Berri: Resistance is a national need

Lebanon Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri commented on Thursday in a statement about Israel’s decision to withdraw from the northern section of the border town of Ghajar by saying : “The resistance is a national need.”

“We will continue to say this regardless whether Israel’s decision to withdraw was a political ploy or a delayed implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” Berri said.

“Pending a unified Lebanese stance on how to deal with the Israeli move and read the dimensions and timing of the plan , we will keep echoing the same thing from Ghajar that the ‘Resistance will remain a national need, Berri , who is closely allied with Hezbollah said.

What is ironic about Berri’s statement, according to observers is the fact that it was the so called ‘resistance’ that lost the northern Ghajar to the Israeli’s during the 2006 war.

Israeli Ministers on Wednesday approved the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the northern half of Ghajar, a divided town that straddles the Lebanese border, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz,

The unilateral pullout will reportedly take place without any coordination with Lebanon, still technically at war with Israel.

Together with the Golan Heights, the southern half of Ghajar was taken by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War with Syria. After Israel annexed the Golan in 1981, Ghajar fell under official Israeli jurisdiction and most of its residents have accepted Israeli citizenship.

Most residents of Ghajar belong to the Alawi sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam, whose adherents include Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian political elite.

Over the years, the village expanded northwards into Israeli-controlled southern Lebanon, incorporating the Lebanese village of Wazzani. The UN demarcated the Israeli-Lebanese border following Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, granting Lebanon control of the northern section of Ghajar. However, Israel re-took the entire village following its war with Hezbollah in 2006.