Israel must pay.
By Brian Whitaker
The security council ...
Observing that the military action by the armed forces of Israel against the civil international airport of Beirut was premeditated and of a large scale and carefully planned nature ...
Condemns Israel for its premeditated military action in violation of its obligations under the [UN] charter ...
Issues a solemn warning to Israel that if such acts were repeated, the council would have to consider further steps to give effect to its decisions;
Considers that Lebanon is entitled to appropriate redress for the destruction it has suffered, responsibility for which has been acknowledged by Israel.
I am quoting here from UN security council resolution 262 which was approved - unanimously - almost 38 years ago, on December 31, 1968.The historical background was an incident at Athens airport on December 26, 1968, when the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine attacked an El Al plane with machine guns, killing one Israeli. One member of the group came from Lebanon and the PFLP issued a statement claiming responsibility from there.
As a reprisal, a few days later Israeli commandos raided Beirut airport, blowing up 13 airliners and causing damage estimated at $43 million.
The UN resolution set an important precedent, making clear that it is not acceptable to punish one party for the actions of another, and that compensation should be paid in such cases.
It is easy to spot the parallels here with more recent events: a non-state organisation (Hizbullah) captures a couple of Israeli soldiers and Israel responds with a full-scale onslaught against the Lebanese nation.
Particularly relevant in the light of resolution 262 was Israel's bombing of Jiyyeh power station, south of Beirut, last month. As with many other attacks during the war, it could not, by any reasonable stretch of the imagination, be construed as an act of self-defence. It was essentially punitive and directed against Lebanese citizens as a whole.
As a result of this, some 10,000-15,000 tonnes of oil spilled into the sea, causing the worst environmental disaster in Lebanon's history. The pollution now stretches along 100 miles of Mediterranean coastline, from Lebanon into Syria, and the cost of initial clean-up operations is put at $64m. Israel made the situation considerably worse by preventing any serious action to deal with the slick for more than a month. More information can be found on the UN Environment Programme's website.
There is little doubt that Israel ought to pay for this; actually getting the money is the problem. It will come as no surprise that Israel never complied with resolution 262 back in 1968 - though France took revenge by refusing to deliver 50 warplanes that Israel had already paid for.
So far, the Lebanese government has talked of claiming compensation through the courts. This will certainly not be quick: the case of the Exxon Valdez oil spill is still rumbling on in the courts 17 years after it happened.
Though the Lebanese government may be able to afford the best lawyers, claiming through the courts is not a practicable option for the thousands of Lebanese individuals who may also be entitled to compensation.
An alternative solution would be to activate the UN Compensation Commission which processed millions of claims - both large and small - resulting from Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Again, this would need some kind of enforcement mechanism in order to collect payment.
In the case of Iraq, money was collected by the UN taking charge of its oil exports. Israel, of course, isn't an oil exporter but it is an oil importer. One way of recouping the money might be to impose a surcharge on these imports, since its oil supplies are not only vital to its economy but would be relatively easy to block in the event that it failed to pay the surcharge.
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