Neighbors / The bomblets left behind

He has been identified only as Munir Z. According to Lebanese media reports, his brother Michel served in the Lebanese armed forces and now lives in Israel. And according to allegations published last week in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, Michel recruited Munir to the Israeli intelligence services. But unlike previous spy rings uncovered by Lebanese intelligence, this time the operation involved financial concerns, not military ones.

Munir, who was arrested two weeks ago, held a senior position at the Lebanese Canadian Bank. He was responsible for the prevention of money laundering - a particularly sensitive job by which he had access to information about illegal sources of funds, and to whom they are channeled. According to the reports, the banker-spy was connected to a broad range of activities conducted for Israeli intelligence.

The pursuit of information about the movement of cash between illegal terrorist or other criminal organizations is nothing new, and not limited to Israel. However, there is another explanation as to why Israel is especially interested in the Lebanese Canadian Bank.

Two years ago, four Israeli-Canadian dual citizens filed a $6 million suit against the bank and its Montreal branch for physical damages to their Israeli homes and for mental suffering endured as a result of missile fire during the Second Lebanon War. The plaintiffs - Sarah Yefet, Shoshana Sappir, and Rochelle and Oz Shalmoni - were residing in Israel during the war. They assert that the bank is partly responsible for their injuries because it transferred Canadian contributions made to two illegal American organizations - the Yousser Company for Finance and Investment and the Martyrs Foundation - to Hezbollah, for the purpose of funding the group's efforts during the war.

Munir's recruitment relates to the suit, Lebanese sources say, as he was to prove the connection between the contributions and the flow of funds to Hezbollah.

While some Israelis are trying out their legal power against Hezbollah, it appears that Israel left a legacy behind in Lebanon that may encourage suits against it as well. According to UN estimates, during the Second Lebanon War Israel dropped cluster bombs containing four million bomblets, about 40 percent of which failed to explode and which remain scattered.

Official Lebanese sources report that, since the end of the war, 46 people have been killed and 300 injured or permanently handicapped by the bomblets - which pose the same level of danger as land mines. Col. Maher Faras, the Lebanese army officer in charge of aid to mine victims, told Agence France-Presse that his forces have already removed 197,000 bomblets, but that thousands remain - posing a danger to civilians, including farmers who cannot work their land.

Various charity organizations operating in Lebanon have contributed to the effort to remove the bomblets. But their budgets have declined over the last year, effecting the pace of removal and the recruitment of professional personnel. Another problem is the location of the bombs. Israel says it has given Lebanon detailed maps, but the Lebanese claim the maps are inexact and incomplete, and therefore cannot be relied upon.

The United Nations has initiated an effort to forbid the use of cluster bombs. Last month it reported that 30 countries have so far signed an agreement banning them, including Great Britain. Israel and the United States have yet to sign; so far no suits have been filed against Israel, but material is being collected.

All we need are Shi'ites

The new president of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Dr. Ahmad Tayyib, has made two promises so far: first, he will not shake hands with the Israeli prime minister or president, and second, he will oppose the distribution of principles of Shi'ism among Sunni Muslims.

The late Sheikh Sayyid Tantawi, the previous university president, had been severely criticized by religious leaders and secular intellectuals for shaking hands with President Shimon Peres on two different occasions. His excuse - that he did not recognize Peres - was greeted with ridicule. Tayyib, a senior member of the ruling Egyptian party, is taking preventive measures.

Regarding the ban on dissemination of Shi'ite law, the new university president says he is taking steps similar to those taken by the Iranian government.

"We don't want Shi'ites hunting our young Sunni students," he said in an interview with the Al-Arabia television station, "and we don't want to create a focus for tension and violence between the two denominations." Many Shi'ites, by the way, study at Al-Azhar University, where they are welcomed with open arms. They are not, however, permitted to carry out political activities on campus.

Tayyib had a different message for Muslim women. A veil is not a religious item, but a custom, and is therefore not mandatory, he said. In this way, Tantawi's heir is continuing the policy dictated by the Egyptian government: to remove veiled women from public spaces and forbid them from working in government institutions, such as schools and universities.

Egypt attributes this position to security concerns, although it seems the real motivation is to minimize the impression that Egypt is becoming more religious. Tantawi is the one who provided the French government with a religious ruling permitting it to legalize the ban on veils. According to this ruling, Muslim women in Western nations are "guests of a foreign culture" who must behave according to local custom.