Running Head: LEBANESE CIVIL WAR

THE LEBANESE CIVIL WAR

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Introduction

Lebanon is a country situated in mainland Asia with an estimated area of 10,452

kilometers squared. This makes the country to be the smallest among other nations in Asia.

Lebanon is a sovereign state, which borders Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and

Cyprus to the west. The country is rich in religious and cultural heritage. This essay will focus on

explaining the Lebanese civil war mainly focusing on the fact that the civil war is was not a holy

war (Hinnebusch, 2009). The research paper will also discuss other important factors like the

constitution, the Lebanese national pact, and explain the ideological differences between the

different political parties, which were mainly based on religion purposes. In this essay, the term

holy war means a cause of conflict or war that is usually declared for a religious course.

History of Lebanon

During the period of world wars, Lebanon was not heavily involved because it was

focusing mainly on solving the feminine challenge that had adversely affected the country. This

was after the end of Ottoman Empire and the takeover of Lebanon by the French colony under

the League of Nations in the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. Under the French

control, the country experienced periods of extreme success and the capital city of Beirut became

an economic powerhouse (Black, 1982). The country was made safe for the success for the

Maronites, the Christian population in the state of Lebanon. However, the country had a

significant Muslim population although as at that time, the Christian community exceeded

Muslim population on the census of 1932.

The country was declared a republic. However, many groups, which were mostly against

the French rule, formed a unity with Syria. This was the beginning of the continued state of cold
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war in Lebanon among the Maronites, who were highly favored by the French and the Western

countries and the dissenting groups of Muslims who were against the Western and specifically

the French rule. However, the independence of Lebanon was controversial as the free French

government succumbed to pressure from the international community to grant Lebanon its

independence and therefore making it a republic. After the elections of the new Lebanese

government, the French mandate was abolished (Krayem). However, there was no formal

termination of the French mandate in Lebanon on the part of the League of Nations or its

successor, the United Nations. The independence of Lebanon and the cessation of the French

mandate was however formally accepted by the United Nations. This led to the formation of the

newly independent government of Lebanon under the national pact.

The National Pact of Lebanon

For now established independent government to exercise its mandate, there were several

policies that were to unanimously be implemented to cater for the interests of the religious

groups in Lebanon. These plans were agreed in an unwritten document called the national pact.

The components of the national agreement were negotiated between the Shia, Sunni, and the

Maronites who were the majority according to the census of 1932. This treaty is said and

credited to have provided the foundations of governance and political stability in Lebanon to this

day (Hinnebusch, 2009). The following were the major components of the national pact.

The Maronite Christians were to stop seeking foreign interventions from the western

countries. This is because the Maronite was highly associated with the French rule and other

western ideologies. Instead, the Maronite Christians were to accept an Arab-affiliated Lebanon.

This meant that after the agreement of the national pact, Lebanon was to accept and adhere to all

the ideologies of the Muslim countries while pouring cold water to all the policies and the beliefs
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from the western countries, which to a greater extent, were against the Muslims. On their part,

the Muslims were to abandon their aspirations of uniting with Syria. This is because the

Muslims, especially those who were dissenting with the now departed French mandate had

formed affiliations with and wanted to be part of Syria.

According to the agreement in the pact, the president of the Republic of Lebanon will

always be a Maronite Catholic while the prime minister of the Republic of Lebanon will always

be a Sunni Muslim. These were the senior-most positions in the new government of the

independent Republic of Lebanon. The Maronite Catholics were the majority and therefore had

to take the office of the presidency which was the highest office in the land while the Sunni

Muslim, the second largest religious group in Lebanon to the second highest office, the office of

the prime minister of Lebanon (Kleidung, 2014). The third highest office, which is the head of

the legislature, was to be taken by the third largest religious group in the land. According to the

available statistics by then, Shia Muslim was the third largest religious group in Lebanon and

therefore they were to assume the office of the speaker of parliament.

The office of the deputy prime minister was to be assumed by the fourth largest religious

group in Lebanon. This was Greek Orthodox Christian. Also, the deputy speaker of parliament

was always going to be a Greek Orthodox Christian (Chamie, 1977). The agreement also stated

that the Chief of the General Staff of the armed forces is always a Maronite Catholic. The

commander of the Lebanese army was established to be a Druze, which was somehow playing a

neutral ground because it is a religious group whose faith incorporates elements of Ismailism,

Judaism, Gnosticism, Christianism, Neo-Platonism, and Hinduism among others. The Chief of

the general staff of the armed forces of Lebanon was always a Maronite Catholic.
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Finally, the parliament members are always in the ratio of 6:5 for Christians to Muslims.

