Gantz okays recognition of southern Lebanon occupation as official IDF campaign

Defense Minister Benny Gantz endorsed the army’s recommendation to officially recognize Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon as an official military campaign Wednesday, leaving one last approval needed before the move can be implemented.

Until now, the campaign has had no official designation, something a small but vocal group of veterans have fought to change.

If given final approval by a ministerial committee — as it is expected to — the period will be officially known as “The Security Zone in Lebanon Campaign” and people who took part in it will receive pins acknowledging their contribution, a symbolic move putting it on par with the Israel Defense Forces’ other wars and major operations.

Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff, served as the liaison between the Israeli military and the South Lebanon Army in 2000 when Israel withdrew from the area, ending an 18-year occupation of a strip of southern Lebanon — totaling about 10 percent of Lebanese territory — that had been aimed at defending northern Israel from attack by terror groups, notably the Iran-backed Hezbollah. Gantz, then a brigadier general, was famously the last Israeli soldier to leave the security zone.

“As someone who served for 22 years in Lebanon, and was the last person to leave the security zone, as defense minister of the State of Israel I feel immense privilege and a moral debt to thousands of soldiers who served under me to approve the awarding of this pin,” Gantz said, according to his office.

Israeli soldiers opening gates for tank during the IDF’s withdrawal from Lebanon, on June 22, 2000. (Flash90)

The government’s Ministerial Committee for Ceremonies and Symbols will ultimately need to approve the recognition to make the move official. No date was announced for the next meeting of the committee.

The push to recognize the period as a military campaign began in earnest this year as Israel marked 20 years since the withdrawal. In July, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi formed a committee led by former army chief Shaul Mofaz, who oversaw the withdrawal, to consider granting this period official recognition.

On November 4, Mofaz’s committee recommended the move to Kohavi, delineating the campaign as being from September 30, 1982 — the official end of the First Lebanon War — to May 24, 2000, with the withdrawal from the security zone. Anyone who “took part in the fighting or in an effort accompanying combat” would be eligible to receive a pin, according to the Defense Ministry.

One of the organizers of the ‘Four Mothers’ protest, Orna Shimoni, hugs then-IDF chief Shaul Mofaz after he announces the army will be withdrawing from southern Lebanon in May 2000. (Defense Ministry)

Gantz accepted the Mofaz’s recommendation, but called on the military to find a way to also recognize the contribution of South Lebanon Army soldiers — many of whom fled to Israel — and civilian employees of the IDF who took part in the campaign, his office said.

“We lost many friends, we left many memories and stories of bravery behind us. There is nothing more proper than recognizing that for a whole generation that fought in Lebanon,” Gantz told Mofaz.

The defense minister made his decision after meeting with several members of Mofaz’s committee on Wednesday, including head of the IDF Manpower Directorate Maj. Gen. Moti Almoz and President of the Military Court of Appeals Maj. Gen. Doron Piles, as well as Kohavi and Gantz’s military secretary Brig. Gen. Yaki Dolf.

Israel dismantled the security zone and hurriedly pulled back to the international border in late May 2000, under prime minister Ehud Barak. The South Lebanon Army, a militia backed by Israel that fought alongside the IDF in the zone, collapsed as Israel departed. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group subsequently moved into the area, and a Hezbollah cross-border raid led to the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

If the move is approved by the ministerial committee, it would be the ninth such campaign recognized by the military, alongside the 1948 Independence War, 1956 Sinai War, 1967 Six Day War, 1967-1970 War of Attrition, 1973 Yom Kippur War, 1982 First Lebanon War, 2006 Second Lebanon War, and 2014 Gaza war, known officially as Operation Protective Edge.

An estimated 675 troops were killed during Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon. The period was covered in the television documentary “War with No Name,” which was released earlier this year in a nod to the lack of official recognition for Israel’s 18-year presence in southern Lebanon.