Another Bit To Isolate The South’s Resilient Villages From Within
The names of Rmeish and Ain Ebel were blacked out on a road sign in Tibnin—an act of vandalism targeting two Lebanese border villages enduring months of war and isolation.
Israel has besieged these and other villages, restricting residents’ movements to coordinated convoys that can involve hours of waiting. More than 10,000 Lebanese have been left largely cut off from their jobs, universities, hospitals and livelihoods, yet remain determined to stay on their land.
Then came another blow, this time from within: someone erased the villages’ names, adding symbolic exclusion to the isolation Israel imposed.
Powerlessness against Israel turns into bullying at home. Those unable to protect a village from occupation’s siege find an easier target in its name on a metal sign.
Tibnin’s municipality repaired the sign and restored both names. Rmeish and Ain Ebel belong to the South, its geography, its history and its people, who have borne the cost of war and chosen to remain.
Israel besieges the villages; an unknown hand tries to erase them from the road. Their residents endure the burden of living on the border, only to face another wound inflicted from within.
