Lebanese Civil War

CAUSES OF THE WAR

FIGHTING FROM 1975 TO 1985

END OF THE CIVIL WAR

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Lebanese civil war erupted in April 1975 and ended in October 1990. Since its independence in 1943, Lebanon has been governed by a confessional political system in which parliamentary seats and governmental and civil service positions are distributed among religious sects in accordance with their population ratio. The 1926 constitution, which officially recognizes the distribution of cabinet positions and governmental jobs on a sectarian basis, was supplemented at the time of independence in 1943 by an informal “gentlemen’s agreement,” the National Pact, at the time of independence. According to this agreement, the president has to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, the speaker of the Parliament a Shia Muslim, and the deputy speaker a Greek Orthodox. The Muslims shunned pan-Arabism and recognized Lebanon’s independence; Christians agreed to the Arab character of the country and eschewed western protection. This consociational democracy was based on cooperation and moderation among mainly Maronite and Sunni elites, perpetuated a weak state, and institutionalized the sectarian differences. Despite its defects, though, the Lebanese political system established order and stability from 1943 until 1975, weathering the crises of 1952 and 1958.

Several developments in the 1960s undermined the precarious Lebanese republic. First, socioeconomic developments exacerbated economic inequalities. The Lebanese economy was characterized by free trade, low industrialization, low taxation, and minimal state intervention. Hence, the state was in position to effectively address the needs of the poorer segments of the population. Also, economic differences overlapped with sectarian differences: Whereas Christians in general disproportionately benefited from the economic growth, the Shia remained at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. Second, demographic trends changed the population ratio between sects. The Shia had the highest fertility rate, followed by the Sunnis. The distribution of political power, which was based on the 1932 census, ceased to reflect demographic realities, and these developments augmented the Muslim demand for institutional reform. The rise of radical and populist forces undermined the power of the traditional Sunni and Shia elites. Third, and most importantly, regional events put immense burdens on the Lebanese political system. The rise of Arab nationalism in the 1950s exacerbated the sectarian tensions in Lebanon. Although Sunni Muslims were supportive of the anti-western policies of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918–1970), the Maronites adamantly refused to allow Lebanon to join the pro-Nasser camp. Lebanon was on the brink of civil war in 1958 when the Maronite president asked for help from the United States. The landing of the U.S. marines in Beirut quelled the violence, and a compromise candidate, Fuad Chehab, was elected president. After the 1967 Six Days War and their expulsion from Jordan in 1970, Palestinian guerillas chose Lebanon as the main base of their operations against Israel. The November 1969 Cairo agreement between Lebanon and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) gave the PLO extraterritorial rights. The entrenchment of the PLO in Lebanon provoked Christian resentment because it further changed the demographic ratio to the disadvantage of Christians, and it brought fierce reprisals from the Israelis, who held the Lebanese government responsible for the actions of the Palestinians. The Lebanese army was unable to control the PLO or to defend the country against Israeli incursions. The insecurity in southern Lebanon led to the dislocation of Shia villagers to urban peripheries. Furthermore, after Hafez al-Assad (1930–2000) assumed the presidency of Syria in 1970, Syria pursued a more assertive and ambitious foreign policy in Lebanon. The ruling Alawite minority perceived the Shia of Lebanon as a counterweight against the Sunni majority of Syria and the Palestinians.

By 1975 two main coalitions were confronting each other. On the one hand, Maronite Christians came together under the rubric of the Lebanese Forces (LF), which was dominated by the Phalange Party led by Bashir Gemayel (1947–1982). The LF was in favor of the continuation of the existing confessional system of government in Lebanon and opposed any institutional reform benefiting the Muslims. Moreover, it espoused the end of Palestinian extraterritorial rights. During the conflict, the LF toyed with the idea of creating a small Christian state in Mount Lebanon, an idea that was rejected by several more moderate Maronite leaders. On the other hand was an amalgam of groups that demanded the end of the confessional system and sympathized with the Palestinian goals. The Lebanese National Movement (LNM) included the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) led by the Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt (1917–1977), the Amal militia headed by the Shia leader Musa al-Sadr (1928–1978?), the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), the Communists, the Arab nationalist Baʿth Party, and the Sunni al-Murabitun militia, and it had the support of the PLO.

Fighting broke out between Palestinian guerrillas and the Phalange in April 1975, and several months later Lebanon was engulfed in full-scale civil war. The first phase of the civil war continued for eighteen months. By December 1975 the LNM was on the verge of defeating the LF, but Syria intervened to prevent that outcome because the ruling Alawite regime in Syria feared that the dissolution of Lebanon or the leftist and PLO domination of Lebanon would jeopardize its rule over the Sunni majority in Syria. Both the United States and Israel gave tacit agreement to Syria’s intervention, which resulted in de facto partition of Lebanon. With the Syrian army in control of most of the country, the LF, the PLO, the Druze, and the pro-Israeli Free Lebanon Army established themselves in different parts of the country. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) became a buffer between the pro-Israeli militia and the PLO.

