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The Palestinian Resistance Movement In Lebanon 1967–82: Survival, Challenges, and Opportunities
Abstract
This article addresses the issue of the Palestinian resistance movement and its evolution and survival in the deeply divided state of Lebanon between 1967 and 1982. The Arab defeat in the 1967 war allowed the Palestinian resistance to present itself as the main resistance movement in the Arab World, and this automatically gave the Palestinians wider support in the Arab World. However, clashes between the Palestinian resistance and the right-wing Lebanese factions (who opposed the Palestinians and their military presence in Lebanon) eroded support for the Palestinian resistance, especially as the divisions and frictions spread during the Lebanese Civil War. This created seemingly endless clashes between the Palestinians and the Lebanese. These developments led to the fragmentation of the Palestinian resistance, which had always been an Israeli objective. Finally, the Israeli invasion of 1982 led to the ouster of the Palestinian Liberation Organization from Lebanon.
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Yezid Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993 ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 196.
Riad El-Rayyes and Dunia Nahas, Guerrillas for Palestine ( New York: St. Martin's Press, Portico Publications, 1976), 19.
B J Odeh, Lebanon: Dynamics of Conflict ( London: Zed Books, 1985), 9.
Abdallah Frangi, The PLO and Palestine ( London: Zed Books, 1983), 110.
Frangi, The PLO and Palestine , 111.
Helena Cobban, The Palestinian Liberation Organization: People, Power and Politics ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 41– 42.
Mohamed Hawary, Between the Right of Return and Attempts of Resettlements , 42. Cited in: The Palestinians Refugees: Old Problems—New Solutions, Joseph Giant and Edward J. Perkins, eds. ( Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, Publishing Division of the University, by Special arrangement with Sussex University Press, UK, 2001).
Odeh, Lebanon: Dynamics of Conflict , 10.
Rosemary Sayigh, Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries ( London: Zed Books, 1979), 156.
Sayigh, Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries , 157.
The right-wing parties formed an alliance called al-Hilf. Al-Hilf was formed from the extremist Maronite Lebanese zuama (i.e., Camille Chamoun and his Party of Free Nationalists (PFN), Emile Edde and his National Bloc (NB), and Pierre Gemayel with his Lebanese Kataib Party (LKP)).
The major deployment area for the Palestinians in Lebanon had been at al-Arkub region Arkub region consists of Hasbaya (which is the capital of the district) Shib'a, Kawkaba, Rashaya al-Wadi, and other villages. The population of al-Arkub region counts about 200,000 inhabitants during that time (in the 1970s). See Farid al-Khateib, “Al-Hawadith fi al-Janoub: Min Fatehland Ila … al-Ayshiya. Barkiyat Abu Ammar Ila Abu Jihad: Israeil Sa-Tahtal al-Janoub … Ista'ido,” al-Hawadith Journal , Issue 1184, July 13, 1979.
Sakir Abu Fakher, al-Filistinyon fi Lubnan: Ayam Tatwi Ayam wa al-Hal La Tataghayer (Palestinians in Lebanon), al- Safir newspaper, February 20, 2006.
Sakir Abu Fakher, al-Filistinyon fi Lubnan: Ayam Tatwi Ayam wa al-Hal La Tataghayer (Palestinians in Lebanon), al- Safir newspaper, February 20, 2006.
Cobban, The Palestinian Liberation Organization: People, Power and Politics , 47.
As'ad 'Abd al-Rahman, “Tatawwurat wa Tafa'ulat Qadiyat Filastin Ma’ al-Bi'a al-Rasmiyya al-’Arabiyya 1967 1973” [“Developments and Interactions of the Palestinian Issue with the Formal Arab Environment, 1967–1973”], Shu'un Falistiniyya, No. 136–137 (March-April 1983), 79– 80.
Julie Peteet, From Refugees to Minorities: Palestinians in Post-War Lebanon (Middle East Report, No. 200, Minorities in the Middle East: Power and the Politics of Differences, July-September, 1996), 27– 30, 28.
See al-Nahar newspaper on April 20, 1970. See also Appendix of The Cairo Agreement (1969) in Rex Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon ( Boulder & San Francisco: Westview Press, 1990). http://prrn.mcgill.ca/research/papers/brynen2_09.htm.
Michiel Beker and Roemer van Oordt, The Palestinians in Lebanon: Contradictions of State-Formation in Exile (Middle East Research Associates MERA, Occasional Paper no. 10, December 1991), 12.
Kail C. Ellis, “Lebanon: The Struggle of a Small Country in a Regional Context,” Special Issue: The Second Republic of Lebanon, Arab Studies Quarterly 21:1 (Winter 1999), 9.
Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State , 448.
