Netanyahu says 5 Lebanese freed in return for Jewish Lebanese remains
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that Israel decided to release five captive Lebanese civilians after “significant efforts” were made to “locate and repatriate the remains of leaders of Lebanon’s Jewish community who were abducted and killed” in the mid-1980s.
“As part of the negotiations with Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed officials to advance efforts to locate and repatriate the remains of leaders of Lebanon’s Jewish community who were abducted and killed by terrorist organizations in the mid-1980s,” the office said.
“The prime minister has been involved in this issue for decades, dating back to his tenure as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations,” it added.
It revealed that in recent months, both Lebanon and Israel have carried out numerous efforts to locate the remains, including operations on the ground.
“In light of these significant efforts, a decision was made to release five Lebanese citizens who had been detained in areas of southern Lebanon under Israeli military control,” the office added.
“After the investigation was completed, it was determined that they were civilians who did not belong to any terrorist organization and had not engaged in terrorist activity. Therefore, there was no justification for continuing to hold them in Israel,” it said.
The statement comes after one of the five captives was handed over to the Lebanese Army through the International Committee of the Red Cross. The other four captives were expected to be released within two hours, media reports said.
The development follows a visit to Israel by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa.
An official involved in the Lebanese-Israeli negotiations said Lebanon had not made its participation in the next round of talks conditional on the prisoner release, but that the release of captives was an “integral part of the implementation” of the Lebanon-Israel agreement.
The Lebanese “are actively searching for the bodies of the Lebanese Jewish leaders,” including in Jewish cemeteries, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Lebanon once had a thriving Jewish community. As many as 15,000 to 22,000 Jews lived in Lebanon in the mid-1960s, but the various Arab-Israeli wars and Lebanon’s own 1975-90 civil war caused waves of emigration and today, almost none are left in the country.
Source: Naharnet, Associated Press
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/322248 |