Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday visited the northern town of Ghajar on the border with Lebanon, with the intention of coming closer to a permanent solution to the dispute over the village.

Haaretz learned on Tuesday that Lieberman intends to propose building a fence in the middle of Ghajar, at a meeting of the security cabinet in the coming weeks.

Ghajar Local Council spokesman Najib Hatib said residents of the town were vehemently opposed to its division.

"Over our dead bodies will they cut the village in half," said senior officials from the village, after holding a closed-door meeting with Lieberman on the matter. "You can't put a wall in the middle of the village and you can't separate me from my father.

Following his visit on Wednesday, Lieberman played down reports of a proposal for a fence, saying it was "too early" to make any permanent decisions on the matter.

"We are touring the area and trying to reach the best decisions," Lieberman said following his visit. "Everyone in the media is quick to jump to conclusions, but we must first learn all the facts."

"We are here to learn the reality, and the reality is complicated," he said. According to Lieberman, Israel is primarily concerned with "security and humanitarian" considerations.

Ghajar was annexed to Israel in 1981 along with the Golan Heights. Following the Israel Defense Forces' withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the United Nations, which does not recognize the 1981 annexation, determined that the international border between Syria and Lebanon cuts across the village. For this reason the IDF was formally allowed to operate only in the southern, Syrian part of the village, but often crossed into the northern part as well. However, UN resolution 1701 says that the Second Lebanon War will only be formally complete once Israel completely withdraws from the northern part. All residents of Ghajar, both its southern and northern sections, are citizens of Israel and carry blue identification cards.

The proposal which has made the most progress since the Israeli withdrawal was made by Claudio Graziano, Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). According to Graziano's interim solution, the IDF would withdraw from the northern part of the village, handing over security responsibilities to UNIFIL. The UN force would also be responsible for ensuring that no Lebanese civilians enter Ghajar. The residents of both parts the village will remain Israeli citizens and will continue to receive services from Israel.

The Lieberman proposal, on the other hand, is meant to be a permanent solution to the dispute. The foreign minister believes Graziano's temporary solution has too many security flaws, and therefore suggests erecting a permanent fence along the internationally recognized border. Lieberman is also suggesting that residents of the northern part of the village be offered to relocate to the southern part, and those who choose to remain in the north would lose their Israeli citizenship.

Lieberman's proposal is supported by a senior Likud minister close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told Haaretz that the Ghajar dispute is intimately tied to other issues, such as security risks and drug smuggling.

However, another senior politician - Deputy Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee Ayoob Kara (Likud) - is said to be working with Ghajar residents against the proposal.

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