 |
| The protest march
was organized by Hizbullah
|
ABBASSIYEH,
May 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – On the second anniversary
of Israel's May 24, 2000, troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon, more
than 200 villagers of Abbassiyeh, destroyed by Israel in 1967 and now
under reconstruction, protested Sunday, May 26, for an end to Israel's
continued occupation of two-thirds of their border village.
Men,
women and children flocked in from other regions in Lebanon and
neighboring Syria, to where many Abbassiyeh families fled after the
invasion and destruction of the village in 1967, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) said.
The
families marched to the Indian post of the UN peacekeeping force in
southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, carrying Lebanese flags and those of the
Islamic resistance movement, Hizbullah.
"Abbassiyeh
and the Shebaa Farms will only return to the homeland through
resistance," said banners carried by the protestors who were
marking the second anniversary of Israel's troop withdrawal from
southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
The
protest march was organized by Hizbullah whose resistance forces were
instrumental in leading to the 2000 Israeli withdrawal, AFP reported.
Hizbullah
now continues to fight the Israeli occupation to force Israel's
pullout from the Shebaa Farms, a mountainous territory at the
Lebanese-Syrian borders occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East
war and claimed by Beirut.
Last
August, a number of residents of Abbassiyeh, which lies just west of
the Shebaa Farms, started rebuilding the sector of the village from
which Israel withdrew in 2000. Today more than 30 houses are still
under reconstruction, AFP said.
Meanwhile,
most of the capitals of northern Europe have witnessed Saturday, May
25, celebrations and demonstrations organized by Arabs and Muslims to
mark the anniversary of the South of Lebanon liberation.
Ayed
Ahmed, head of the Palestinian union of organizations in Sweden, said
that Israelis understand only the language and the logic of power.
Those
who believed in the effectiveness of the Oslo agreement were totally
wrong, as it is the same agreement that brought all these Zionist
massacres in the Palestinian territories, he added.
Many
Lebanese and Palestinian organizations have also organized
celebrations of the day in Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Additional
reporting by Yehia Abou Zakaria, IOL Sweden correspondent
