Arnoun is a village in southern Lebanon on the boundary of Lebanese land occupied by Israel since 1978. The Israelis have their gunners and tanks at Beaufort Castle 220 yards on a hill above the village. For seventeen years the villagers have been repeatedly bombed and strafed. They have had no electricity, running water, or cars. At least 5,000 villagers have left to live elsewhere, not being free to tend their land, or pursue a secure life. But they frequently return on week-ends and holidays, to examine their houses, and till their land as much as the brief time allows.

This past December the Israelis refused to allow the water truck delivery anymore. More citizens left, and only a remaining 30 - 40 tried to keep their faith that they could make the village survive. Periodically, the Israelis blew up empty houses, claiming that they contain caches of arms. On Wednesday night February 17, the Israelis came and placed barbed wire all around the village, and bull-dozed earth to block the only road leading to the town. The villagers were no longer able to walk to the nearby town of Nabatiyeh. They would have to go through the Israeli checkpoint, and their children would have to take a taxi to attend school 5 miles away.

In the midst of the ensuing diplomatic and political muddle of how to deal with this, I watched the American University of Beirut students demonstrate on campus, and speak their minds about the injustices which have been perpetrated by the occupation of South Lebanon. On Friday, without notice, over 1,000 students swept down from Beirut to Arnoun. They came in busses, in private cars, and in taxis from the major universities in Lebanon. They said they did not have a plan, other than to walk the three miles from Nabatiyeh to the captured village, carrying wire cutters in hopes of slicing through the barbed wired as a symbolic gesture. They wanted to give support to the citizens of the 104th Lebanese village to fall, overnight, under Israeli occupation.

As they walked en mass toward the village, the citizens called to them to stop, fearing reprisals from the Israelis who were in full view, watching the procession from Beaufort Castle. But the students kept moving slowly, and reached the rolls of barbed wire stacked in rows around the village. They shook the barbed wire in frustration, and noticed no evidence of land mines, as had been proclaimed by the Israelis, nor a response from the Israeli soldiers. Then they shook harder, and pulled out their wire clippers, and began clipping. The Israelis fired their machine guns over their heads, but the young people kept clipping. The barbed wire began to fall into pieces. Others grabbed it to pull it aside. More and more students began clipping and pulling, clipping and pulling. They pulled up the steel stakes which anchored the wire. The citizens behind the barbed wire began to urge them on, and finally the students rushed across the wire into the village space. There was cheering and jubilation, clapping and ululating, hugging and crying. One student climbed the electricity pole and planted the Lebanese flag at the top. More cheering, tears of joy, shrieks of passionate emotional release ensued.

The news of pulling this long suffering village back into free Lebanese territory spread through the South, and immediately neighboring sheiks, and priests, called on their people to walk to Arnoun for support. The people responded and the crowd swelled quickly to hundreds more, as other nearby villagers came to witness and celebrate this non-violent miracle of emancipation.

The whole of Lebanon was rejoicing by Saturday when the full story broke, and streams of people, including the politicians went swarming to the South. By Sunday, more people went to witness the celebration and the "Wedding Feast in South Lebanon" when Arnoun was joined again to its country. Prime Minister Salem Hoss was among the well-wishers, and made a speech congratulating the students. President Lahoud gave an order to the governor of the region to pave the road to Arnoun immediately. The crowd cheered while the bulldozers pushed the soil, and the tarmac spreader painted a connecting ribbon to the rest of Lebanon. The water engineers came and laid down piping for running water, the first in 17 years.

By Monday, student representatives who had brought down the barricades peacefully with their bare hands had been invited to visit President Lahoud, who praised them for their courage, and the students, in turn, presented President Lahoud with a length of the barbed wire fence. Villagers from Arnoun received congratulations from the President, who agreed to their request to establish a clinic there.

Without allegiance to religious sect or party affiliation, the students brought the Lebanese together in this act of non-violent resistance. "Arnoun has brought all of the ranks of Lebanon together, and our youth have had the courage to make this happen," said President Lahoud.

All of Lebanon has swelled with pride in their youth this week-end. When the people act, and turn to peaceful power, what other liberation miracles could surely be wrought?