A History of Lebanon

The earliest settlement of Lebanon is believed to stretch back earlier than 5,000 BC, indeed Byblos is generally considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. The coastal plain of Lebanon was home to the Phoenicians whose maritime culture flourished for over 2,000 years. Their most famous colonies included Cadiz in Spain and Carthage in modern day Tunisia. Phoenicia was eventually conquered by the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia, then added to the empire of Alexandra the Great, then the Seleucid Empire and conquered by the Romans in the first century. It remained Roman until the advent of the Caliphate, Christianity was introduced into Phoenicia soon after the time of Jesus of Nazareth and Islam soon after the death of Muhammad.

During the Middle Ages, Lebanon found itself embroiled in the Crusades, although Saladin routed the Crusaders around 1190, Muslim control of Lebanon was only re-established in the late thirteenth century by the Mamluk sultans of Egypt. Control was contested by a series of Muslim rulers until the Ottoman Empire took control of the area until well into the middle of the nineteenth century. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War One, the League of Nations mandated the five provinces that make up present day Lebanon to the direct control of France. Lebanon gained independence in 1943 while France was embroiled in World War Two. In the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, 110,000 Palestinian refugees poured into Lebanon after being expelled from newly formed israel and Jordan.

During the 1960s, Lebanon enjoyed a period of relative calm, as it enjoyed prosperity derived from tourism and banking. The country was perceived as a bastion of economic progress by the oil rich Gulf states, their funds transformed Lebanon’s economy into one of the fastest growing in the world. However this period of economic success was dragged to an abrupt halt with the collapse of Yousef Beidas’ Intra Bank, the country’s largest bank in 1966. Further floods of Palestinian refugees arrived after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, also following their defeat in the Jordanian civil war, thousands of Palestinian militiamen regrouped in Lebanon led by Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organisation, they began using South Lebanon as a launching pad for attacking Israel. Egyptian leader Gamal Abd al-Nasser helped to negotiate the 1969 Cairo Agreement between Arafat and the Lebanese government , which granted the PLO autonomy over Palestinian refugee camps and access to northern Israel in return for PLO recognition of Lebanese sovereignty. The agreement incited Maronites and led to the formation of the Phalange, a Maronite militia, led by members of the Gemayel family. Lebanese society was polarised into pro-Palestinian and anti-Palestinian factions, it reflected the tensions between the Christian and Muslim communities in Lebanon that existed over the distribution of political power, it would eventually lead to the outbreak of civil war in 1975. The Maronite leadership called for Syrian intervention in 1976, leading to the presence of Syrian troops in Syria. Israel allied itself with the South Lebanon Army in an attempt to establish a buffer along Israel’s fragile northern frontier.

Israel eventually invaded Lebanon in 1978 in response to a wave of Fatah attacks, occupying most of the area south of the Litani River. The UN Security Council called for an immediate Israeli withdrawal and created the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) charged with maintaining peace. Israeli forces withdrew leaving an SLA-controlled border strip as a protective against PLO incursions. A consequence of all this re-shuffling and the subsequent tension between Syria and Phalange led the Israel to increase support for the Maronite group.

After continued Israel/PLO exchanges, Israel invaded Lebanon on 6 June 1982. By 15 June, Israeli units were entrenched outside Beirut, Arafat negotiated for evacuation of PLO militants. Lebanese President Gemayel agreed to send troops into refugee camps to clear out PLO militants. Gemayel was assassinated on Sept 16, on Sept 19, Phalange militia entered the camps and massacred 700-800 palestinians. On 17 May 1983, an agreement was reached by Lebanon, Israel and the United States for Israeli troops to leave on condition that Syrian troops also withdrew. However, Syria refused to agree and progress staggered. High profile attacks against US forces, led to their withdrawal.

The years 1985-1989 were marked by heavy fighting between The Shi’a Muslim Amal militia and Palestinian militia. Lebanon became divided by a Christian government in East Beirut and a Muslim government in West Beirut.

In February 1989, General Aoun launched the ’Harb El Tahrir’, a war against the Syrian forces in Lebanon, he was defeated with Syria bringing an end to the civil war. Since the end of the war, most of the militias have being weakened or disbanded and the Lebanese Armed Forces have implemented central authority over two thirds of the country. Only Hezbollah retained it’s weapons and was allowed to do so by the Lebanese parliament because it was defending Lebanon against the ongoing Israel occupation of the south of the country.

On 25 May, 2000. Israel completed its withdrawal from the south of Lebanon, only a fifty acre piece of Lebanese terrain, known as the Shebaa Farms remains under Israeli control. The UN has certified Israel’s withdrawal and regards the Shebaa Farms as occupied Syrian territory, while Lebanon and Syria regard it as occupied Lebanese territory.

On 20 October 2004, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri resigned; the next day former Prime Minister and loyal supporter of Syria, Omar Karami was appointed Prime Minister. On 14 February 2005, Hariri was assassinated, this marked the second killing in a four month period of a Lebanese Parliament member that opposed Syria. Hariri’s murder had the result of heaping international pressure on Syria to withdraw from Lebanon. In addition, massive protests occurred in Lebanon demanding that Syrian forces to leave, in February the pro-Syrian Karami resigned. Weeks of international and local pressure followed, culminating in an anti-Syrian rally in Martyr’s Square in Beirut which numbered almost a million. On April 26, 2005, the final batch of Syrian troops left Lebanon.

Hezbollah had continued attacks on Israel citing the continued occupation of the Shebaa Farms by Israel as the reason. In July 2006, Hezbollah launched an attack on Israeli territory and capturing two Israeli soldiers. Israel described the attack as an ’act of war’ and launched an immediate attack upon Lebanon, thus commencing the Second Lebanon War. The conflict killed over a thousand people and displaced more than a million.

In May 2007, militants in the Nahr al Bared Palestinian refugee camp, allied with Al Qaeda began a struggle against Lebanese government forces located outside the camp, the camp fell to government forces in September.

Russell Shortt
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