Despite the existence of numerous chronologies, a periodization of this long period is yet to be carried out. I propose considering the period from 1975 to 1982 as a coherent whole, as this is the war of some Lebanese (mainly Christians) against armed Palestinian presence. The second period, which spans the period from the Israeli invasion of 1982 to 1990, draws its coherence from the efforts to restructure the State in the shadow of the Syrian military presence, and by considering the Christian component as the loser of this new interval, and brought to a close with the Taif Agreement.
The war on… the names of the war
Ten appellations define this war and at the same time reflect the continuation of the war in the perception that we have of it.
1 - The Civil War
As early as 1976, Kamal Salibi, an eminent scholar, had introduced the term “civil” to describe the war that was breaking out. In his famous work, Crossroads to Civil War, the historian adopts this term and analyses the historical roots of the war through the social gaps and disparities inherent in the Lebanese society. This notion of the war, as well as this designation, will be the one the National Movement would adopt, as well as the left-wing circles and intellectuals, dubbed at the time the islamo-progressives (Kamal Hamdane, Fawwaz Traboulsi) and many Anglo-Saxon academics and journalists.
2 - The Uncivil War
Although the term «uncivil war» was coined in 1992 by Ahmad Beydoun, in «Le Liban, Itinéraires dans une guerre incivile», it covers the war starting from 1976. Many things lie hidden under the term «uncivil»; in fact, it includes the whole apparatus of the Lebanon war: the militias, exactions, racketeering, robbery, and, above all, the massacres of the «civil» by the «uncivil» and the forced displacements of populations. A war continues to be waged against the civil and civility.
3 - The War for Others
In the heat of the debate about the internal causes of the war and its civil character, Ghassan Tueni’s book comes out in 1984 to establish an approach to the Lebanon war based on the theory of a proxy war. According to Tueni, external and regional factors were the locomotive elements of the Lebanon war. They financed, armed, provided equipment and manpower. The internal factors, the Lebanese groups are not, nevertheless, exonerated, their complicity is complete-they have accepted to play in politics the same role they had played for centuries in trade: to be the exclusive representatives of external actors.
4 - The War of Others
With a semantic shift and a generous dose of clearing one’s conscience, the war for others becomes the war of others. Here, we find ourselves in a completely different explanatory field of the war, as it exculpates the Lebanese who become through the term «of others» the passive spectators in a confrontation that goes beyond them. This appellation of the Lebanon war takes on a quasi-official connotation during Elias Hrawi’s presidency.
a) The Lebanon war
b) The war in Lebanon
c) The Lebanese war
For researchers and intellectuals, it was imperative to find a «neutral» term to describe this war. Therefore, it was no longer the stakes that determined the appellation but the identity of the space that hosted it. So, it became the War of Lebanon (Samir Kassir, Ahmad Beydoun, Antoine Jabre) or the War in Lebanon (Jonathan Randal).
d) The Lebanon wars
e) The wars of others in Lebanon
f) The Lebanised wars
As studies on the war advanced, it became clear that the use of the singular (war) did not convey the reality of the phenomenon that stretched over 15 years, stoked by a Syrian military intervention and two Israeli invasions. So, there was not a war but wars. In their French-language 1993 book, «Bilan des guerres du Liban», Boutros Labaki and Khalil Abou Rjeily present an account of the Lebanon wars. The plural is also the preferred designation of the researcher Waddah Charara and the journalist Hazem Saghieh. The former invented the term «the Lebanised wars» (al-houroub al-mulabnanat) and Saghieh talks of Lebanon’s external and internal wars.
As a conclusion to this attempt to define the object of our collective memory, I propose considering the term «civil war» as the most misleading and «the Lebanon wars» as the most faithful to reality.
Main Print Sources
Memoires
Amine Gemayel, L’Offense et le pardon, Gallimard, 1988.
Camille Chamoun, Mémoires et souvenirs, Imprimerie catholique, 1979.
