Shebaa Farms

Shebaa Farms, area of land along the border of Lebanon and the Golan Heights (a territory recognized by most of the international community as part of Syria but occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War [1967]) that is claimed by Lebanon, internationally recognized as part of Syria, and occupied by Israel.

Although small—about 5.5 miles (9 km) in length and 1.5 miles (2.5 km) in width—the area has served as a flash point in tensions between Lebanon and Israel since 2000, when Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon (and did not relinquish control of the Shebaa Farms to Lebanon). In 2023 tensions over the area bubbled to the surface when fighters from Hezbollah, a Lebanese group that commands the country’s most powerful militia, set up tents in the Shebaa Farms.

Background: three countries, one small piece of land

The discrepancy lies ultimately in the delineation of the region’s borders after World War I, when the Ottoman Empire dissolved. Lebanon and Syria both came under the mandate of France, which issued maps of the countries’ general border that appeared to place the Shebaa Farms in Syria. But the border itself was never surveyed or delimited in a written document, and, in practice, the Shebaa Farms’ property owners were, without dispute, Lebanese citizens who appealed to Lebanese administration and governance. After Israel occupied the Golan Heights in 1967, it interpreted the Shebaa Farms as part of the Golan Heights and deployed its forces to occupy the area. The erection of a fence in the early 1970s prevented for the first time Lebanese property owners from accessing land that they owned in the area. When Israel subsequently annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, it became the third country to lay claim to the Shebaa Farms.

Meanwhile, Lebanon was preoccupied with a civil war (1975–90) that had evolved into a regional conflict, drawing in Syrian and Israeli forces and leaving border disputes as low priorities. But Syrian and Israeli forces remained in the country for years after the war, and violence continued in the south of the country as Hezbollah, which had formed as a militia during the civil war to fight the Israeli invasion, sought to force an end to Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon.

Contention in the 21st century: controversy over the Blue Line

In 2000, as Israel prepared to withdraw its forces from Lebanon, the Shebaa Farms emerged as a center of contention for the first time. Weeks before the withdrawal, the Lebanese government asserted that the Shebaa Farms belonged to Lebanon. Israeli officials insisted that its forces would withdraw only from areas designated as Lebanese on maps provided by the United Nations, which invariably showed the Shebaa Farms to be located in Syria. Syria, which had not governed the Golan Heights in decades and had no plans to end its own occupation of Lebanon, backed Lebanon’s claim. In June, with Israeli forces still present in the Shebaa Farms, the United Nations verified that Israel had completed its withdrawal from Lebanon according to the demarcation that its observers had set to monitor the withdrawal (known as the Blue Line).

In addition to the controversy over the Shebaa Farms, the Blue Line left at issue another anomaly: it bisected Ghajar, a village just west of the Shebaa Farms whose residents are ʿAlawite Arabs with dual Lebanese and Israeli citizenship. The northern half of the village was located on the Lebanese side of the Blue Line, while the southern portion fell below the line and, as part of the Golan Heights, remained under Israeli occupation after 2000. A fence divided Ghajar for several years until 2006, when war broke out between Hezbollah and Israel and Israeli forces reoccupied the northern part of Ghajar. Israel retained control of the village in its entirety after the war ended.

In 2022 Ghajar’s local council erected a fence on the village’s northern border, closing it off from its Lebanese surroundings and setting off a series of confrontations along the Blue Line between Israel and Hezbollah, which viewed the move as an attempt at annexing Lebanese land. In 2023 Hezbollah began asserting Lebanon’s claims and establishing outposts along the Blue Line. In June its fighters entered the Shebaa Farms and erected two tents, although they removed one of the tents in July. When Israel’s attention was forced to shift to the Gaza Strip on October 7—when Palestinian militants infiltrated southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking some 240 others hostage in the most devastating attack on Israel since its independence—Hezbollah’s presence in the Shebaa Farms remained an outstanding security concern for the country.