32 entries on 29 dates · the books disagree on 3
May 1971
Tuesday, 25 May 1971
The road to war · From the books day (planned strike)
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.
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June 1971
June 1971: day not established
The road to war · From the books
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.
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summer 1971: day not established
The road to war · From the books
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.
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August 1971
Wednesday, 18 August 1971
The road to war · From the books
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.
Art and memory- book Bishop Yuhanna Bassul's journals for 1971-1976, kept at the Greek Catholic archbishopric of Sayyidat al-Najat in Zahle, surfaced during fieldwork in 2016. They trace tensions over the Palestinian question in Zahle and Ta'labaya.
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1971
1971: day not established
The road to war · From the books
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.
The road to war · From the books
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.
The road to war · From the books
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 road to war · From the books
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.
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January 2002
January 2002: day not established
After the war · From the books
Elie Hobeika is killed by a car bomb near Beirut.
The former Lebanese Forces intelligence chief, widely held responsible for Sabra and Shatila and a minister after the war, died shortly before he was to testify in the Belgian case against Ariel Sharon.
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February 2002
Thursday, 14 February 2002
After the war · From the books range
Assaad Shaftari's war confessions appear in al-Hayat.
In three interviews with Hazim al-Amin, Hobeika's former aide described his militia years, including orders to execute captives, and called for the truth to be told so that the next generation might forgive.
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March 2002
Sunday, 31 March 2002
After the war · From the books
Israel threatens to strike Syria over its support for Hezbollah.
On 14 April, two weeks after that threat, Ariel Sharon charged Syria and Iran with supporting Hezbollah's attacks.
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April 2002
Wednesday, 3 April 2002
After the war · From the books
The government announces Syrian troop withdrawals from parts of Mount Lebanon.
The move was presented as an application of the Taif Agreement.
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May 2002
Saturday, 25 May 2002
After the war · From the books
On Liberation Day Nasrallah declares Hezbollah's support for the Palestinian intifada.
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August 2002
August 2002: day not established
After the war · From the books
Sharon calls a Lebanese water pump on the Wazzani a cause for war.
A war over the Council of the South's plan to supply some fifty villages from the Wazzani, a Hasbani tributary, was averted by American, Russian and European mediation.
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November 2002
November 2002: day not established
After the war · From the books
Before-and-after photographs of downtown go on show in Place de l'Étoile.
Haugbolle calls the book version, 'Beirut's Memory', propaganda: a Solidere-linked bank published it in the name of Hariri's photographer Ayman Traoui. On site, paired 1990 and 2002 views ringed the clock tower.
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December 2002
December 2002: day not established
After the war · From the books
Rustom Ghazaleh replaces Ghazi Kanaan as Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon.
Kanaan had ruled from Anjar since 1982, vetting candidates and shaping the 2000 electoral map; his recall signalled Bashar al-Assad's tighter grip on Lebanon. Ghazaleh, his replacement, was implicated in Al-Madina bank's 2003 collapse.
Sources differ: Farewell ceremony 9 October 2002 versus replacement in December 2002.
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2002
summer 2002: day not established
After the war · From the books
Much of rebuilt downtown Beirut is inaugurated as 'Beirut reborn'.
Posters ('Le Liban vit'), full-page press advertisements and television spots hailed the completion, with no reference to the war.
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January 2008
Friday, 25 January 2008
Since 2005 · From the books
Intelligence officer Captain Wissam Eid is killed.
Wissam Eid was an officer of the intelligence services.
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February 2008
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Since 2005 · From the books
Hezbollah security chief Imad Mughniyeh is assassinated in Damascus.
Imad Mughniyeh was assassinated in Damascus; Interpol had been seeking him for twenty years over bombings and abductions.
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May 2008
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Since 2005 · From the books range
Hezbollah and its allies take over West Beirut (May 2008).
When the government moved to shut Hezbollah's private telecommunications network and dismissed the airport security chief, Hezbollah, Amal and the SSNP took West Beirut within hours, disarming Future Movement fighters and clashing with the PSP as the army held back. Fighting reached the Chouf and Tripoli. Picard likens it to a brief return of the civil war.
Sources differ: End date: 14 May (Confluences) or 21 May (de Clerck & Malsagne chronology). Deaths: nearly a hundred (de Clerck & Malsagne) against more than sixty (Quéméner).
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Since 2005 · From the books
The government cancels its two decisions against Hezbollah.
The government rescinded the two moves against Hezbollah that had triggered the fighting: outlawing its private telecoms network and sacking the airport security chief.
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Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Since 2005 · From the books
The Doha agreement ends the crisis.
Talks in Doha under Qatari and Arab League mediation ended the fighting. The parties undertook to elect a president at once, renounce political violence, lift the opposition sit-in, form a unity government with an opposition blocking third and redraw constituencies for 2009. Hezbollah's weapons went unmentioned.
Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne's narrative (pp. 462-463) has 21 May; their chronology (p. 578) has 25 May, combining the Doha accord with Sleiman's election.
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Sunday, 25 May 2008
Since 2005 · From the books
Army commander Michel Suleiman is elected President of the Republic.
His election, provided for by the Doha agreement, ended the vacancy that began when Émile Lahoud's term expired.
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July 2008
July 2008: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Assad and Suleiman meet in Paris.
The Emir of Qatar met Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's new president, Michel Sleiman, at the Élysée, where Sarkozy had invited them for the Union for the Mediterranean summit.
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August 2008
August 2008: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
A bombing kills soldiers in Tripoli.
Picard notes that after the August 2008 attack on soldiers, Tripoli had a deadly bombing every year.
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September 2008
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Since 2005 · From the books
Druze official Saleh Aridi is killed in a bombing.
Saleh Aridi was a Druze political figure.
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October 2008
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Since 2005 · From the books
Lebanon and Syria establish diplomatic relations for the first time.
The two states agreed to swap ambassadors; Picard judges it an empty gesture aimed at Syria's image abroad.
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February 2012
February 2012: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Fighting in Tripoli between Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen (February-December 2012).
From February to December, Tripoli's pro-regime Alawite quarter of Jabal Mohsen and its Sunni quarter of Bab al-Tebbaneh, which backed the Syrian opposition, clashed.
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June 2012
Monday, 11 June 2012
Since 2005 · From the books
The Baabda Declaration commits Lebanon to 'dissociation' from regional conflicts.
The declaration, agreed at President Sleiman's National Dialogue, pledged 'dissociation' from regional conflicts and border control, mainly towards Syria; Picard considers the promise empty from the outset.
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October 2012
Friday, 19 October 2012
Since 2005 · From the books
Intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan is assassinated.
Seven people died along with Wissam al-Hassan, head of ISF intelligence and an investigator of Hariri's assassination, in a Beirut car bombing.
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2012
2012: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Former minister Michel Samaha is arrested.
Picard treats the arrest as evidence that Syrian-paid agents took part in the unrest after the 2005 withdrawal.
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