Libano sud: l’evoluzione della frontiera e lo strano caso delle fattorie di Shebaa

This study constitutes a first step of an investigation undertaken to provide a historical account of the Lebanese Southern border area. The aim of the research is twofold: firstly it seeks to point out the major factors determining the long-term economic and demographic changes that affected the region throughout the last century; secondly it examines the unsolved Shebaa Farms border dispute, which flared up between Israel and Lebanon in May 2000. In spite of the prevailing opinion that the disagreement is but a specious pretext used by the Shii militia lead by Hezbollah to legitimate its armed struggle, the analysis brings to the fore the historical, political and strategic implications of the issue, providing evidence that the contested area is juridically and administratively part of the Lebanese territory.