The road to war, 1971

A general strike set for 25 May is put off after a 5 per cent wage rise.
The General Workers' Union set a general strike for 25 May 1971 but deferred it when a 5 per cent wage rise was decreed. It sought 11 per cent more pay, lower rents, state imports of medicines and basic foods, a law for farm labourers and no more arbitrary dismissals.

Yuhanna Bassul is elected Greek Catholic bishop of Zahle.
Elected Greek Catholic bishop of Zahle on 18 August 1971, Yuhanna Bassul was welcomed with ceremony in the town and in Christian villages of the northern Bekaa. His journals, covering 1971-1976 and long unknown, are a rare source on how the war came to Zahle.

AUB students strike and occupy against fee increases.
In 1971 police and Phalange militiamen ended an American University of Beirut students' strike against higher fees, and students were expelled. Strikers had occupied buildings and marched in force.

Peasants of Hanin clash with Speaker Kamel al-As'ad over land.
Twenty-three villagers of Hanin, in the south, were arrested in 1971 during a violent land-ownership dispute between its peasants and Speaker Kamel al-As'ad. A similar dispute arose that year at Qantara, owned by the 'Usayran family.

The Japanese Red Army settles in Lebanon.
Founded by Fusako Shigenobu, close to George Habash's PFLP, the Japanese Red Army settled in Lebanon in 1971 and first struck abroad with the 1972 Lod airport massacre.

About 150 'believing teachers' start presenting Islam as an ideology in South Lebanon schools.
From 1971 about 150 'believing teachers' brought an ideological Islam into schools in South Lebanon, an early sign, in de Clerck and Malsagne's account, of Shi'i mobilisation.

First strikes led by workers' committees in Beirut's industrial suburbs.
By early 1971 OCAL's workers' committees were in the main factories of Beirut's southern suburbs; that summer workers struck at Seven-Up, Snibois, Unifid and Pioneer-Jabre. Some strikes were broken up by force; beyond the rehiring of some sacked workers, no demand was met.

Jordan outlaws Palestinian groups and fighters; the resistance shifts its centre to Beirut.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian fighters, with the resistance's offices, hospitals, research and press centres, were now in Lebanon, chiefly Beirut, its main base once Jordan barred Palestinian political groups and fighters in June 1971.