Some 400 South Lebanese Army soldiers will receive 550,000 shekels to help them buy homes in Israel.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Twenty-two years after they fled their country to save themselves from Hezbollah’s wrath, hundreds of South Lebanese Army (SLA) soldiers will get state aid they had never received before.

“Done,” tweeted Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Sunday. “Today we have fixed a terrible wrong done to SLA fighters. [They] fought at our side for 18 years…. When we retreated from Lebanon in 2000, many SLA soldiers had to leave their homes in Lebanon and reach Israel in just a few hours…. They came homeless, without a job – with nothing.

“Unfortunately, many of them were abandoned by the Israeli government. Today, the government approved a housing grant of NIS550,000 for every vet.

“As one who fought in the security zone alongside our SLA brothers, I’m proud to stand at the head of the government that closes this circle and pays back our brothers-in-arms.”

According to a 2002 report that Maj. Gen. (ret.) Meir Dagan gave to prime minister Ariel Sharon before being appointed head of the Mossad, SLA officers ranking from company commander and up who managed to get to Israel in the final days before the withdrawal were taken care of by the Shabak intelligence agency. The agency also assisted personnel from the SLA security services.

But this only accounted for approximately half of the 2,900 troops who fled.

The lower ranks and ordinary soldiers and their families, who were in just as much danger of reprisals if they had stayed in Lebanon, received no Israeli help – a state of affairs that Dagan decried even then. Many have struggled since then to make a living.

The IDF said it has been in contact with all the former soldiers who are still in the country, and have told some 400 of them that they are eligible for the grant. The money will be made available through 2026 to either the men themselves or their widows, if they are living in Israel, but not to their children.

Chief of staff Lieut. Gen. Aviv Kochavi praised the move, which he said had been in the works for some four years.

“I’m happy that our efforts are bearing fruit today,” he said. “The process is not yet complete but we see this step as a significant and valuable achievement.”

“It is our moral duty to provide them with a dignified and respectful life,” he said of the now middle-aged men who “fought by our side for many years and risked their lives.”

June 6 marked the 40^th anniversary of the First Lebanon War, called then Operation Peace for Galilee, as the IDF invaded Israel’s northern neighbor to stop the constant rocket attacks launched by the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that controlled Lebanon’s south.

After the PLO was kicked out by international agreement, Israel established a security belt in Lebanon in 1985 ranging from three to 12 miles deep, patrolled both by the IDF and its Christian Arab allies.

The casualty count rose over the years of clashes with Islamic militias in the zone, including the newly established Hezbollah, although far more died among SLA forces than the IDF.

Then-prime minister Ehud Barak bowed to public pressure to retreat completely to the international border in 2000.

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Addressing the SLA veterans, Gantz said that the campaign medals “symbolize this moral obligation: to recognize your heroism and heritage and to see you as part of us.”

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

Twenty-one years after the IDF withdrew from the security zone in south Lebanon and after the South Lebanon Army (SLA) disbanded, the State of Israel inaugurated a memorial dedicated to the soldiers of the SLA.

Minister of Defense Benny Gantz and IDF Chief of the General Staff Aviv Kochavi inaugurated on Sunday night the new SLA monument and distributed campaign medals to former SLA commanders and veterans.

The ceremony was held in memory of SLA soldiers who fell in combat between the years 1982-2000.

The SLA was a Lebanese Christian-dominated militia that was founded during the Lebanese Civil War and operated from 1977 until its disbandment in 2000. It was supported by Israel and became its primary ally in Lebanon during the 1985–2000 campaign against the Hezbollah terror organization.

A special memorial prayer was recited in Arabic in honor of the fallen soldiers.

Gantz said during the ceremony that “the monument that we are inaugurating today is first and foremost a moral obligation.”

Addressing the SLA veterans, he said that the campaign medals “symbolize this moral obligation: to recognize your heroism and heritage and to see you as part of us.”

Touching on the ensuing crisis in Lebanon, Gantz said that “Israel has offered assistance to Lebanon in the past and even today we are ready to work towards its growth and exit from crisis.”

Addressing the situation on Israel’s northern border, Gantz said that “Israel has left Lebanon in order to end the conflict. Had it not been for Hezbollah and its Iranian affiliates, I believe we would have reached peace. As an Israeli, as a Jew, and as a human being, my heart aches seeing the images of people going hungry on the streets of Lebanon.

“Israel has offered assistance to Lebanon in the past and even today we are ready to act, and to encourage other counties to help and to extend a helping hand [to Lebanon] so that it will once again flourish and to emerge from its state of crisis. Unfortunately, under the auspices of the economic and political crisis that Hezbollah is causing, we are seeing attempts to increase Iran’s involvement in Lebanon and carry out a ‘quiet coup.’”

“Step by step, Iranian investments, Iranian means and Iranian entities are entering Lebanon, and with them attempts to infiltrate weapons and extremist ideology. All of these are a danger to Lebanon, its citizens and the peace of the region. Israel is keeping an eye on the situation, and will prevent any attempt to harm its citizens and threaten its borders,” Gantz warned.

