Second phase: 1977–1982
126-541: The Lebanese Forces ( Arabic : القوات اللبنانية al-Quwwāt al-Libnānīyah ) is a Lebanese Christian -based political party and former militia during the Lebanese Civil War . It currently holds 19 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament , being the largest party of the country. The organization was created in 1976 by Pierre and Bachir Gemayel , Camille Chamoun , and other party leaders during
252-667: A bomb explosion in the Kataeb headquarters in Achrafieh . The attack was carried out by Habib Shartouni , a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), believed by many to have acted on instructions of the Syrian government of President Hafez al-Assad . The next day, Israel moved to occupy the city, allowing Phalangist members under Elie Hobeika 's command to enter the centrally located Sabra and
378-448: A cease fire and Lebanese Police were sent to Zahle. The 92 Lebanese Forces heroes returned to Beirut on 1 July 1981. Christian East Beirut was ringed by heavily fortified Palestinian camps from which kidnappings and sniping against Lebanese civilians became a daily routine. Christian East Beirut became besieged by the PLO camps, with severe shortages of food and fuel. This unbearable situation
504-470: A cease fire and Lebanese Police were sent to Zahle. The 92 Lebanese Forces heroes returned to Beirut on 1 July 1981. In 1982, Bachir met with Hani Al-Hassan (representative of the PLO) and told him that Israel would enter and wipe them out. Bachir told him to leave Lebanon peacefully before it was too late. Hani left and no reply was given to Bachir. Israel invaded Lebanon , arguing that a military intervention
630-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
756-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
882-684: A daily routine. Christian East Beirut became besieged by the PLO camps, with severe shortages of food and fuel. This unbearable situation was remedied by the Kataeb Regulatory Forces (most notably the BG Squad that was led by Bachir) and their allied Christian militias as they besieged the Palestinian camps embedded in Christian East Beirut one at a time and brought them down. The first was on 18 January 1976 when
1008-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
1134-496: A failed operation revealed the identity of some persons of this group, one of which was a Lebanese Army Captain, Camille Yared. Some other names published in the newspapers then were: The Lebanese Forces was an active participant in the Cedar Revolution of 2005, when popular protests and international pressure following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri combined to force Syria out of Lebanon. In
1260-651: A just electoral law, which would enable the Christian population to be represented fairly in local and parliamentary elections. The party has also stressed the idea of reaffirming the powers formerly endowed to the Lebanese president before being lessened in the Taef Agreement . After the 2020 Beirut explosion , on 6 August 2020 the Lebanese Forces Party's executive chairman Samir Geagea was
1386-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
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#17327718531521512-589: A mainly Christian government and the other a government of Muslims and Lebanese Leftists. The Lebanese Forces initially supported the military Christian government led by General Michel Aoun , the commander of the Lebanese Army. However, clashes erupted between the Lebanese Forces and the Lebanese Army under the control of Michel Aoun on 14 February 1989. These clashes were stopped, and after
1638-675: A meeting in Bkerké , the Lebanese Forces handed the national ports which it controlled to Aoun's government under pressure from the Lebanese National army. The Lebanese Forces initially supported Aoun's " Liberation War " against the Syrian army, but then agreed to the Taif Agreement , which was signed by the Lebanese deputies on 24 October 1989 in Saudi Arabia and demanded an immediate ceasefire . Aoun's main objection to
1764-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
1890-590: A peace treaty with Israel as soon as he took office in return of Israel's earlier support of Lebanese Forces and he also told Bachir that the IDF will stay in South Lebanon if the Peace Treaty was not directly signed. Bachir was furious at Begin. The meeting ended in rage and both sides were not happy with each other. Begin was reportedly angry at Bachir for his public denial of Israel's support. Bachir refused
2016-479: A protest organized by Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement, against Judge Tarek Bitar , who was investigating the 2020 Beirut port explosion. The protest turned deadly when unidentified gunmen fired on the demonstrators, leading to armed confrontations that resulted in at least seven deaths and over 30 injuries. Geagea was summoned by military intelligence to testify about the events, as both Hezbollah and
2142-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
2268-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
2394-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
2520-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
