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chronologiesallThe road to war 1968–1974 The Lebanese war 1975–1990 After the war 1991–2005 July 2006, as the books tell it 2006 Since 2005 2005–2025

1996, 2002, 2003, 2007

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41 entries on 37 dates · the books disagree on 10

February 1996

February 1996: day not established

After the war · From the books

Hariri hands internal security in selected areas to the army.
The decision gave the army, rather than the police, a leading role in domestic order.

\_this day in full

April 1996

Thursday, 11 April 1996

After the war · From the books range

Israel launches 'Operation Grapes of Wrath' against southern Lebanon.
After a boy died in a booby-trap blast and Hezbollah fired rockets at Kiryat Shmona, Israel bombarded the south, killing more than 150 civilians and driving about 400,000 north, often under fire. Solidarity with the displaced crossed community lines.

Sources differ: Start 11 April (de Clerck) or 16 April (Picard); end 27 or 26 April. Civilian dead about 170 (de Clerck) or more than 200 (Fisk).

Other date in the books: Tuesday, 16 April 1996

\_this day in full \_on this day

Thursday, 18 April 1996

After the war · From the books

Civic associations hold a day for peace and national unity.
In 1996 young civic associations, APAC and Al-Mouwatin foremost, drove the National Rally for the Support of Lebanon's Survival; at a day for peace on 18 April, their slogans urged civil society to stand united against Israeli attacks.

After the war · From the books

Israeli shells kill 106 refugees in the UN compound at Qana.
A UN inquiry judged an error unlikely, largely on the strength of a soldier's video of an Israeli drone above the Fijian battalion's base, where some 560 villagers had taken shelter. The shelling lasted seventeen minutes, until 2.25 p.m.; more than half of the dead were children.

Sources differ: 106 dead (Fisk, de Clerck, Haugbolle), 107 (Picard), 102 (Quéméner calendar). Number of refugees: 560 (Fisk). Quéméner alone says UN soldiers were killed.

Art and memory

memorial Qana Day, 18 April, became a state day of national remembrance in 1997, with gatherings, exhibitions and a permanent museum display at Qana; the victims share a marble-covered grave beside the former UN base.
book Robert Fisk's chapter 'The Massacre' in Pity the Nation is built on survivors' testimony and the UN soldier's video of the drone.

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Friday, 26 April 1996

After the war · From the books

The 'April Understanding' sets rules for the fighting in the south.
Syria formally, and Hezbollah informally, gained a part in handling the conflict. Brokered by France and the US, it set rules for combatants, monitored by Lebanon, Syria, Israel, the US and France.

\_this day in full \_on this day

1996

1996: day not established

After the war · From the books

Second postwar parliamentary elections.
Only 45 percent voted, 22 percent among Christians. Hezbollah was beaten in Baalbek; in the south, made by Damascus to share a list with Amal, it took just four of the fourteen Shiite seats.

\_this day in full

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.

\_this day in full

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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

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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Friday, 12 April 2002

After the war · From the books

Iran's foreign minister urges Hezbollah not to provoke a war.

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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.

\_this day in full

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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February 2003

Friday, 28 February 2003

After the war · From the books

Israel bombs the south and reinforces its positions at Shebaa.

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April 2003

Sunday, 13 April 2003

After the war · From the books

'Remember, so as not to return': a campaign for a national day of memory.
In al-Safir leading politicians openly backed remembering the war for the first time. On 13 April hundreds gathered in Martyrs' Square, handing out flowers and collecting signatures for a national memory day and a memorial; earlier, the Association Mémoire pour l'Avenir and the families' Committee had screened war documentaries unseen in Lebanon at Masrah al-Medina.

Art and memory

place Architect Mona El-Hallak came upon the Barakat building, above the old demarcation line at Sodeco, in 1996, and from 1997 led APSAD's campaign to save it. In 2003 the municipality expropriated it for $3 million for Beit Beirut.
film Films Haugbolle cites on postwar amnesia include Ghassan Salhab's Beyrouth Fantôme (1999) and Terra Incognita (2002); the novel Ya Salam (1999) by Najwa Barakat follows former militiamen in peacetime.

Other date in the books: Tuesday, 8 April 2003

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April 2003: day not established

After the war · From the books

A replica of the 1975 bus becomes a memory installation in Beirut.
Hassan Saouli deliberately kept graphic images out: to mark 28 years since 13 April, he parked a bus of the 1975 model on a central Beirut street, with videos and texts on guilt and forgiveness inside.

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May 2003

Tuesday, 27 May 2003

After the war · From the books

Ghassan Tueni answers a Syrian general's threats against the Lebanese.
In al-Nahar Ghassan Tueni addressed Bashar al-Assad as an equal, protesting at threats against the Lebanese by General Bahjat Sleiman, Syria's intelligence chief.

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June 2003

June 2003: day not established

After the war · From the books

Nada Sahnaoui's installation 'Atadhakkar' (I remember) opens in Martyrs' Square.
Sahnaoui set readers' memories of prewar downtown on 360 newspaper stacks, leaving a few stacks bare for what had been erased.

Sources differ: Opening in June 2003 (p. 132); the photograph is dated July 2003.

Art and memory

artwork Nada Sahnaoui's earlier work 'Statistics' listed war casualty figures from the press; Haugbolle's note points to 111101's Artworks section.

After the war · From the books

A Kataeb memorial in Ashrafieh is pulled down for luxury flats.
A 1986 site for local fighters, it had lost its point once many of their families left in 1989-90, the mukhtar said.

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September 2003

September 2003: day not established

After the war · From the books

Soldiers fire on Hezbollah members in a poster fight at Jiba.
In Jiba, Hezbollah members objected to Amal's pictures of Imam Musa Sadr; in the ensuing brawl the army fired on Hezbollah, a first in over ten years: one dead, two wounded.

After the war · From the books

A by-election sets off a poster war in Gemmayzeh.
In Jummayza's September 2003 by-election, posters of Aoun's Hikmat Dib, the jailed Geagea and Bashir Gemayel were torn or mocked daily: Christian memory, divided.

\_this day in full

October 2003

Monday, 27 October 2003

After the war · From the books

Hezbollah attacks Israeli positions at Shebaa; Israel raids near villages.

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November 2003

November 2003: day not established

After the war · From the books

A public hearing on 'understanding the war' turns into a shouting match.
Two women broke into the Association Mémoire pour l'Avenir's hearing for students and war witnesses: one abused Samir Kassir for attacking Syria; a mother blamed a former Kataeb editor for her son's killing.

\_this day in full

December 2003

December 2003: day not established

After the war · From the books

The US Congress passes the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act.
It demanded a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and allowed for sanctions, partly applied from spring 2004.

Sources differ: Passed in November (Haugbolle) or December 2003 (Picard, 33 jours); sanctions from April (Picard) or May 2004 (33 jours).

\_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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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