30 entries on 27 dates · the books disagree on 10
February 1972
February 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
The Israeli army invades the south as far as the Litani.
Picard counts over 100 dead and over 150 houses destroyed as Israeli troops, aiming to disable the fedayeen and their Lebanese backers, drove south to several points on the Litani.
Sources differ: Picard gives one toll, 'on each occasion', for this and the September 1972 invasion alike.
\_this day in full
March 1972
March–April 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Lebanese University students launch a mass strike; private universities join.
In spring 1972 AUB, Saint-Joseph and Beirut Arab University students backed a mass strike called by NULUS, the Lebanese University students' union, now run by the left (PSP, Communists, OCA).
\_this day in full
May 1972
late May 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
After the Lod airport attack, Israel holds Lebanon responsible and strikes the south.
Israeli attacks by land, sea and air on the Rashidieh camp, Hasbaya, Dayr Ashayer and Tibnin killed about 150 people after Japanese Red Army gunmen killed 24 at Lod airport, an operation the PLO had prepared for them in Beirut. Israel now declared Lebanon's government answerable for every PLO action.
\_this day in full
July 1972
Saturday, 8 July 1972
The road to war · From the books
Ghassan Kanafani is killed by a car bomb in Beirut.
Ghassan Kanafani, Palestinian writer and PFLP official, died when his car was blown up; de Clerck and Malsagne blame Mossad.
\_this day in full \_on this day
July 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Kamel al-As'ad founds his Democratic Socialist Party.
In July 1972 Speaker Kamel al-As'ad, Sadr's rival for Shi'i leadership, set up a Democratic Socialist Party, partly to curb Communists and Baathists in the south.
\_this day in full
September 1972
Saturday, 16 September 1972
The road to war · From the books
After Munich, Israel invades South Lebanon for three days.
Israeli forces entered the south in reprisal for the Munich Olympics attack on Israeli athletes, striking Nahr al-Bared camp and southern and Bekaa villages. The Lebanese army held them up for two days; they left after three, destroying bridges and houses on the way out. De Clerck & Malsagne count 118 dead.
Sources differ: Death toll 118 (de Clerck & Malsagne) or more than 100 (Picard). Only de Clerck & Malsagne give the day.
\_this day in full \_on this day
autumn 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Habash and Jibril reject the 'freeze' Arafat accepts.
Urged by the government to hold back, Arafat agreed to suspend operations; Habash and Jibril said their groups were not bound. Hanf notes that southern Shi'is, at first wary of the guerrillas, came to blame government inaction for Israel's blows.
\_this day in full
November 1972
Friday, 3 November 1972
The road to war · From the books
Workers at the Ghandour factories begin an open-ended strike.
On 3 November 1972 an indefinite strike began at the Ghandour confectionery group, Lebanon's largest non-unionised industrial workforce. Workers wanted their factory committee recognised, the right to unionise, equal wages for women and higher pay.
Sources differ: Workforce: 1,200 in Shiyah (Traboulsi) or about 1,250 in Choueifat plus 350 in Chiyah (Tufaro).
\_this day in full \_on this day
Saturday, 11 November 1972
The road to war · From the books
Police fire on Ghandour strikers, killing two.
Two workers died on 11 November 1972 when security forces opened fire outside Ghandour's Chiyah plant: Fatima al-Khawaja of the Communist Party and Yusuf al-Attar of the OCA's workers' committees. Others were wounded. De Clerck & Malsagne call it the first workers' protest since independence put down with deadly force.
Sources differ: Wounded: 14 (Traboulsi) or 19, including 13 policemen (de Clerck & Malsagne).
\_this day in full \_on this day
mid-November 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
A general strike and mass rallies protest the Ghandour killings.
Protests broke out nationwide for three days. Under pressure from its members, the labour confederation called a one-day general strike, and Kamal Jumblatt led some 20,000 marchers to parliament, where the crowd shouted '99 thieves and 17 ruffians'. Salam's government refused any inquiry and made demonstrations subject to permits.
\_this day in full
December 1972
Friday, 15 December 1972
The road to war · From the books
Ghandour locks out and dismisses its workers.
Talks failed; the company locked out and sacked its whole workforce. Traboulsi says it reopened after a week, taking back all but 100 it saw as ringleaders; Tufaro describes a six-month lockout that fresh protests ended, with the demands unmet.
Sources differ: Length of the lockout: one week (Traboulsi) against a declared six months (Tufaro).
\_this day in full \_on this day
Tuesday, 26 December 1972
The road to war · From the books
The left demonstrates against the Ghandour dismissals.
On 26 December the Left protested again at the Ghandour sackings. Tufaro: workers left the dispute resentful of state and CGTL alike.
\_this day in full \_on this day
1972
1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
The Arab Front for Participation in the Resistance is founded.
Some twelve progressive parties and organisations made up the Arab Front for Participation in the Resistance, set up in 1972 with the Lebanese National Movement among its founders.
The road to war · From the books
The 'Ring' expressway links Ashrafieh to Hamra.
From 1972 traffic between Christian Ashrafieh and Hamra, Beirut's second hub, could avoid the crowded centre on the Ring expressway. In the war it symbolised the split city.