2646-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
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#17327718531522772-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
2898-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
3024-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
3150-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
3276-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
3402-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
3528-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
3654-491: Is done, the IDF would peacefully leave the Lebanese territory. Concerning the Peace Negotiation, Sharon agreed to give Bachir time to fix the internal conflicts before signing the negotiation. The next day, Begin's office issued a statement saying that the issues agreed upon between Bachir and Sharon were accepted. Nine days before he was to take office, on 14 September 1982, Bachir was killed along with 25 others in
3780-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
3906-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
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4032-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
4158-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
4284-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
4410-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
4536-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
4662-782: The Bloc he leads. Lebanese Forces internal elections to elect the party President, Vice President and members of the Executive Committee take place every 6 years since 2023. Members of the Executive Committee are divided as follow: The first internal elections took place on October 29, 2023. 31,000 were eligible to vote but only 18,321 voted (58.9%). overall votes overall vote Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
4788-699: The Lebanese Army 's 8th Mechanised Infantry Brigade commanded by then Colonel Michel Aoun . The attackers were fiercely pushed back as the American helped Aoun by bombing the PSP from their navy. After the death of Bachir, his brother Amine Gemayel replaced him as president, and his cousin, Fadi Frem as commander of the Lebanese Forces. The two had a frosty relationship, and in 1984, pressure from Amine led to Frem's replacement by Fouad Abou Nader . On 12 March 1985, Samir Geagea, Elie Hobeika and Karim Pakradouni rebelled against Abou Nader's command, ostensibly to take
4914-526: The Lebanese Civil War . La Quarantaine , known in Arabic as Karantina, was a Muslim -inhabited district in mostly Christian East Beirut controlled by forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and inhabited by Palestinians , Kurds , Syrians , Armenians and Lebanese Sunnis. The fighting and subsequent killings also involved an old Quarantaine area near the port and nearby Maslakh quarter. Karantina
5040-588: The Lebanese Civil War . It was initially an umbrella organization coordinating all the right-wing party militias of the Lebanese Front and served as the main resistance force of the front. The Kataeb Regulatory Forces provided the largest share of fighters, and the Kataeb Party had the largest share on the council. Despite its original creation from party militias, the Lebanese Forces accepted new recruits without any specific party allegiance. During
5166-760: The PLO and LNM militias at the Battle of the Hotels in central Beirut. The most important battle won by the Phalange for the control of the hotel district was the fighting over the possession of the Holiday Inn, due to its important strategic location. Before that battle, the Holiday Inn had been occupied by the PLO . Eventually the PLO ended up occupying the Holliday Inn once again, while the Kataeb forces retreated to
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5292-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
5418-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
5544-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
5670-949: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Karantina massacre Third phase: 1982–1984 Fourth phase: 1984–1990 Cantons and puppet states The Karantina massacre ( Arabic : مجزرة الكرنتينا ; French : Massacre de La Quarantaine/Karantina ) took place on January 18, 1976, early in
5796-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
5922-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
6048-834: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
6174-479: The Amal Movement accused his party of instigating the violence. Geagea denied these allegations, asserting that his supporters acted in self-defense against an attack by Hezbollah loyalists who had vandalized property in the area. On the day he was scheduled to appear, Geagea did not show up, and his supporters protested the summons, blocking roads in support. Former LF coordinator in Bint Jbeil, Elias Hasrouni ,
6300-520: The Arab countries, especially with Saudi Arabia, so that Lebanon can once again play its central role in the economy of the Middle East." In an attempt to fix the relations between Bachir and Begin, Ariel Sharon met secretly with Bachir in Bikfaya. In this meeting, they both agreed that, after 48 hours, the IDF will cooperate with the Lebanese Army to force the Syrian Army out of Lebanon. After that