The monument is located near the “Good Fence” in the northern Israeli town of Metula. Built by the Engineering and Construction Division in the Ministry of Defense, the monument includes a memorial plaza with a symbolic candle, a “memorial road”, an observation area, a grove of trees for gatherings and a parking lot for visitors.

It covers 2,800 square meters and was built over a period of eight months, replacing the original monument, which was erected near the village of Marjiyun in southern Lebanon and was destroyed by Hezbollah after Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.

The monument is engraved both in Hebrew and in Arabic with the words: “We will remember the soldiers of the Southern Lebanese Army who fell while defending the towns of southern Lebanon and northern Israel.”

The Department of Families, Commemoration and Heritage at the Ministry of Defense initiated the construction of the monument in memory of the SLA soldiers, “out of a desire to commemorate and honor the memory of those who fought side by side with IDF soldiers in Lebanon.”

The monument tells the story of the SLA’s cooperation with the IDF and will be a place to pay tribute to the fallen and to honor the families who have been deprived of the right to visit the graves of their loved ones in Lebanon.

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Assailants shot dead Antoine Hayek just three days after the U.S. airlifted a jailed Lebanese-American man who belonged to the same militia.

By Associated Press

Unknown assailants shot dead a former member of an Israeli-allied Lebanese militia on Sunday, security officials said. The killing came three days after a jailed Lebanese-American man who belonged to the same militia was released in Beirut and flown to the U.S.

Two Lebanese security officials said Antoine Hayek was killed with several bullets from a pistol equipped with a silencer inside his grocery store in the southern village of Mieh Mieh, near the port city of Sidon. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

According to Lebanese media, Hayek had been a warden at a prison run by the South Lebanon Army militia.

The Lebanese-American man who was flown to the U.S., Amer Fakhoury, had been jailed in Lebanon since September and charged with murder and torture of prisoners at the same SLA-run prison — charges he vehemently denied. A Lebanese judge ordered him released last week, saying more than 10 years had passed since the alleged crimes.

Local media outlets reported that Hayek had been close to Fakhoury.

U.S. officials confirmed Fakhoury was aboard a U.S. Marine V-22 Osprey seen taking off from the U.S. Embassy compound northeast of Beirut on Thursday.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah terror group, called Fakhoury’s release and exit from Lebanon a “blatant violation” of the country’s sovereignty and laws. Lawmakers from Fakhoury’s home state of New Hampshire had called for imposing sanctions on Lebanon to pressure Beirut to release him.

Hayek, a 58-year-old retired policeman, also reportedly worked as a warden at the SLA-run Khiam prison.

Fakhoury’s family in the U.S. and lawyer said that although he was a SLA member, he had no direct contact with inmates and was never involved in any interrogation or torture. Fakhoury became a U.S. citizen last year.

Hundreds of SLA members fled to Israel, including Fakhoury, fearing reprisals if they remained in Lebanon. Others stayed and faced trial, receiving lenient sentences.

Hayek was one of those who stayed in Lebanon and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

No one claimed responsibility for Hayek’s shooting.

Lebanon and Israel have been officially at war since Israel’s creation in 1948. Lebanon bans its citizens from traveling to Israel or having contact with Israelis.

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The aid is being given “in recognition of the activities of SLA veterans for Israel and taking into account their economic distress.”

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

The Ministry of Defense has formulated a plan to grant former members of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) who live in Israel funds to purchase homes, Israel Hayom reported Monday.

The plan will be brought to the Cabinet for approval in the coming days, the report said.

Each SLA veteran will be entitled to NIS 500,000 towards housing. The grant will be provided over the course of the next five years.

With some 300 eligible veterans, the aid is estimated to cost a total of NIS 150 million.

The former SLA fighters and family members live mostly in northern Israel.

The aid is being given “in recognition of the activities of SLA veterans for Israel and taking into account their economic distress,” the proposal indicates. It is being done “in deep appreciation for their work for the state of Israel, and taking into account the economic distresses experienced by most of them, particularly the housing issue.”

According to the defense ministry, 18 years after the IDF’s withdrawal from Lebanon, a significant number of SLA veterans living in Israel face difficulties of absorption and suffer from a difficult economic situation. In light of this, “and out of a sense of responsibility for the fate of SLA veterans who linked their fate with that of the State of Israel,” they will be granted a one-time sum of NIS 500,000 for the purchase of an apartment.

In May 2000, the IDF withdrew from south Lebanon and about 7,000 SLA members and their families, surprised and furious, marched on the border fence. Israel took them in, but their integration into Israeli society was not a success story. In light of the many difficulties encountered, thousands have already left the country for other destinations, mostly Germany, while others have even returned to Lebanon to be tried and sent to jail for short periods of time.

In April 2006, the Knesset’s Finance Committee approved the payment of NIS 40,000 per family to SLA veterans, payable over seven years. The SLA vets are also entitled to other forms of financial support from the government.

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