanon to restore its international border line in the South, facilitate the extraction of its maritime wealth of oil and gas, and end the series of attacks and wars between Lebanon and Israel, according to Resolution 1701 of the Security Council, which places it on a path of peaceful negotiation instead of fighting, without this implying a process of normalization.

“On this occasion, an agreement must be found to resolve the issue of the presence of about half a million Palestinian refugees in Lebanon,” Rai continued, adding that through more resilience, Lebanon is bound to overcome its ordeals.

Touching on the political situation in the country, the Patriarch addressed the ruling class, saying: "You are not the masters of the people, but rather servants," regretting, with great pain, the departure of many Lebanese people in search of work opportunities, security and a decent life abroad.

“As I share their disappointment with everything, yes everything, I invite you, our young women and men, to think carefully before making the decision to migrate," he said.

“Amid the deliberate impasse, where there is no government, no rescue plan, no reforms, no respect for the constitution and no shame, we should all think about making a breakthrough without waiting for foreign developments,” he urged.

“Waiting for the outside proves that parties have loyalties abroad,” he remarked.

He underlined the “enormity of the situation and the possibility that various developments may take place.”

This demands the need to form a government that can meet the aspirations of the people so that constitutional work can take its course and so that no one can take advantage of the “constitutional coma”, caretaker government or coronavirus pandemic for their own interests.

“We hope all spiritual, official, political and partisan leaderships would again turn to the constitution, listen to the people and end the country’s deep crisis,” Rai declared.



In Reverse of a Longtime Stance, US Says UN Palestinian Refugee Agency Isn't Immune from Lawsuits

FILED - 10 February 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians examine the damage to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) buildings on their way back to their homes in the wake of the Israeli army withdrew from North of Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ishaq/dpa
FILED - 10 February 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians examine the damage to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) buildings on their way back to their homes in the wake of the Israeli army withdrew from North of Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ishaq/dpa
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In Reverse of a Longtime Stance, US Says UN Palestinian Refugee Agency Isn't Immune from Lawsuits

FILED - 10 February 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians examine the damage to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) buildings on their way back to their homes in the wake of the Israeli army withdrew from North of Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ishaq/dpa
FILED - 10 February 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians examine the damage to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) buildings on their way back to their homes in the wake of the Israeli army withdrew from North of Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ishaq/dpa

The Trump administration has decided that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is not immune from being sued, reversing the US government's longstanding position that the organization was protected from civil liability.
The Justice Department revealed its new stance in a letter it filed in federal court in New York on Thursday as part of a lawsuit that aims to hold the agency, known as UNRWA, accountable for the Oct. 7, 2023, deadly attack on Israel by Hamas. The change in position underscores the hardened perspective toward the agency under the Trump administration following allegations by Israel that some of the agency staff was involved in the Hamas rampage.
The lawsuit, filed by families of some of the victims of the massacre, alleges that UNRWA had aided Hamas by, among other things, permitting weapons storage and deployment centers in its schools and medical clinics and by employing Hamas members. Lawyers for UNRWA have called the lawsuit “absurd” and have said in court filings that the agency was immune from liability as a “subsidiary organ” of the United Nations.
The previous US stance protected the agency
In a statement Friday, UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the Justice Department filing reversed the US government's “longstanding recognition that UNRWA is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly and an integral part of the United Nations, entitled to immunity from legal process.” She said the agency would continue to make its case before the court and "will consider whether any other action is appropriate with respect to the letter.”
The Justice Department acknowledged in its 10-page letter that though its position had been that UNRWA was shielded from litigation, “the Government has since reevaluated that position, and now concludes UNRWA is not immune from this litigation.”
“The complaint in this case alleges atrocious conduct on the part of UNRWA and its officers. Of course, such allegations are only the first step on a long road, where plaintiffs will be required to prove what they have alleged. But UNRWA is not above that process — nor are the bulk of the remaining defendants,” the letter states. “The Government believes they must answer these allegations in American courts. The prior Administration’s view that they do not was wrong.”
The letter was signed by Jay Clayton, the new US attorney in Manhattan, and another lawyer in the office, as well as Yaakov Roth, the acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's civil division.
The agency has assisted Palestinians since the 1940s
UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to provide relief for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, which followed the establishment of Israel, as well as their descendants, until there is a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The agency provides aid and services — including health and education — to some 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Since the Israel-Hamas war, it has been the main lifeline for a population reliant on humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Israel alleged that 19 out of UNRWA’s approximately 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in Hamas’ attack in southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and set off the war in Gaza.
UNRWA said it fired nine staffers after an internal UN investigation concluded that they could have been involved, although the evidence was not authenticated or corroborated. Israel later alleged that about 100 other Palestinians in Gaza were Hamas members, but never provided any evidence to the United Nations.