6426-560: The Christians of Lebanon . In addition to rebuilding their image, the Lebanese Forces have also been attempting to reclaim former privately funded facilities, which were seized by the Syrian backed government. Currently, the Lebanese Forces have also been striving to reclaim their rights to the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation , which was initiated by the party in the mid-1980s. Since the emancipation of
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#17327718531526552-468: The Holiday Inn had been occupied by the PLO. The Lebanese Forces militia was soon after established with an agreement that the direct military commander would be a Kataeb member and the vice-commander an Ahrar member. Bachir led his troops in the infamous "Hundred Days War" in Lebanon in 1978, in which the Lebanese Forces successfully resisted the Syrian shelling and attacking of Eastern Beirut for about three months before an Arab-brokered agreement forced
6678-772: The LF intelligence apparatus, including a woman. Also detained were a man and a woman from the Guardians of the Cedars . On 21 April 1994, Geagea was arrested on charges of setting a bomb in the church in Zouk which killed eleven people, of instigating acts of violence, and of committing assassinations during the Lebanese Civil War. Although he was acquitted of the first charge, Geagea was subsequently arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment on several different counts, including
6804-533: The LF the largest Christian-based party in parliament and the Strong republic the largest bloc in parliament with an additional 3 from Ashraf Rifi's Bloc and Camille Dory Chamoun of the National Liberal Party . After securing the most seats in parliament after the 2022 elections, Samir Geagea emphasized his pledge not to vote for 30-year incumbent speaker Nabih Berri , citing corruption in
6930-518: The Lebanese Forces and on 15 January 1986, attacked Hobeika's headquarters in Karantina . Hobeika surrendered and fled, first to Paris and subsequently to Damascus , Syria . He then moved to Zahlé with tens of his fighters where he prepared for an attack against East Beirut. On 27 September 1986, Hobeika's forces tried to take over the Achrafieh neighborhood of Beirut but the Lebanese Forces of Geagea's command held them back. In May 1985, during
7056-716: The Lebanese Forces and the Druze militias who had now taken over the districts. The main Druze militiamen came from the Progressive Socialist Party , led by Walid Jumblatt , in alliance with the Syrian Army and Palestinian militants. For months, the two fought what would later be known as the " Mountain War ", resulting in a large PSP victory. At the same time, the Lebanese Forces troops also fought battles against
7182-414: The Lebanese Forces back to its original path. The relationship between Geagea and Hobeika soon broke down, however, and Hobeika began secret negotiations with the Syrians. On 28 December 1985, he signed the Tripartite Accord , against the wishes of Geagea and most of the other leading Christian figures. Claiming that the Tripartite Accord gave Syria unlimited power in Lebanon, Geagea mobilized factions inside
7308-411: The Lebanese Forces were arrested and brutally tortured in the period of 1993–1994. At least one died in Syrian custody and many others were severely injured. In 1998, a group of ex-military persons in the Lebanese Forces, was alleged to have conducted military operation against the Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon. The group was mainly formed of elites Lebanese Forces called SADEM, On 19 June 1998,
7434-400: The Lebanese Forces. He also instituted a social welfare program in areas controlled by Geagea's party. The Lebanese Forces also cut its relations with Israel and emphasized relations with the Arab states, mainly Iraq but also Saudi Arabia , Jordan , and Egypt . Two rival governments contended for recognition following Amine Gemayel's departure from the Presidency in September 1988, one
7560-446: The Lebanese Front resulted in growing distance between the Kataeb militants and the rest of the Lebanese Forces. In the end, the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb became two separate forces within the Lebanese Front. A few uprisings led to Lebanese Forces commander-in-chief Samir Geagea taking over and dissolving the Lebanese Front in the late 1980s. After the civil war ended, Geagea created the Lebanese Forces Party . In 1994, while Lebanon
7686-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
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#17327718531527812-557: The Mountain. Regardless of the very bad weather and heavy bombing, convoys were sent in the snow to Zahle. Two Lebanese Forces soldiers died on a hill due to bad weather, they were found later holding each other... till they died. The battle of Zahle gave the Lebanese Cause a new perspective in the International Communities, and the victory was both military and diplomatic. It made the Leadership of President Bashir Gemayel much stronger because of his leadership and important role in this battle. The battle started on 2 April 1981, and finished with