From 1976 to 1982 the conflict between the PLO and Israel continued unabated. In March 1977 Jumblatt was assassinated, and the LNM was beset by factionalism. In August 1978 al-Sadr disappeared while on a trip to Libya. Meanwhile, the relations between the LF and Syria deteriorated, and the Syrian regime suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood after much bloodshed. In 1981 Syrian-Israel relations deteriorated further, and Israel initiated a large-scale invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The Israeli goals were the destruction of PLO autonomy, the weakening of the Syrian influence in Lebanon, and most ambitiously, the reconstruction of the Lebanese state under the control of Gemayel, who allied himself with the Israelis. The invasion achieved its first goal, as the PLO was obliged to leave West Beirut in 1982 and later, Tripoli in 1983 after the Syrian attacks. However, the Israeli army’s defeat of the Syrian forces did not end Syrian influence, which was rapidly restored with Soviet support. Gemayel was assassinated in September 1982, shortly after he was elected president. A security pact signed between Israel and Lebanon in May 1983 was later abrogated. Moreover, the LF massacres of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps surrounded by the Israeli army in September 1982 left the Israeli goal of establishing order in Lebanon in tatters. A multinational force composed of U.S., French, and Italian forces landed in West Beirut in October 1982, but its mission became a disaster when the U.S. and French barracks were devastated by suicide bombing attacks in October 1983. The Israelis withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1985, but remained in control of the southern border zone by sponsoring a Christian-dominated militia, the South Lebanon Army. The Israeli occupation eventually ended in May 2000, but it had contributed to the Islamic mobilization of the Shia and the rise of Hezbollah as the most powerful local organization in Lebanon. Support from the Islamic republic of Iran and the cooperation of Syria contributed to the emergence of Hezbollah as an effective guerrilla organization with extensive social services.

The later 1980s saw intra-sectarian conflict among the Muslims and Christians and the complete fragmentation of the state authority in Lebanon. The Shia militia Amal took over West Beirut in February 1984, and tensions between Amal and the Palestinians erupted into open conflict—the “war of the camps”—in 1985, prompting the Syrian occupation of West Beirut in 1987. Armed rivalry between Hezbollah and Amal from 1988 to 1990 resulted in the establishment of the former as a major force in Beirut. Among Christians, General Michel Aoun (b. 1935), the commander of the Lebanese army, emerged as a strong contender for leadership; President Amine Gemayel appointed him prime minister in 1988 in defiance of the National Pact. Aoun vehemently opposed Syrian interference and portrayed himself as a secular nationalist leader. He clashed with the LF for control of the Christian enclave and declared a “war of liberation” against Syria in March 1989. He was ultimately unsuccessful, and was forced into exile in 1991. With his defeat, the Lebanese Civil War came to an end.

A principal reason for the end of active hostilities was the exhaustion brought on by the fifteen years of warfare. None of the groups was able to establish dominance over others, and sectarian divisions continued as before. Syria emerged as the hegemonic power in Lebanon, with U.S. endorsement, and achieved veto power over all important political decisions. The Ta’if Agreement (1989), which was signed by the surviving Lebanese parliamentarians and crystallized the ethos of “no victor and no vanquished,” amended the constitution but did not dismantle confessionalism. By its terms, the power of the president was reduced in favor of the prime minister and the speaker of the Parliament, and the parliamentary seats were equally distributed between Christians and Muslims. All the militias were disarmed in March 1991 with the exception of Hezbollah, which continued its “resistance” against Israel in the border zone. Syria did not completely withdraw from Lebanon until 2005.

SEE ALSO Arab-Israeli War of 1967; Civil Wars; Communalism; Conflict; Democracy, Consociational; Ethnic Conflict; Ethnic Fractionalization; Muslims; Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); Palestinians; Phalangists; Suez Crisis

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El-Khazen, Farid. 2000. The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon, 1967–1976. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Fisk, Robert. 2002. Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon. 4th ed. New York: Nation Books.

Khalaf, Samir. 2002. Civil and Uncivil Violence in Lebanon. New York: Columbia University Press.

Picard, Elizabeth. 1996. Lebanon: A Shattered Country: Myths and Realities of the Wars in Lebanon. Revised ed. New York: Holmes and Meier.

Rabinovich, Itamar. 1986. The War for Lebanon, 1970–1985. Revised ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Gunes Murat Tezcur