Table of Contents
- 1 Israel’s Greatest Attack of 1982: From “Litani” to “Peace to Galilee”
- 2 Conflict despite partial withdrawal
- 3 Twenty years of ownership
- 4 Afifi struggle: from Sabra and Shatila to Khiam prison
- 5 “Sectarian Alliances”
- 6 How the Israelites left Lebanon and the result
- 7 How did the complex interplay of international interests and internal sectarian divisions shape the trajectory of the Lebanese Civil War?
Comment on the picture, Israeli soldiers in a tank as they enter the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon during an Israeli army attack, in June 1982.
- Author, Yahya Kanakreh and Laila Bashar Al-Kalub
- role, BBC Arabic News
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2 hours ago
“Our land has been lost to us for about a year… My family and all the people I love will not be buried there, nor can they even visit the graves of their loved ones We have nothing left having lost everything we have.” With these words, a young Lebanese woman from the southern village of Kafr Kila described to us her feelings about the attack.
His fears did not come out of nowhere, as this complete attack from Israel brought back to the minds of the Lebanese the prospect of staying longer in the southern lands.
Twenty years of career cannot be discussed in one article, but here we try to summarize the most obvious things we know: how the career began and ended, and with whom What was that period in Lebanon’s history like?
Israel’s Greatest Attack of 1982: From “Litani” to “Peace to Galilee”
Comment on the picture, An Israeli soldier near Beirut International Airport when Israeli forces seized areas outside the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in June 1982.
With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 – what is known in Palestinian terms as the Nakba – some 110,000 Palestinians were relocated to Lebanon, according to the Interactive Encyclopedia of Palestine Magazine, thus Lebanon became to be a major destination for Palestinian refugees and Palestinian armed groups, including the Palestine Liberation Organization.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Palestinian and Lebanese armed groups clashed with the Israelis several times, and in March 1978, Palestinians hijacked a bus after arriving on an Israeli beach during the ensuing operation, 38 Israelis were killed in what was known in Israel as the “Shore Road Massacre.”
Israel decided to attack Lebanon for the first time after this attack, starting “Operation Litani” with the aim of eliminating PLO bases in southern Lebanon and security in northern Israel to bring back. Fighting escalated during the battle, with military operations reaching the Litani River.
Fighting between Israeli forces and PLO fighters continued until June 1978. About two thousand Lebanese and Palestinians were killed in this attack, and it culminated in the deployment of United Nations peacekeeping forces (UNIFIL) who were was created according to the UN Security Council resolutions that asked Israel to withdraw, but Israel He maintained control of some small Lebanese villages in the south.
Conflict despite partial withdrawal
This partial withdrawal did not stop clashes between Israeli forces and the Palestine Liberation Organization on the Lebanese border. In 1982, Palestinian gunmen tried to kill the Israeli ambassador in the British capital, London. Prime Minister Menachem Begin then accused the Palestine Liberation Organization of carrying out the operation, and in response launched Operation “Peace for Galilee” to invade Lebanon “with the aim of restoring security to the end of northern Israel, and eliminate Palestinian armed movements and their infrastructure. in northern Lebanon.”
More than 40,000 Israeli soldiers participated in the attack, along with hundreds of military vehicles that attacked Lebanon with the support of the South Lebanese Army – Lahad Army.
After a ten-week siege of Beirut that began in June 1982, Israel succeeded in expelling the Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon under international supervision in the same year, but with the assassination of the elected President of Lebanon Bashir Gemayel – who was friend of Israel. – Israeli military forces attacked the capital, Beirut, around the refugee camps, and groups of Lebanese anti-Palestinian militias entered the Sabra and Shatila camps under fire.
Twenty years of ownership
Comment on the picture, Israeli forces entered several areas, and were able to reach the outskirts of the capital, Beirut, within a week, but retreated after three months, creating a buffer zone along the inside Lebanon.
At that time, several Lebanese groups were formed to repulse the Israeli attack, and the Israelis withdrew from Beirut within three months, but they lived in additional parts of the right.
In 1985, Israel, in alliance with the South Lebanese Army, or known as the Antoine Army, established a “security zone” that extended along the border at a depth of between 5 and 20 kilometers “to ensure the safety of the inhabitants of the country northern Israel.”
But the area immediately became the center of a new conflict between Israeli forces and the armed groups that had recently emerged, especially Hezbollah.
Afifi struggle: from Sabra and Shatila to Khiam prison
Comment on the picture, Palestinian activist Kifah Afifi in her interview with Giselle Khoury on Al-Mashhad program, July 2017.
The Palestinian activist and former detainee in the Israeli Khiam prison (in southern Lebanon), Kifah Afifi, is one of the most prominent witnesses of the occupation, as she witnessed the murders of Sabra and Shatila in 1982, and the siege of the camps in Lebanon in the 1980s.
A few years later, the Israeli army arrested Kifah while she was trying to carry out military operations with the Palestinian Fatah movement, against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. She was the youngest prisoner in Khiam and the only Palestinian woman inside when she was arrested when she was eighteen years old. It was later released in 1995.
In her interview with the BBC’s Al-Mashhad program in 2017, Afifi described her experience with the Israeli occupation from childhood until her arrest.
“They are killing everyone. ” – Sabra and Shatila
Afifi says: I was 11 years old, we were sitting at home, and the Israeli army started throwing flames at the camp and the bombing started.
We left the house towards a nearby shelter, but someone came and told us that we had to escape: they were killing everyone.
A group of old people decided to negotiate with the militias because most of those who remained (after leaving the Palestinian groups) were children, women and old people, so my brother followed them and he watched them kill them.