7938-408: The Palestinian and Druze militias and the Syrian troop east of the southern city of Sidon . The outcome was also a Progressive Socialist Party victory and a contiguous Druze Chouf district with access to Lebanese sea ports. Later in 1984, the PSP won decisive battles against the Lebanese Army in the Chahar region in the Aley District. The PSP then attacked further into Souk El Gharb , a village held by
8064-407: The Phalange had 5000 fighters of whom 2000 were full-time. After the PLO had been expelled from the country to Tunisia, in a negotiated agreement, Bachir Gemayel became the youngest man to ever be elected as president of Lebanon . He was elected by the parliament in August; most Muslim members of parliament boycotted the vote. On 3 September 1982, during the meeting, Begin demanded that Bachir sign
8190-474: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
8316-413: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
8442-459: The Shatila refugee camp ; a massacre followed, in which Phalangists killed between 762 and 3,500 (number is disputed) civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites , causing great international uproar. After the Israeli invasion, the IDF troops settled in the Chouf and Aley from party militias, the Lebanese Forces returned to the villages which had been occupied by the PSP for seven years. However, soon after, clashes broke out between
8568-491: The Syrians to end the siege. Syrians took high buildings such as Burj Rizk Achrafieh and Burj El Murr using snipers and heavy weapons against civilians. The soldiers stayed for 90 days. Another major clash took place near the Sodeco area in Achrafieh where the Lebanese Forces fought ferociously and led the Syrian army out of the Rizk Building. At this time, Israel was the primary backer of the Lebanese Front's militia. In July 1980, following months of intra-Christian clashes between
8694-491: The Syrians to end the siege. Syrians took high buildings such as Burj Rizk Achrafieh and Burj El Murr using snipers and heavy weapons against civilians. The soldiers stayed for 90 days. Another major clash took place near the Sodeco area in Achrafieh where the Lebanese Forces fought ferociously and led the Syrian army out of the Rizk Building. At this time, Israel was the primary backer of the Lebanese Front's militia. In July 1980, following months of intra-Christian clashes between
8820-453: The Taif Agreement was its vagueness as to Syrian withdrawal from the country. He rejected it vowing that he "would not sign over the country". Fierce fighting in East Beirut broke out between the Lebanese Forces and the Lebanese Army under Michel Aoun after the Lebanese Army, under orders of Michel Aoun, began stopping and arresting members of the Lebanese Forces. These events led to the "Elimination War" on 31 January 1990. The war continued until
8946-451: The Tigers, the militia of Dany , and the Phalangists, who by now were under the complete leadership of Bachir Gemayel , the Phalangists launched an operation in an attempt to stop the clashes within the Christian areas, and to unite all the Christian militias under Gemayel's command. This operation resulted in a massacre of tens of Tigers' members at the Marine beach resort in Safra , 25 km north of Beirut . Camille Chamoun's silence
9072-666: The Tigers, the militia of Dany , and the Phalangists, who by now were under the complete leadership of Bachir Gemayel , the Phalangists launched an operation in an attempt to stop the clashes within the Christian areas, and to unite all the Christian militias under Gemayel's command. This operation resulted in a massacre of tens of Tigers' members at the Marine beach resort in Safra , 25 km north of Beirut . Camille Chamoun's silence
9198-548: The anti-Syrian March 14 Alliance , which stood opposed to the March 8 Coalition backed by Hizbullah, Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement led by General Michel Aoun who had returned to Lebanon. The Lebanese Forces were able to win 6 out of the 8 MPs that were nominated throughout the various regions of the country. Nevertheless, the elections proved to be very significant because for the first time, supporters of
9324-472: The area in protest of the kidnapped and many politicians called for investigations and harsh punishments for the assailants. The party called for people to close their shops in the area in condemnation of the kidnapping. Lebanese intelligence arrested multiple Syrians to reveal Suleiman’s whereabouts. The next day he was reported dead by the Lebanese Army and that his body was taken to Syria by Syrian gangs. The party blamed Hezbollah for his killing and said that it
9450-532: The assassination of former Prime Minister Rashid Karami in 1987. He was incarcerated in solitary confinement, with his access to the outside world severely restricted. Amnesty International criticized the conduct of the trials and demanded Geagea's release, and Geagea's supporters argued that the Syrian-controlled Lebanese government had used the alleged crimes as a pretext for jailing Geagea and banning an anti-Syrian party. Many members of