Other religious groups were not to be considered in the members of the Lebanese parliament.

Moreover, the national pact had given the president extreme powers. It was clearly seen that

Christians had benefited from the national agreement because they had taken the position of

powerful president and they had a majority in parliament on the Muslim and other religion. It is

highlighted that the reason why the Maronite Christians benefited was based on the 1932 census,

which had indicated that Christians were the majority in the Lebanon population (Gaub, 2015).

However, the strong economic Christians started experiencing high levels of migration to

other countries. Also, the population of the rich Christians was not increasing. On the other hand,

the poor Sunni and Shia Muslims were very fertile, and their population was increasing at a

higher rate. These factors made the Muslims start having a perception that the National Pact did

not represent the demographic and geographical representation of people in Lebanon. They felt

that the Christians had dominated both in the economic and political arena, but they were not the

most populous religious group in Lebanon (Gale, 2008). The tide was steadily falling towards the

Muslim religion. Also, the conflicts between Palestine and Israel made many Palestinians

migrate to Lebanon as refugees. This completely led to an imbalance upon which the Christians

were now the second largest religious group in Lebanon. This resulted in the formation of

different religious affiliated political parties with different ideologies. The major political parties

include the Lebanese National Movement (NLM) and the Phalangist Party famously known as

Kataeb.

The Phalangist Party (Kataeb)

Kataeb is a Christian democratic party in the independent Republic of Lebanon. The

party is officially but has its base support from the Maronite Christians. This is one of the parties
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that played a significant role in the start and end of the Lebanese civil war of (1975-1990)

(White, 2009). The party declined after the civil war but it gained its glory slowly, and it is a part

of the party that formed the March 14 Alliance. Pierre Gemayel created this party in 1936.

Originally, the party was a Maronite Christian youth organization. Other young Lebanese in

forming the Kataeb party joined Gemayel. The party was highly resistant to the French mandate,

which was infiltrating foreign culture in the country and was actively opposed to the pan-Arabist

who tried to take over Lebanon. The party believed in the free will and sovereignty of the

country and people of Lebanon. The following are the ideologies associated with the Phalangist

Party.

The party believed in the policy of Lebanon being a liberal outlet, a country where the

Christians from the eastern part could socially, politically, and economically flourish in peace

with its surroundings. The party was highly focused on the eastern Christians especially the

Phoenicians and the Greek Orthodox who did not have to have significant support from the

western countries. The other ideology of the Phalangist Party was an independent, sovereign, and

pluralistic Lebanon that safeguards basic human rights and fundamental freedoms for all its

constituents (Salhani, 2015). This is clearly stated that the party was not likely to entertain the

influence from other countries including those, which are Muslim dominated or the influential

western countries. In addition, all the citizens of the Lebanon country were to be respected and

be given equal chances without being discriminated on race, religion, or ethnicity. The third

ideology of Kataeb was that Lebanese people and especially the Maronites are a unique nation,

which is independent of the Arab nation. Finally, the party policies were anticommunist and anti-

Palestinian and with zeal rejected the pan-Arab ideals.

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The Lebanese National Movement (LNM)

This leftist party was active during the Lebanese civil war. This party formed one of the

two main coalitions during the first round of fighting in the Lebanese civil war. It is a coalition

of many political and religious parties with similar ideologies. The parties forming the Lebanese

National Movement include the Progressive Socialite Party (PSP), the Syrian Social Nationalist

Party (SSNP), the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), and other parties like the Rejection Front,

and the Palestinian factions. The following are some of the Lebanese National Movement

ideologies (Shoufi, 2014).

The party was a pan-Arabist. This meant that the party advocated for a more Muslim

Lebanon than the Christian nations that would completely adhere to the requests and demands of

other Muslim countries. This party highly favored the requirements and demands of Gamal

Abdel Nasser who was against the western influence and highly supported the Arab policies and

objectives. The party highly supported the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which was

a militia group formed by the refugees from the Palestine due to the Israel-Palestine war. The

party also claimed to be progressive, democratic, and non-sectarian.

