Shebaa (), also transliterated as Chebaa. is a town on the south-eastern tip of
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
. It has a largely
Sunni Muslim population of 25,000 people. It is situated at an altitude of approximately above sea level; spread across two steep rocky mountainsides. It lies adjacent to the contested
Shebaa farms
The Shebaa Farms, also spelled Sheba'a Farms ( ar, مزارع شبعا, '; he, חוות שבעא, ''Havot Sheba‘a'' or הר דוב, ''Har Dov''), are a small strip of land at the intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Israeli-oc ...
—which sit between the town and the
Golan Heights
The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...
. Before 1967, residents of Shebaa farmed in the disputed Shebaa farms territory.
History
In 1838,
Eli Smith noted Chebaa's population as being
Sunni Muslim and
Greek Orthodox Christians
The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...
.
Following the 1982 invasion Chebaa became part of the
Israel’s security zone with
Norwegian soldiers from
UNIFIL stationed in the area. One night, late January 1989, the Israeli backed
SLA expelled 40 villagers, ordering them not to return. This brought the total over a period of several months to around 80. In the words of the UNIFIL spokesperson those expelled were “mostly women and children”. There was outrage when a Norbat Colonel compared
IDF
IDF or idf may refer to:
Defence forces
* Irish Defence Forces
* Israel Defense Forces
*Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006
* Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917
Organizations
* Israeli Diving Federation
* Interac ...
actions to those of the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
.
As of 2015, the town housed several thousand
Syrian refugees.
Educational Establishments
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
* Localliban: Centre de resource sur le developpement local
www.localiban.org{{Hasbaya District
Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000
Populated places in Hasbaya District