9576-474: The battle of 1981. This victory was due to the bravery of the inhabitants and 92 Lebanese Forces soldiers (L.F Special Forces: The Maghaweer) sent from Beirut. The Syrian occupying forces used all kind of weapons (heavy artillery, tanks, war planes...) against a peaceful town, and they cut all kind of backup that may come from the Mountain. Regardless of the very bad weather and heavy bombing, convoys were sent in
9702-744: The civil war, the Lebanese Forces fought different opponents at different times: the Palestinian Liberation Organization , the Lebanese National Movement , the Lebanese National Resistance Front , the Syrian Army , the Druze -dominated Progressive Socialist Party in the Chouf , and the Lebanese Army loyal to General Michel Aoun . After the assassination of its leader, Bachir Gemayel, in 1982, political friction within
9828-552: The committee distributed more than 150 scholarships for Beirut schools' students. Ground-0 Relief Committee launched a petition for an international investigation. The petition was signed by the relatives of the victims and the missing, by the injured as well as by those whose homes, businesses or establishments have been damaged. The document was sent to the UN Secretary General , Antonio Guterres , through his special coordinator for Lebanon, Ján Kubiš , in order to take
9954-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
10080-521: The defeat and exile of Aoun to France in August 1990. During the war, the Lebanese Forces made major strides and victories including the capture of many of the army's encampments, barracks, and units. After Aoun surrendered on 13 October 1990 to the rival Syrian-backed President Hrawi, Geagea was offered ministerial posts in the new government. He refused several times, because he was opposed to Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs, and his relationship with
10206-582: The elections geared towards the professional bodies of engineers, doctors, lawyers, and even teachers. The Lebanese Forces held 8 out of the 128 seats of the Lebanese Parliament after the general elections of 2009, and were represented in the Siniora government , formed in July 2005, by the minister of tourism Joseph Sarkis , and then in the second Siniora government , formed in July 2008, by
10332-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
10458-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
10584-478: The facing Hilton Hotel in what was known as the "Hotel War". The Lebanese Forces was soon after established with an agreement that the direct military commander would be a Kataeb member and the vice-commander an Ahrar member. Bashir led his troops in the infamous "Hundred Days War" in Lebanon in 1978, in which the Lebanese Forces successfully resisted the Syrian shelling and attacking of Eastern Beirut for about three months before an Arab-brokered agreement forced
10710-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
10836-418: The first politician to visit Beirut and launched from there a relief committee, Ground-0, under the leadership of the former minister Dr. May Chidiac to support in rebuilding Beirut. In December 2020, the committee achieved repairing 709 houses, assisted 5300 individuals and 2300 families, distributed 14000 food rations, made 2540 medical consultations, and provided 2030 individuals with medicine. In addition,
10962-522: The formation of the Lebanese Front was to strengthen the Christian side against the challenge presented by the Lebanese National Movement (LNM), an umbrella alliance of leftist parties/militias allied with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Rejectionist Front Palestinian guerrilla factions. Christian East Beirut was ringed by heavily fortified Palestinian camps from which kidnappings and sniping against Lebanese civilians became
11088-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
11214-559: The heavily fortified Karantina camp , located near the strategic Beirut Harbor, was invaded: About 1,000 PLO fighters and civilians were killed. The Palestinian PLO and al-Saiqa forces retaliated by attacking the isolated defenseless Christian town of Damour about 20 miles south of Beirut on the coast, during the Damour massacre in which an estimated 150 to 500 Christian civilians were killed and 5,000 were sent fleeing north by boat, since all roads were blocked off. The Maronites retaliated with
11340-479: The immediate peace arguing that time is needed to reach consensus with Lebanese Muslims and the Arab nations. Bachir was quoted telling David Kimche, the director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, few days earlier, "Please tell your people to be patient. I am committed to make peace with Israel, and I shall do it. But I need time – nine months, maximum one year. I need to mend my fences with
11466-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
11592-486: The invasion of the largest and strongest Palestinian refugee camp, Tel al-Zaatar that same year. Bachir, with his KRF militia units, also fought against the PLO and LNM militias at the Battle of the Hotels in central Beirut. The most important battle won by the Phalange for the control of the hotel district was the fighting over the possession of the Holiday Inn, due to its important strategic location. Before that battle,