Kamal Joumblatt, Pour le Liban, Stock, 1978.
Places and Their Designations
Places and actors were given designations during the war separately from their common official names.
Beirut: If you said at a roadblock «I’m from Beirut», it wouldn’t work! You had to specify whether you were from «East Beirut or West Beirut». East meant the Achrafieh area that was under the control of the Lebanese Forces, led by the Christian parties of the Lebanese Front. West, on the other hand, meant the opposite zone that was controlled by the militias of the National Movement, left-wing parties and Palestinian organizations.
The regions: It was also necessary to know what each party used to refer to «its» region and how its opponents refer to it. The area that extends from East Beirut to the northeast suburb, half of Matn, Keserwan, Jbeil, and the south part of Batroun was called by the Lebanese Forces «liberated regions», manatiq mouharrara. The National Movement parties and the left referred to them as «isolationist regions», manatiq in’izaliyyah, and to the Lebanese Front parties as «the isolationist forces», kiwa in’izaliyya. The area that extends from West Beirut in the direction of South Lebanon and the south of Mount Lebanon was called by the National Movement «the national regions», manatiq wataniyya, and by the Lebanese Forces «the occupied regions», manatiq muhtallat.
Beginning in 1977, North Lebanon and the Bekaa valley became the «Syrian regions».
Demarcation Lines and Crossings
The main demarcation line, khatt tamass, went through Beirut from area of the Port to the east, to exit at the level of Hazmieh, on the Mount Lebanon road. Thus, it cut Beirut into two distinct sectors. There were crossing points on this line, ma’aber, which could be closed or opened without users having advance notice of their status.
Photos and Chronologies
- As-Safir, Documentation Center, Loubnan 1982: Yawmiyyat al-ghazou al-Israïli, wathaïq wa souar. Photos and documents on the 1982 Israeli invasion.
- Joseph Chami, Le Mémorial de la guerre, 1975-1990. It covers the Sarkis and Gemayel presidencies.
- Joseph Chami, two volumes on the war from 1975 to 1976, and on what followed from 1977 to 1982. Photos, documents and chronologies.
- René Chamussy, Chronique d’une guerre, Le Liban, 1975-1977, Desclé, 1978.
- Stavro Jabra, Vie et mort sans légende, 1982, photos.
- Zaven Kouyoumdjian, Shot Twice, 2003. This is an illustrated book dealing directly with memory, showing the same places and the same people at an interval of 30, 20 or 15 years. How they were and what they have become.
Creative Works
- The plays of Ziad Rahbani, Rafik Ali Ahmad, Roger Assaf and Yacoub Shedrawi.
- The CDs and DVDs on the Lebanon war produced by Al Jazeera network.
- The works of Maria Chakhtoura on graffiti: The War of Graffiti and the exhibition Walls of Shame, 1975-1978.
- Zeina Abirached, A Game for Swallows, a graphic on the war as experienced in Achrafieh.
Film
- The films of Maroun Baghdadi: Little Wars, Out of Life, The Veiled Man.
- Burhan Alawiyeh: Beirut, the Meeting (Bayrout al-Likaa’).
- Rami Doueiri: West Beirut
- Nadine Labaki: Where Do We Go Now?
Audio Sources: Songs
- Marcel Khalife: Rita, Ya Bahrieh, We’ll pick hundreds of poppies in Chyah, etc.
- The Lebanese Forces songs available on CD at the Bachir Gemayel Foundation, most notable track: Achrafieh is the beginning, the beginning of Bachir…
- The songs of Pascale Sakr, most notable: One Lebanon.
All of these tracks support a political cause and their composers/performers are militants affiliated to one camp (islamo-progressive left) or another (Christian militias). There are also the patriotic songs of Fairuz (Behebak ya Lebnan) and Majida El Roumi (Rajeh yetaamar Lebnan and Ya Bayrout).