Former members of the South Lebanon Army and their families who fled to Israel following the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 have been left in limbo after Lebanon’s parliament passed a controversial General Amnesty Law on Wednesday.
The law, aimed at easing Lebanon’s severe prison overcrowding, provides for reduced sentences and the potential early release of thousands of prisoners and detainees. However, the amnesty does not apply to every prisoner.
Those excluded from the amnesty include individuals convicted of terrorism offenses, collaborating with Israel, repeat drug offenses, premeditated murder, and rape.
Lebanese Member of Parliament Ghada Ayoub told Lebanon’s Aljadeed TV that Lebanese citizens who sought refuge in Israel but did not participate in any military actions have the right to return to Lebanon under the General Amnesty Law.
MP Ziad Hawat told Aljadeed TV on Thursday that Lebanese citizens who didn’t serve alongside Israel would need to give up their Israeli citizenship to return to Lebanon.
Around 7,000 SLA members, the majority Maronite Christians, escaped to Israel after Israel withdrew from the war against Hezbollah.
Families who fled to Israel after the liberation of the south in 2000 can return under new law
“Our Lebanese people who did not join militarily or security-wise and fled to Israel after the liberation of the south in 2000, including their families, will benefit definitively from #the_general_amnesty, which finally opens the path for them to return to their homeland,” she wrote on X. “And the irony is that Law 194/2011, which the Free Patriotic Movement submitted at the height of its understanding with Hezbollah, remained for 15 years mere ink on paper, without issuing the implementing decrees that would allow their return. What remained suspended for fifteen years, we resolve today with the text of the law. These are Lebanese, and Lebanon does not abandon its sons.”
Lebanese analyst Jonathan Elkhoury, who previously shared his story of exile with the Post in April, told the Post that he was not ready to celebrate. Elkhoury is proud of the 18 years of service his father, a former South Lebanon Army officer, carried out and was outraged that Beirut continued to view his father’s actions as a crime, even if it now opened the door for him to return to a country he was forced to flee as a child.
'We don’t need a general amnesty because we haven't committed a crime'
“We don’t need a general amnesty, which is given to criminals, because we haven’t committed a crime. The South Lebanon Army protected its Lebanese roots, lands and homes on the direct orders of the Lebanese government at the time, which was absent and had abandoned southern Lebanon and its people,” he said. “What is needed is an official apology from the Lebanese government to the South Lebanon Army soldiers and their families.”
Elkhoury noted that the children and spouses of former LAF members have been technically allowed to return to Lebanon since 2011, but few have made the decision to do so given the ongoing threat from Hezbollah.