11718-544: The investigations. The Members of Parliament Georges Okais , Imad Wakim , Eddy Abillammaa and Fady Saad , presented a petition to this effect to the United Nations Special Coordinator in Lebanon, Najat Rochdi. In October 2021, Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces party, was embroiled in controversy following violent clashes in Beirut on October 14. These clashes erupted during
11844-483: The isolated defenseless Christian town of Damour about 20 miles south of Beirut on the coast, during the Damour massacre in which 1,000 Christian civilians were killed and 5,000 were sent fleeing north by boat, since all roads were blocked off. The Maronites retaliated with the invasion of the largest and strongest Palestinian refugee camp, Tel al-Zaatar that same year. Bachir, with his KRF militia units, also fought against
11970-646: The killing. The residents of Ain Ebel , one of the few Christian villages in Hezbollah-controlled Bint Jbeil, are largely supportive of Hezbollah's largest political rival, the Lebanese Forces, and the murder of Hasrouni deepened sectarian tensions. In April 2024 Lebanese Forces coordinator in the Byblos District , Pascal Suleiman was kidnapped by armed assailants while traveling in the area of Byblos. Party supporters blocked roads in
12096-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
12222-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
12348-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
12474-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
12600-519: The minister of justice Ibrahim Najjar and the minister of environment Antoine Karam . They are a Christian party within the 14 March Bloc , an anti-Syrian movement. The Lebanese Forces and its main political representatives strive to re-establish the many Christian rights, which were significantly lessened during Syria's occupation of Lebanon, specifically from 1990 to 2005. Some of the Lebanese Force's other main objectives include formulating
12726-590: The necessary steps to appoint an international commission of inquiry. The Lebanese Forces Party MPs called for an international investigation into the causes of the double explosion at the port of Beirut on 4 August 2020. They asked the Secretary-General of the United Nations , António Guterres , on 22 February 2021 for the creation of an international commission to be established under the United Nations , which would be responsible for carrying out
12852-782: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
12978-429: The new government deteriorated. On 23 March 1994, the Lebanese government headed by Rafic Hariri ordered the dissolution of the Lebanese Forces, Ministers Sleiman Frangieh , Michel Samaha , Nicholas Fattoush and Mikhael Daher voted against the dissolution of LF. On 19 March, the offices of the Lebanese Forces (LF) were raided and six people arrested, including Fouad Malik, LF secretary general, and three members of
13104-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
13230-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
13356-475: The party were freely able to participate in the election process. Following the party's new political gains, Samir Geagea was freed on 18 July 2005, after parliament decided to amend all the charges he formerly faced. Since Geagea's release from prison, the Lebanese Forces have been rebuilding much of their former image. Some of these works include reorganizing its members and their families, reopening political facilities, and reestablishing their main presence among
13482-411: The party's main leader, Samir Geagea , the party has gained new popularity among the Christian population throughout all of Lebanon . In addition, the Lebanese Forces have also been able to attain a great deal of popularity amongst the younger generation, as evidenced by the annual student elections in Lebanese colleges. The Lebanese Forces, along with their other 14 March allies, made additional gains in
13608-539: The period of Hobeika's leadership, the Lebanese Forces closed their office in Jerusalem . The office was headed by Pierre Yazbeck. This failed attempt by Hobeika was the last episode of internal struggles in East Beirut during Amine Gemayel's mandate. As a result, the Lebanese Forces led by Geagea were the only major force on ground. During two years of frail peace, Geagea launched a drive to re-equip and reorganize
13734-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
13860-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
13986-650: The snow to Zahle. Two Lebanese Forces soldiers died on a hill due to bad weather and were found later holding each other. The battle of Zahle gave the Lebanese Cause a new perspective in the International Communities, and the victory was both military and diplomatic. It made the Leadership of President Bashir Gemayel much stronger because of his leadership and important role in this battle. The battle started on 2 April 1981, and finished with
14112-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
14238-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