After the 1958 crisis in Lebanon, General Fouad Chehab succeeded Camil Chamoun for the Lebanese presidency. This period was known as the Deuxieme Bureau period which started in 1959 with the establishment of al-maktab al-tani or al-mukhabarat, and terminated by signing of the Cairo Agreement in 1969. During this time (1959–69), the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon went under full and direct control of the Lebanese authorities, and it was marked by a set of unjust procedures. These unfair procedures affected all the Palestinian refugees and can be summarized as follows: the Palestinian refugees were prohibited from going from one refugee camp to another before obtaining a special permission from the army (Deuxieme Bureau) and to declare the purpose of their visit; the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon were prohibited from listening to revolutionary radio stations like Sawt al-Arab (Voice of the Arabs) or Iza'at al-Thawra or Sawt al-Asifa; the Palestinians were prohibited from buying newspapers and discuss politics; the Palestinians were prohibited from using cement inside their refugee camps.
Mahmoud Soueid, Al-Janub al-Lubnani fi Muwajahat Israil: 50 Aman Min al-Sumud wa al-Muqawamah [South Lebanon Confronting Israel: 50 Years of Steadfastness and Resistance] ( Lebanon: Institute for Palestine Studies, Beirut, 1998), 8.
Kamal Nasser was the official spokesman of the PLO; Muhammad Youssef Najjar was a PLO executive committee member and the head of the Higher Political Committee for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon; Kamal Udwan was an Executive Committee member and the head of the Unified Information Council.
Helena Cobban. The Making of Modern Lebanon ( London: Hutchinson, 1985), 112.
Sulafa Heijawi, Al-Falistinioun fi Lubnan. The Palestinians in Lebanon (Majalat Markaz al-Dirasat al-Filistiniya, Baghdad University, Issue No 22, May-June 1977), 57– 58.
Sobhi Munzir Yaghi, “Al-Wojoud al-Filistini al-Musalah fi Lubnan Munzo Nihayat al-Sitinat ila al-Yaowm,” al-Nahar newspaper, June 16, 2007.
Kamal S. Salibi, Crossroads to Civil War Lebanon 1958–1976 ( Delmar, NY: Caravan Books, 1976), 70– 72.
Rex Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon ( Boulder and San Francisco: Westview Press, 1990), 80.
Joe Stork, The War of the Camps, the War of the Hostages , MERIP Reports, No. 133. (June 1985), 3– 7.
Farid El Khazen, “Ending Conflict in Wartime Lebanon: Reform, Sovereignty and Power, 1976–1988,” Middle Eastern Studies 40: 1 (January 2004): 65– 84; Published by Frank Cass, London, 67.
Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon , 101– 103. It is important to note that the numbers vary from one source to another. Rex Brynen spoke about 20,000 Palestinians and 15,000 Lebanese, which makes the total population of Tal al-Zat'ar to 35,000. Whereas Tabitha Petran estimated the number of Tal al-Zat'ar by 30,000. Also in terms of the Blockade of Tal al-Zat'ar Tabitha Petran notes that the siege of Tal al-Zat'ar went for 119 days till it fell on August 12, 1976. For further information, see Tabitha Petran, The Struggle over Lebanon ( New York: Monthly Review Press, 1987), 206– 207. Yezid Sayigh counts 21,000 inhabited Palestinians and 10,000 Lebanese. See Yezid Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993 ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 396.
Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon , 103.
Ferdinand Smit, The Battle for South Lebanon: The Radicalisation of Lebanon's Shi'ites 1982–1985 ( Amsterdam: Bulaaq, 2000), 114.
Munzer Jaber, Al-Sharit al-Lubnani al-Muhtall: Masalik al-Ihtilal, Masarat al-Muwajaha, Masa'ir al-Ahali [The Occupied Lebanese Border Strip: The Paths of the Occupations, the Lines of Confrontation, the Fate of the Population] ( Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1999), 233.
Jamal Sankari, Fadlallah: The Making of a Radical Shi'ite Leader ( London: Saqi Publications, 2005), 168.
Rex Brynen, “PLO Policy in Lebanon: Legacies and Lessons,” Journal for Palestine Studies 18: 2 (Winter 1989), 48– 70, 57.
As'ad Abu-Khalil, “Druze, Sunni and Shiite Political Leadership in Present-Day Lebanon,” Arab Studies Quarterly 7: 4 (Fall 1985), 47.
Timor Goksil, Interview by the author in English at AUB. Beirut, Thursday, January 4, 2007.
Mahmoud Soueid, ed., The Israeli War in Lebanon (June-December, 1982): A Selection of Reports, Documents and Articles from the Hebrew Press. Compiled by Hebrew Section ( Beirut, Lebanon: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1985), 7.
Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State , 514.
Smit, The Battle for South Lebanon , 141.
Hassan Sab'ih, “Al-Ijtiyah al-Israeli Lil Asima: Zikra Mushtaraka? Bilkad Zikra? Wa-Low Adna Fikra. Beirut Tahtarik … Toukawim wa La Tarfa'a al-Aalam al-Baydah,” al-Safir newspaper, September 14, 2002.
Smit, The Battle for South Lebanon , 156.
Tabitha Petran, The Struggle over Lebanon ( New York: Monthly Review Press, 1987), 282.
Petran, The Struggle over Lebanon , 282.
Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State , 573.