Shebaa Farms

Shebaa Farms, also spelled Sheba'a Farms (Arabic: مزارع شبعا‎‎, Mazāri‘ Šib‘ā; Hebrew: חוות שבעא‎‎, Havot Sheba‘a or הר דוב, Har Dov) is a small strip of disputed land at the intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The territory is about 11 kilometres (7 mi) long and 2.5 kilometres (2 mi) wide.

The dispute over ownership of Shebaa Farms resulted in part from the failure of the French Mandate administrations, and later the Lebanese and Syrian governments, to demarcate the border between Lebanon and Syria. Documents from the 1920s and 1930s indicate that inhabitants paid taxes to the Lebanese government. However, from the early 1950s until Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War, Syria was the de facto ruling power.

In 1981, the Golan Heights, which include Shebaa Farms, were annexed by Israel, a move not recognized by the international community. The territory has been a flashpoint for violence since Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000.Hezbollah claimed that the withdrawal was not complete because Shebaa was on Lebanese – not Syrian – territory. After studying 81 different maps, the United Nations concluded that there is no evidence of the abandoned farmlands being Lebanese. Nevertheless, Lebanon has continued to claim ownership of the territory. In August 2008, the president of Lebanon, Michel Suleiman stated: "The countdown for liberating the rest of our lands has begun. And today I confirm the [use] of all available and legitimate means to achieve this goal".

Shebaa Farms is an area of about 9 km (5.5 mi) in length, and 2.5 km (1.5 mi) in width, coming to about 22 km² (8 sq mi). It is located about 3 to 12 km (2 to 7.5 mi) southwest of the Lebanese village of Shebaa, and about 5 to 7 km (3 to 4 mi) northwest of the Druze village of Majdal Shams. Shebaa Farms is situated on the southeastern side of a long, broad ridge descending to the southwest from Mount Hermon. The northwestern edge of the area corresponds to the international Lebanese-Syrian border recognized by the United Nations along that ridge. The southeastern edge follows Wadi al-Asal (Nahal Si'on), a 16 km long wadi that flows into Israel, draining a portion of the relatively precipitation-rich Hermon ridge in the northern Golan Heights. These "edges" are connected by the Shebaa Farms' northeastern limit 2.5 km east of IDF military camp at Har Dov as defined by a 2007 UN report.

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