Due to the different prevailing ideologies from various political-come religious parties,

and the continued imbalance of the demographics between the Muslims and the Maronite

Christians, militia group sprout in an attempt to physically fight to instill their ideologies. This

clearly indicates that the Lebanon war was not a Holy War, but a war typically waged to push for

political beliefs in the Republic of Lebanon. The militia groups led to the start of civil war.
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The Lebanese Civil War (1975-1991)

The war started in1975 when the Phalangist militia attacked a bus in the district of Beirut,

killing 27 passengers who were mainly the refugee Palestinians. In their defense, the Phalangist

militia claimed that guerrillas had previously attacked a church in the Ayn-al-Rummanah district

of Beirut. This act led to the widespread war across the country for over a year. In 1976, the war

had significantly spread, and its impacts were felt across the divide with intense fighting

destroying almost all the most important state institutions and public buildings in the country. In

this period, the Lebanese National Movement backed by its allies who included the Palestinian

Liberation Organization had managed to take control of about 70% of the Lebanon state

(Salman, 2014). The confessional layout of Beirut’s various quarters facilitated random killings

forcing many people within the city to stay indoors.

During the heightened wars period, the government was paralyzed and was not working

for few months. This means that there was no organized machinery to control the fighting. The

inadequacies of the 1943 national pact reappeared more clearly than ever. The government could

not be able to monitor the increasing war, which had detrimental effects because the leaders did

not agree on whether to use the army to stop the bloodletting. Other Christian groups and militias

joined so support the fight against the leftist. Prime Minister Rashid as Sulh resigned followed

with his cabinet and a new government was formed under Rashid Karami (Kisirwani, 1987). The

fighting had spread across the country forcing many residents to seek refuge and safety where

their sect was dominant. However, the militias continued attacking followed by retaliatory

attacks from the other side including acts against uninvolved civilians. Although the war seemed

to have a perception that it was Christians versus Muslims, it was not, it was those favoring the

status quo, Lebanese Front (Morganites) against those advocating the change, Lebanese National
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Movement. This clearly states that the war was not a holy war but a war based on ideologies.

Peace was not maintained for a long time except for short occasional cease-fires.

The government of Syria wanted to broker a peace deal in1976 with little success due to

the consistent confrontations between the Lebanese Front and the Palestinian clashes. The

Lebanese Front had held siege a densely populated Palestinian refugee camp while at the same

time overrunning a Muslim quarter in East Beirut. These actions brought the full force of the

Palestine Liberation Organization and the Lebanese National Movement. However, Syria was

successful in bringing a compromise (Fitzgerald, 1976). The process was derailed by the

separation of Muslim troops from the Lebanese Army to form Lebanese Arab Army who joined

hands with the Lebanese National Movement. The change movement was thereby strengthened

pushing President Franjiyah out of the palace and fleeing to Mount Lebanon. Ilyas Sarkis took

over as the president after Franjiyah term expired. However, the new president faced extreme

opposition from Jumblatt because he had a backing from Syria.

The formation of a Christian country around Mount Harmon and a radical country

governed by Lebanese National Movement seemed likely due to the fortunes gained by Lebanese

National Movement. To prevent this, the president of Syria, Assad did not want this to happen.

To avoid this, Assad sent the Syrian Army to counter the effect of Lebanese National Movement.

The decision proved to be fatal after the Syrian forces received extreme resistance and suffered

many casualties. Syria received criticism from Arab world after entering the war on a Christian

side. However, the Syrian forces succeeded in subduing the opposition. A cease-fire peace deal

agreed led to a prolonged period of peace although the Lebanese Front continued to fight the

Palestine Liberation Organization in the south. It is estimated that 44,000 people died during this

time while 180,000 were wounded. Many were displaced and left homeless.
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The U.S. brokered a peace deal in 1981, which led to continued peace for a year. The

Syrian and PLO fighters withdrew from Beirut in 1982, and a multinational force was deployed.

A new president was elected but later assassinated (Sune, 2011). The Israel responded by

entering the border and continued the massacring of Palestinian refugees. His brother with the

backing of U.S., replaced the assassinated president. The Israel soldiers withdrew from Lebanon

on condition of Syrian soldiers withdrawing. The fight changed the style, and the western troops

were now the target of terrorist groups like the emerging Hezbollah. This is because they had a

perception that western countries represented the interests of the Christians.