Art and memory- place Linking Ashrafieh and Hamra since 1972, the Ring became a wartime emblem of the divided city; snipers fired on it from rooftops including the unfinished Murr tower.
The road to war · From the books
Sixteen thousand public school teachers strike for two months.
In 1972 the ministry broke a two-month nationwide public school teachers' strike by suspending salaries. They wanted higher pay, union rights and a pension after 25 years' service.
\_this day in full
1972 (month not given): day not established
The road to war · From the books
The last parliamentary elections before the war.
After the 1972 general elections there were none for twenty years; the parliament they chose sat through the whole war. Hanf rates them Lebanon's cleanest and freest; Traboulsi stresses how little they let new forces in.
Sources differ: Hanf: Lebanon's freest elections; Traboulsi, citing Le Monde: a chamber hardly representing public opinion.
\_this day in full
January 2007
January 2007: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
An opposition general strike turns into Sunni-Shiite clashes.
Sunnis and Shiites clashed in Beirut's Muslim quarters during the strike, and many feared a new civil war.
Since 2005 · From the books
Paris III conference pledges 7.6 billion dollars to Siniora's government.
With the opposition sit-in under way in Beirut, Paris III donors pledged Siniora's government 7.6 billion dollars.
\_this day in full
February 2007
Saturday, 10 February 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
Compulsory military service ends.
Quéméner notes that ending conscription, once binding on citizens of every faith, left only the sectarian allocation of officer posts.
Sources differ: Quéméner dates conscription's end to 10 February 2007, Picard to January 2005; perhaps one marks the law, the other its application.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 2007: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Bus passengers are killed in bombings at Ain Alaq.
Picard cites the bus bombing to show that ordinary people, not just public figures, were among the victims.
\_this day in full
April 2007
Friday, 13 April 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
The Ain al-Rummaneh bus is shown at the war's anniversary.
For the anniversary of the war's outbreak, visitors to the Beirut hippodrome could see the wreck of the Fargo Dodge bus in which 27 people died on 13 April 1975; it was exhibited again in 2011, at the Hangar in the southern suburbs.
Art and memory- film Ziad Doueiri's West Beirut (1998) popularised the Ain al-Rummaneh bus. In Philippe Aractingi's Bosta (2005) a bus touring Lebanon with music and dance quietly recalls it, recasting the symbol of the 1975 rupture as one of reconciliation.
\_this day in full \_on this day
May 2007
Sunday, 20 May 2007
Since 2005 · From the books range
Battle of Nahr al-Bared between the army and Fatah al-Islam (20 May - 2 September).
Soldiers asleep at an army post by the camp entrance were killed when Fatah al-Islam fighters overran it; the army had been trying to detain members of the group over a Tripoli bank robbery. It then besieged and bombarded the camp for over three months, and 30,000 to 40,000 Palestinian refugees fled.
Sources differ: Soldiers killed: 179 (de Clerck & Malsagne) against 170 (Picard). Total dead: about 400 (Quéméner), consistent with 179 + 226 = 405.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
UN Resolution 1757 establishes the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The tribunal, charged with identifying and trying those behind the attack on Hariri, came into force under an accord the Siniora government signed in June 2007.
\_this day in full \_on this day
June 2007
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
Future Movement MP Walid Eido is assassinated.
Walid Eido was one of a series of anti-Syrian deputies killed between 2005 and 2007.
\_this day in full \_on this day
August 2007
Thursday, 30 August 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
A banned play about the war, How Nancy Wished That Everything Was an April Fool's Joke, opens.
Culture Minister Tarek Mitri's intervention lifted an initial ban, and Rabih Mroue and Fadi Toufiq's play opened at Masrah al-Madina. Its multimedia staging set rival war narratives side by side.
Art and memory- artwork Rabih Mroue and Fadi Toufiq's multimedia play pitted rival accounts of the Lebanese role in the war against each other.
\_this day in full \_on this day
September 2007
Sunday, 2 September 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
The army takes control of Nahr al-Bared.
The army regained the camp after more than three months of fighting.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
Kataeb MP Antoine Ghanem is assassinated.
A car bomb killed him and several others.
Sources differ: 19 September (de Clerck & Malsagne) against 18 September (Quéméner).
\_this day in full \_on this day
late September 2007: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Parliament's session to elect a president is adjourned.
Parliament's sitting to choose Lahoud's successor, called about a week after Antoine Ghanem's assassination, was adjourned; deadlock lasted until May 2008.
\_this day in full
November 2007
November 2007: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Émile Lahoud's term ends with no successor: the presidency is vacant.
With the rival blocs deadlocked over who should succeed Lahoud, the presidency stayed empty until May 2008.
Sources differ: Picard starts the vacuum in September 2007, when the electoral sessions began to fail; the other books date it from November 2007, the end of Lahoud's term.
\_this day in full
December 2007
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
General François al-Hajj is killed by a car bomb.
A Beirut car bomb killed General François al-Hajj, army chief of operations during the Nahr al-Bared siege and expected successor to Michel Sleiman as commander.
\_this day in full \_on this day
