Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai.
BEIRUT — Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai addressed on Sunday the issue of the general amnesty currently being debated in Parliament, advocating for the inclusion of Lebanese who have resided in Israel since the withdrawal of the Israeli state from Lebanon in 2000.
"The draft law on general amnesty must include the persons mentioned in Article 6 of Law 194 dating from 2011," he said during his homily at the Mass he celebrated at the Church of Our Lady at the patriarchate's headquarters in Bkirki. He added: "This law has never been applied because the implementing decrees were not issued, and dealing with the issue of Lebanese refugees in Israel has not been possible."
Following the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000, a number of Lebanese who had cooperated in one way or another, often out of necessity, with Israelis, or who were members of the South Lebanon Army (a militia affiliated with Israel), chose to take refuge in Israeli territory out of fear of reprisals. Their inclusion in the general amnesty law is mainly championed by Christian parties, such as the Lebanese Forces, even though not all of these individuals are Christian.
The draft law on general amnesty sparked heated debates in the parliamentary committee last Wednesday, due to the different communities' demands for the inclusion of certain categories of prisoners in Lebanese jails.
Originally, this draft law aims to bring justice to certain detainees, many without trial, who found themselves imprisoned in a completely different political context marked by Syrian or Hezbollah hegemony. But the text contains many exceptions, which is fueling debate in Parliament.
