The Lebanese Civil War

(1975-1989)

Keywords
Capitulations
National Covenant/1932 French
Census
Operation Blue Bat (1978)
Operation Peace for Galilee
(1982)
Mahmoud Darwish
Sabra and Shatila
Kahan Comission
The Taif Agreement

Creating a
Confessional System

Capitulations Agreements

French Mandate
1920: League of Nations
Grants the Mandate for
Lebanon and Syria to
France
1926 (May): Lebanese
Representative Council
approves a constitution
and unified Lebanese
republic under French
Mandate

The National
Covenant (1943)
Used 1932 French census
to distribute seats in
parliament
Ratio 6:5 in favor of
Christians
President (Maronite
Christian), Prime Minister
(Sunni Muslim), Speaker of
the Chamber of Deputies
(Shia)

Cold War Effects

The Lebanon Crisis

(1958)
Heightening tensions
between Maronite
Christians and Muslims in
Lebanon
President Camille Chamoun
refuses to break diplomatic
ties with France and Britain
after the Tripartite
Aggression (1956)
The Baghdad Pact (1955)

Guarding the Soviet

Frontier

Operation Blue
Bat
July 15, 1958: President
Chamoun calls for the
United States to send
troops to preserve
Lebanons
independence

Arab Nationalism and

the Problem of
Palestine

The Six-Day War

(1967)

Palestinian Refugees
UNRWA refugee camps in Lebanon
Influx of mainly Muslim Palestinians drastically shifts the confessional demography of
the country
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) using South Lebanon as basecamp

Beirut Before the War

First Phase of War

(1975-1978)

Cast of Characters
Lebanese radical
military forces:
Phalanges (Maronite
Christians)

Palestinian Liberation
Organization

Progressive Socialist
Party: Jumblatts
(Druze)

Israel (Israeli Defense

Forces, Menachim
Begin, and Ariel
Sharon)

Amal Party (Shia)

Syria: Hafez al-Assad

Battle in the
Streets of
Beirut

April 13, 1975: Phalangist

gunmen ambush a bus in
the Ayn al-Rumanah district
of Beirut, killing 27 of its
mainly Palestinian
passengers

The Phalanges
Right-wing political party in
Lebanon formed in 1936 by
Pierre Gemayel
Paramilitary youth
organization modeled after
fascist parties in Spain and
Italy

The Tel al Zaatar Refugee Camp

The Aftermath of a
Massacre (1976)

The Aftermath of a
Massacre (contd)

Operation
Litani (1978)
Invasion of Lebanon up to
the Litany River carried out
by the Israeli Defense
forces
Response to Coastal Road
Massacre
Israelis hand over the
southern parts of Lebanon
to Christian militias

The Invasion of Beirut

(1982)

Black Smoke over West Beirut

Memory for
Forgetfulness
(1986)
Mahmoud Darwish, famous
Palestinian poet and
activist (1942-2008)
Written in the form of a
memoir, detailing the
single day on the streets of
Beirut when the city was
bombarded from air, sea,
and land

Waltz With
Bashir (2008)
Israeli animated war
documentary film by Ari
Folman
Israelli film directory
interviews veterans of the
1982 invasion of Lebanon
in an attempt to
reconstruct the memories
of his time there

The Sabra and Shatila

Massacre

Israeli Soldiers and PTSD

No, we knew where we were, but I didn't - it's
not that I went, you know, like, go for a car
accident, and you go through a major brain
concussion and then you don't remember your
name, who you are and where you come from. It's
something completely different. It's that you have
the main story line, but there are some
fragments missing. And I knew that I was there
but, I mean, we didn't know anything, me, at least,
and some friends of mine, about the events that
were going around and what part did we take in
them.

International Outcry

Taif
Agreements
Negotiated in Taif Saudi Arabia
by the surviving members of
Lebanons 1972 parliament
Formed the principle of
mutual coexistence between
Lebanese religious groups and
their proper political
representation
50:50 representation between
Christians and Muslims; an
attempt to equalize powers of
President and Prime Minister