Foundation helps search for missing militants in Israel

Middle East Features

By Weedah Hamzah Mar 17, 2009, 15:05 GMT

Beirut - A newly-established Lebanese foundation has offered a 5-million-dollar reward to anyone, including citizens of Israel, who can provide information on Arab militants missing or buried in Israel. The Horiah Foundation was set up to help families of some Lebanese and Arab militants who are still missing in Israel, founding member Hadi Bikdash said.

According to Bikdash, the foundation is supported financially and logistically by many international organizations. He declined, however, to disclose their identities. 'We are mainly addressing people who served in the Israeli Defence Forces or in the Israel Prison Service or people who live near the Israeli cemeteries,' Bikdash said. The Israeli army usually buries Arabs militants who have been killed in fighting in these so-called 'cemeteries of numbers,' with only serial numbers to identify them. The cemeteries are simple graveyards where there are no gravestones. A metal plate is fixed above each of the graves, with specific serial numbers, instead of names. The identities of the dead militants are usually withheld by Israeli security officials. The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and Palestinian factions have on several occasions demanded the return of the remains of their members still buried in Israel. Another of the foundation's founding members, Bassam Kuntar, is the brother of Samir Kuntar who was the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel before being freed last year. He told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa: 'Our foundation will be a Lebanese international foundation.' Since Lebanon and Israel are still technically at war, the founders of the organization will seek to register it in a European country to facilitate communication with Israeli citizens. The foundation is offering 5 million dollars for the most 'valuable and reliable information' it receives about the 15 missing militants they have listed on their website. Palestinian militant Dalal al-Mughrabi is among those listed. On March 11, 1978, al-Mughrabi and 13 other militants, landed on an Israeli beach, hijacked two passenger buses. When the bus was stopped at a police roadblock, a gunfight ensued, followed by an explosion that killed the militants and more than 35 passengers.

Israel had been expected to return al-Mughrabi's remains to Lebanon as part of the prisoner swap with Hezbollah in 2008 that saw Kuntar released. But DNA tests failed to match the remains with al- Mughrabi that of her family.

The Horiah Foundation's website is similar to one set up by Israel a few years ago to search for air force navigator Ron Arad and others, who went missing in action in Lebanon in 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon.

Israel at the time set up a foundation called Born To Freedom and said an award of 10 million dollars would be offered for any information from Lebanon or elsewhere about its missing soldiers.

NGO offers $5 million

Reward in bid to retrieve fighters' bodies from Israel

By Marc Abizeid

Special to The Daily Star, Tuesday, March 17, 2009

BEIRUT: The Horiah Foundation launched a campaign to retrieve the bodies and remains of resistance fighters captured or killed in Israel. The campaign was launched during a press conference Monday in Beirut, where the group said it was offering a $5 million reward for useful information that could lead to the retrieval of the dead and missing.

"We decided it was time for us to launch a web site, www.5million.org, announcing the reward for any concrete and secure information for our Arab militants and also about the locations of where the Israelis are hiding the bodies and remains of our martyrs who were killed during the Arab/Israeli conflict," said Bassam Kuntar, co-founder of the Horiah Foundation and brother of recently freed militant Samir Kuntar.

The conference was held to mark the 31st anniversary of the famous "Kamal Adwan Operation" of 1978 carried out by 11 Palestinian and Lebanese fighters and led by 19-year-old Dalal Mughrabi. Mughrabi's remains were supposed to have been included among the 200 bodies received by Lebanon during last year's prisoner swap, but Hizbullah says DNA tests reject that possibility.

"It is very important to launch it today since we've learned the final results of the 2008 Israeli/Hizbullah prisoner swaps and [Hizbullah leader] Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced clearly that the remains of Dalal and many other martyrs did not return to Lebanon," Kontar said. He added that a number of donors and businessmen, mostly Palestinian, have already come forward pledging to support the campaign.

"I think we have to work hard to raise the money. It's not going to be an easy task especially considering the world financial crisis," Kontar said. "But we consider it our job to launch this big campaign and I want to repeat that we are serious and committed to this."

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