LEBANON – BROKEN AND REMADE

LEBANON – BROKEN AND REMADE

THE FRENCH MANDATE

• 1920 – San Remo conference confers the mandate for Lebanon on France

• 1920-6: the creation of “Greater Lebanon”• 1926 – The Lebanese Republic emerges• 1941 – British and Free French forces

liberate Lebanon• 1943 – Lebanese Independence declared

Syria and Lebanon c. 1924

The National Pact

• Unwritten agreement• Shared power between “confessions”

– President a Christian– Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim– Speaker of the Assembly a Shi’i Muslim– Government offices to be split 6:5

• Applied to civil service • Affected the army as well

1948 – 1952 Period of Change

• Palestinian refugees enter Lebanon– Unarmed and denied citizenship

• The revolution in Egypt shifts finance to Beirut– Growth in the Lebanese economy

The 1950s and 1960s

• Change in Lebanese demography– More Palestinians (Sunni non-citizens)– Fewer Christians (due to outmigration and

slightly lower birth rates)– Dramatic increase in Shi’i population

1958

• Revolution in Iraq and unrest in Lebanon• US Marines come ashore at Beirut • Fuad Chehab replaces Camille Chamoun

1968

• Israel undertakes first retaliatory raids Palestinian commandos and destroys 13 airplanes at Beirut International Airport

Arab defeats and PLO

• Military defeat created space for the PLO• Allowed the PLO to claim that it provided

defense against Israel• Allowed the PLO to base its own

legitimacy on “armed struggle”

1969-1970

• The Phalange, a militia based in the Maronite Christian community, re-emerges

• November – the Cairo Agreement is signed

• PLO headquarters is transferred to Beirut from Jordan

1975 – Year of Detonation

• February – demonstrations in Saida• April – Phalange attack Palestinians at Ain

al-Roumaneh• May – Phalange resigns from govt; Solh

resigns as PM• Fall : civil war between the Lebanese

Front and the National Movement

1976

• January – blockade of refugee camps; Syria sends PLA to Lebanon

• March – Lebanese army disintegrates; PLO-National Movement offensive threatens to take power

• June – Syrian troops enter Lebanon on the side of the Lebanese Front; Palestinian movement fractures

• August – Capture of Tal Za’tar

Questions:

• Would Lebanon be partitioned?• Could the Palestinians be disarmed (the

Chtaura agreement)?• Would Lebanon become a “frontline” state

in the conflict with Israel?– If so, would it be a launching pad for Syrian

forces or a through-way for Israelis?

1978

• Israel invades Lebanon to the Litani• Withdraws after UNSCR 425• UNIFIL troops in place• Emergence of “Fatahland” in the south

– In the absence of a state the PLO again creates one

THE 1982 WAR

• Cross-border shelling between PLO and Israel

• Assassination attempt on Israeli ambassador in Britain

• Israeli forces invade Lebanon and in four days reaches Beirut

• PLO forces leave Beirut in August; massacre at Sabra and Shatila by Phalange

What It Meant

• The PLO was defeated as a military force and removed from the “front line”

• The Amal movement hoped to represent the Shi’i

• Another movement, Hizbullah, emerged which would ultimately supplant Amal – It would become the primary organizer of the

Shi’i– Based legitimacy also on resistance

Al-Amal

Hezbullah

The Civil War

• Continued into the 1990s• Cost Lebanon ~ 150,000 dead• Never resolved the conflict between

communal and political power• Made Lebanon into a battleground for

proxy wars between Arab states and between Israel and the Arab states