We walked behind a young man until we reached the Gaza Hospital (inside the camp).
The Israelis saw us, so they took us all to the “Sports City” stadium, separating men and women. They started calling the young boys and shooting them in front of us. My cousin was pregnant.
A man who protected his sons – they were dressed as doctors – ran and overpowered them, but they killed him and his sons.
“B’em ‘name 2237” – Khiam Detention Center
Regarding her experience in the Khiam detention center, Afifi says: I didn’t have a name, they called me 2237.
I was young, and I even looked younger than my real age.
When I arrived, I was put in a pit, then the female Israeli soldiers came to take pictures with me, and they started making fun of me.
The hardest part was when they tore my clothes to rape me.
Comment on the picture, “The sound of gunshots was heard coming from the hole and it was speculated that everyone in there had been killed. ” – Sabra and the Shatila massacre
“Sectarian Alliances”
Lebanese journalist and analyst George Alam, who lived through that period, says that the war in Lebanon today “remembered the Israeli war that had been against Lebanon from the beginning the eighties.”
In his interview with the BBC, Alam describes how Lebanon was suffering from internal wars about political, sectarian and sectarian divisions at that time.
He described the social situation in Lebanon at the time as “dangerous,” and explained that “Lebanon was divided among itself… PLO and the Christian sect, so Forces could Lebanon to build the mini-state From Jezzine to Madfoun in northern Lebanon.
Alam pointed out that “Shiite influence was not as strong as it is now, but of course it had its areas, whether in the south or in the Bekaa, as well as Druze influence in some areas.”
He said that “Israel’s attack on Lebanon had disturbed the national structure, meaning that there were some who sympathized with it, and there were some opponents … chaos,” according to Alam.
Alam compared the movement during the 1982 war to the current war, saying: “We did not see a big movement, as we see today, because the military operations were during the Israeli attack limited to the conflict between the Freedom groups. The organization and army of Israel, so there are areas that remained far from being targeted and destroyed, and the people remained in them. “
How the Israelites left Lebanon and the result
Comment on the picture, Israeli soldiers in a tank as they enter the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon during an Israeli army attack, in June 1982.
International strategy and policy researcher Lara Al-Deeb says in her article “Lebanon: Occupation Ends,” published in the Middle East Research and Information Center in 2000, that pulling Israel from southern Lebanon surprised most observers.
“When the last Israeli soldier left the territory of Lebanon in the early morning hours of May 24, 2000, he ended a career that had lasted almost 20 years, a few weeks before the date of Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak installed on July 7. .”
She pointed out that “the withdrawal, which was supposed to happen gradually under the guidance of the United Nations, was done in just 48 hours.”
During the attack, about 20,000 people were killed on the Lebanese side, most of them civilians, and on the Israeli side, 654 soldiers were killed.
After the withdrawal, some members of Lahad Army left the country, and hundreds surrendered themselves to the Lebanese authorities. Some also left for Israel despite not belonging to Lahad, but they used to cross the border to work, and they feared persecution and loss of income, according to Al-Dhib.
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2024-11-23 13:03:00
How did the complex interplay of international interests and internal sectarian divisions shape the trajectory of the Lebanese Civil War?
## Open-Ended Discussion Questions Based on the Article:
**Sectarian Alliances and the Lebanese Civil War:**
* How did the existing sectarian divisions in Lebanon contribute to the outbreak and continuation of the civil war?
* The article mentions that the Israeli invasion “disturbed the national structure.” What does this mean, and how did it exacerbate existing tensions?
* The article compares the level of civilian displacement during the 1982 war to the current situation. What factors might account for these differences?
* How did the presence of several armed factions, each with its own political and religious agenda, complicate efforts to establish peace?
**The Israeli Occupation of Southern Lebanon:**
* What were the primary motivations behind Israel’s invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon?
* How did the Israeli presence impact the daily lives of Lebanese civilians in the occupied territories?
* The article notes that Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon was “supposed to happen gradually.” Why do you think it was ultimately carried out in such a short timeframe?
* What were some of the long-term consequences of the Israeli occupation, both for Lebanon and for Israel?
**The Sabra and Shatila Massacre:**
* The article briefly mentions this horrific event. Why is it essential to remember and learn about such atrocities?
* How did this massacre impact regional and international perceptions of the Lebanese Civil War and the role of various actors involved?
* What lessons can be drawn from this tragedy to prevent similar atrocities from happening in the future?
**Perspectives on the Past and Future:**
* George Alam, the Lebanese journalist interviewed in the article, compares the current situation in Lebanon to the period of the civil war. Do you think these comparisons are valid?
* Lara Al-Deeb suggests that Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon was a surprise to many observers. What factors might have contributed to this unexpected outcome?
* Based on the information presented in the article, what can we infer about the future of U.S.-Lebanon relations and the broader Middle East peace process?
**Thematic Sections:**
1. **Sectarian Divisions and the Lebanese Civil War:**
This section would explore the history of sectarian tensions in Lebanon, the role of foreign intervention, and the impact of the civil war on Lebanese society.
2. **The Israeli Occupation of Southern Lebanon:**
This section would analyze the motives behind the Israeli invasion, the impact of the occupation on Lebanese civilians, and the eventual withdrawal of Israeli forces.
3. **The Sabra and Shatila Massacre:**
This section would delve into the details of this massacre, its consequences for Lebanon and the region, and the importance of remembrance and accountability.
4. **Reflections on the Past and Future:**
This section would encourage discussion about the lessons learned from the past and potential pathways for peace and reconciliation in Lebanon and the broader Middle East.
Remember to allow space for different perspectives and encourage critical thinking when discussing these complex issues.