The situation further worsened in 1985 and 1989 with Shia Amal militia factional group

focusing on removing the Palestinian group from the Lebanese strongholds. In 1987, the fight

resumed in Beirut with the Palestinians, leftist, and Druze fighters allied against Amal. In 1988,

the full-scale confrontation was experienced in Beirut featuring Amal and Hezbollah drawing

Syrian intervention. This can clearly be seen that the war was typically ideological rather than

holy war (Black, 1982). The appointment of Michel Aoun triggered divisions between Muslims

and Christians in east and west Beirut since it had broken the National Pact that required the

prime minister to be a Muslim.

Finally, the Taif agreement of 1989 marked the end of the civil war. Arab League

countries formulated a deal in Sound Arabia that sought for national reconciliation. Among the

agreed issues was the expansion of the parliament to 128 sits, which were divided equally

between Christians and Muslims. In 1991, all the militias were dissolved, and the Lebanese

Armed Forces began to rebuild. Hezbollah was the only group, which was not dissolved. At the

end of the war, it is reported that the casualties were more than 100,000 and another 100,000 left
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handicapped. Also, about one-fifth of the population was displaced from their homes of whom a

quarter migrated permanently (Salloukh, 2016).

Conclusion

The Lebanese civil war stands as one of the post-world war 11 civil wars experienced in

different countries due to issues of governance. The battle pitted Christians against the Muslims

while other groups like the Palestine Liberation Organization were heavily involved in the war.

The Christians, under the umbrella of the Lebanese Front, were fighting to retain the status quo,

which was to adhere to the unwritten national pact. The national settlement had given many

privileges to Christians due to their perceived large numbers according to a census conducted in

1932. The Muslim side, under the umbrella of the Lebanese National Movement backed by other

Arab militia factions and the Palestine Liberation Organization, were fighting for the change.

They had ideologies, which perceived that the national pact should be reviewed given the

increased population of Muslims and a drastic decrease in Christian populations.

Other forces were involved in the war mostly the Syrian forces and the Israel forces both

with the interest of safeguarding their interests and national security. The western countries were

also involved. All the foreign parties involved sided with the Christian camp in an attempt to

reverse and reduce the impact of the combined Arab militias, which were supported by the

League of Arab countries including Egypt, Iraq, and Iran. Finally, a peace deal was brokered

after sixteen years of civil war that led to the death and displacement of many people. From the

context of the beginning of the war and the fight between the Lebanese National Movement and

the allies against the Amal, militia clearly indicates that the Lebanese civil war was purely

ideological rather than holy war. The religious beliefs have not been highlighted as the cause of
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the war rather; the national pact of political benefits and power sharing seems to be the origin of

the civil war.

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References

Black, E. (1982). The Lebanese Civil War In Literature.

CHAMIE, J. (1977). THE LEBANESE CIVIL WAR: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE

CAUSES. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20671682

Fitzgerald, P. (1976). The Lebanese Civil War.

Gale, T. (2008). Lebanese Civil War.

Gaub, F. (2015). Lebanon’s civil war: seven lessons forty years on.

Hinnebusch, R. (2009). Teaching & Learning Guide for: Modern Syrian Politics.

doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00643.x

KISIRWANI, M. (1987). Assessing the Impact of the Post Civil War Period on the Lebanese

Bureaucracy: A View from Inside. Journal of Asian and African Studies .

Kleidung, N. (2014). HINNEBUSCH RAYMOND A. , SYRIA REVOLUTION FROM

ABOVE.

Krayem, H. (n.d.). THE LEBANESE CIVIL WAR AND THE TAIF AGREEMENT.

Salhani, C. (2015). The Lebanese civil war had multiple causes.

Salloukh, B. (2016). Syria and Lebanon: A Brotherhood Transformed.

Salman, T. (2014). Lebanese civil war still relevant to regional conflicts.

Shoufi, E. (2014). Lebanese civil war still raging in the hearts and minds of the People.

Sune, H. (2011). The historiography and the memory of the Lebanese civil war .
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White, T. (2009). What fundamental issues lie at the heart of the Lebanese Civil War.