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 d ...

. Before 1967, residents of Shebaa farmed in the disputed Shebaa farms territory. Modern Lebanon–Golan border region in Schumacher Ostjordanlandes Key (cropped)

Modern Lebanon–Golan border region in Schumacher Ostjordanlandes Key (cropped)

History

In 1838, Eli Smith noted Chebaa's population as being

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

and Greek Orthodox Christians. Following the 1982 invasion Chebaa became part of the Israel’s security zone with Norwegian soldiers from

UNIFIL The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ( ar, قوة الأمم المتحدة المؤقتة في لبنان, he, כוח האו"ם הזמני בלבנון), or UNIFIL ( ar, يونيفيل, he, יוניפי״ל), is a UN peacekeeping m ...

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 actions to those of the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

. As of 2015, the town housed several thousand Syrian refugees.

Educational Establishments

References

Bibliography

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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