14364-647: The subsequent parliamentary election held in May and June, the Lebanese Forces formed part of the Rafik Hariri Martyr List , which also included the Future Movement , Popular Socialist Party , the reformed Phalange party, and other anti-Syrian political groups, as well as a brief tactical alliance with Amal and Hezbollah . The tactical alliance with Hizbollah and Amal would soon end; these majority parties and movements would subsequently form
14490-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
14616-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
14742-411: Was a big mismatch in military capabilities and was able to reverse the result of the battle of 1981. This victory was due to the bravery of the inhabitants and 92 Lebanese Forces soldiers (L.F Special Forces: The Maghaweer) sent from Beirut. The Syrian occupying forces used all kind of weapons (heavy artillery, tanks, war planes...) against a peaceful town, and they cut all kind of backup that may come from
14868-799: Was a political murder until proven otherwise. The Lebanese Forces presented 18 direct members along with many other allies in every electoral district, with the exception South III , during the elections with a large anti-Hezbollah sentiment. The Lebanese Forces saw some withdrawal of candidates specifically in Shia dominated areas which was blamed at Hezbollah and the Amal Movement for placing pressure on Shia March 14 candidates. LF formed an electoral alliance with Qassem Daoud (brother of Amal Martyr Daoud Daoud) in Tyre/Zahrani-East Saida (South II). Lebanese Forces secured 19 seats, making
14994-476: Was found in an apparent crash sight on 6 August 2023, but an autopsy later revealed that he was killed and many believed the murder was politically motivated. Samir Geagea declared Hasrouni's death an assassination, pointing the finger at the Iran-backed Hezbollah as the crime occurred deep within areas controlled by them. Politician Samy Gemayel also hinted that Hezbollah might have been behind
15120-530: Was informally organized in January 1976 under the leadership of Bashir's father, Pierre Gemayel and Camille Chamoun . It began as a simple coordination or joint command between the predominantly Christian Kataeb Party / Kataeb Regulatory Forces (KRF), Tyous Team of Commandos (TTC), Ahrar / Tigers Militia , Al-Tanzim , Marada Brigade and Lebanese Renewal Party / Guardians of the Cedars (GoC) parties and their respective military wings. The main reason behind
15246-503: Was interpreted as acceptance of Gemayel's controls, because he felt that the Tigers led by his son were getting out of his control. In 1981 at Zahlé in the Beqaa, the largest Christian town in the East, confronted one of the biggest battles – both military and political – between the Lebanese Forces and the Syrian occupying forces. The Lebanese Forces was able to confront them even though there
15372-402: Was interpreted as acceptance of Gemayel's controls. In 1981 at Zahlé in the Beqaa, the largest Christian town in the East, confronted one of the biggest battles – both military and political – between the Lebanese Forces and the Syrian occupying forces. The Lebanese Forces was able to confront them even though there was a big mismatch in military capabilities and was able to reverse the result of
15498-459: Was necessary to root out PLO guerrillas from the southern part of the country. Israeli forces eventually moved towards Beirut and laid siege to the city, aiming to reshape the Lebanese political landscape and force the PLO out of Lebanon. By 1982, Israel had been the main supplier to the Lebanese Forces, giving them assistance in weapons, clothing, and training. An official Israeli inquiry into events in Beirut estimated that when fully mobilized
15624-498: Was overrun by militias of the right-wing and mostly Christian Lebanese Front , specifically the Kataeb Party (Phalangists), resulting in the deaths of approximately 600-1,500 people, mostly Lebanese Muslims. According to then- Washington Post -correspondent Jonathan Randal , "Many Lebanese Muslim men and boys were rounded up and separated from the women and children and massacred," while the women and young girls were violently raped and robbed. The Damour massacre two days later
15750-566: Was remedied by the Kataeb Regulatory Forces (most notably the BG Squad that was led by Bachir) and their allied Christian militias as they besieged the Palestinian camps embedded in Christian East Beirut one at a time and brought them down. The first was on 18 January 1976 when the heavily fortified Karantina camp, located near the strategic Beirut Harbor, was invaded: About 1,000 PLO fighters and civilians were killed. The Palestinian PLO and al-Saiqa forces retaliated by attacking
15876-427: Was under Syrian occupation , the party was banned, Geagea imprisoned and the activities of its militants repressed by the Lebanese services in Lebanon. The Lebanese Forces returned as a political force after the Cedar Revolution in early 2005, which resulted in a withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Soon after, Geagea was subsequently released from prison and continues to lead the party today. The Lebanese Front
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