lebanese war
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1975/1990
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40 news for the 2nd, 5th of January, February, July, December

with the books
February 5, 1975wednesday
The Arab Defense Committee gathered in Cairo, voted 90 million dollars for the defense of Lebanon.

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January 5, 1976monday
After a delay of three months, the American University of Beirut inaugurated its academic year 1975-1976.

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July 5, 1976monday
The PLO and their allies launched a massive offensive against the Kura and the Christian town of Chekka north of Beirut.

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\_what the books add

Hanf writes that once Jisr al-Pasha fell on 1 July the Palestinians struck in the north, taking coastal Chekka from Tripoli by way of the Koura, with massacres, looting and arson. A Lebanese Front counter-attack with army tanks reached Tripoli's outskirts.

February 2, 1978thursday
Michel Sardou caused the walls at the Casino du Liban to vibrate.

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July 2, 1978sunday
Achrafieh was bombed. 130 shells hit the H™tel-Dieu hospital where 20 rooms were destroyed. At the same time, a huge fire ravaged the dock number 6 in the port.

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December 5, 1978tuesday
The Arab tripartite committee including Saudi and Kuwaiti ambassadors and a Syrian general, met in Baabda in presence of the chief of State. The committee excluded any immediate resort to the army.

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January 5, 1979friday
Lebanon entered a complacency phase.
All sides seemed decided to wait for important regional developments to unfold in order to re-evaluate the situation and define the course of action. The situation was very tense in the South where the Israelis were shelling the Hasbaya region.

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February 5, 1979monday
New identity cards bearing no mention of religion, were also due to be released soon.

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July 2, 1979monday
President Elias Sarkis asked Selim El Hoss to form the government.

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January 2, 1980wednesday
The chief of the 'Iranian volunteers', Hodjatolislam Mohammed Montazeri, held a press conference in Beirut during which he reasserted his men's determination to go to South Lebanon to 'fight imperialism and Zionism.' And he added: 'We will come by thousands.'

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\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne have Iranian clerics and activists settling in the Bekaa, and then in Tyre, from 1980, before 500 to 2,000 Revolutionary Guards entered Lebanon in June 1982.

February 5, 1980tuesday
Mgr Elias Audeh was elected the Greek Orthodox Metropolite of Beirut.

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January 5, 1981monday
Militiamen led by the dissident officer Saad Haddad bombarded the locality of Hasbaya, causing important damages.

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January 5, 1981monday
Michel Rocard, member of the French Socialist Party's national secretariat met with President Elias Sarkis, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Chafic Wazzan, as well as with the PLO leader, Yasser Arafat.

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July 2, 1981thursday
The Sodeco crossing way was officially opened to traffic. But the calm didn't last for more than 2 days, as snipers were back into action.

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December 5, 1981saturday
The residential areas were again bombarded with heavy artillery.

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July 2, 1982friday
In a press conference held at the Alexander hotel, the Israeli Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon, invited the Lebanese to fight against the Palestinians.

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\_what the books add

Bashir Gemayel, back from Saudi Arabia on 2 July, said the PLO did not mean to leave. Two hours earlier, at the Alexandre Hotel, Sharon had told reporters, Robert Fisk among them, that Israel's only aim was to destroy the PLO and it wanted not 'one square inch' of Lebanon.

July 5, 1982monday
The Israelis controlled the Beirut International Airport where violent fights opposed them to the Palestinian-Progressive Joint Forces.

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December 2, 1982thursday
A wide meeting in Baabda reached an agreement on the creation of a Lebanese strike force in charge of reestablishing order and security in Aley and the Chouf.

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January 5, 1983wednesday
Pope John-Paul II appointed the maronite Patriarch of Antioch and the East, Bishop Antonios Boutros Khoreiche, Cardinal. Bishop Khoreiche was born on the 20th of September, 1907 at Ain Ebel in Southern Lebanon. After having studied at Saint Joseph University, he was ordained priest on April 12, 1930. He became Bishop on October 1950 and Archbishop of Saida in 1957. On April 11, 1974, he became patriarchal vicar general of Bkerkeh. Following the death of Patriarch Meouchi on January 11, 1975, the synod elected Bishop Khoreiche on February 3, 1975, after a conclave of 15 days.

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February 2, 1983wednesday
The aggressions didn't spare the Multinational Force. Reacting to the anti-French attacks, the President of the French Republic, Francois Mitterand, ordered the reinforcement of the French contingent in Lebanon.

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February 5, 1983saturday
A remotely controlled car bomb exploded killing 19 and injuring 136 in front of the Palestinian research center and the Libyan Jana agency, in Caracas street.

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July 5, 1983tuesday
The American Secretary of State arrived in Beirut as part of a new tour. 'Complete withdrawals should be executed according to a defined timetable', declared the US diplomat.

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December 5, 1983monday
150 kilos of hexogen exploded at Tarik Jdideh spreading terror, killing 16 persons and injuring 100.

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January 2, 1984monday
The year started like the previous one ended : everyone was talking about a new security plan for the mountain and the Southern suburbs of Beirut. Nevertheless, the fights continued intermittently in these regions between the Army and the Lebanese Forces on one side and the Progressive Socialist Party and Amal on the other.

\_this day in full the books also date it 29 January 1984 \_on this day

\_what the books add

On 29 January the Druze resumed attacking the army at Souk al-Gharb, after Shi'i militia sniping at the army and French troops from mid-January, Hanf's next escalation.

February 2, 1984thursday
The schools closed their doors in the Eastern sector of the capital due to the blind shelling of Beirut and its suburbs.

\_this day in full the books also date it 1 February 1984 \_on this day

February 5, 1984sunday
President Gemayel announced his intention to form a national union government and presented a program of 8 points to save the country. He also convoked a new conference for national reconciliation in Geneva on February 27. The resignation of the Wazzan government presented on September 26, 1983, was finally accepted.

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\_what the books add

In Fisk's account Wazzan submitted his resignation that day, insisting it be accepted at once. This looks like a fresh resignation rather than acceptance of the one tendered on 26 September 1983, though Fisk also has the cabinet resigning in September 1983. Hanf has Berri appealing to Shi'i soldiers not to fire on their own people on the day the army began shelling the southern suburbs, at heavy civilian cost.

July 2, 1984monday
A rocket attack hit the offices of l'Orient-Le-Jour causing serious damages.

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December 2, 1986tuesday
A general strike paralyzed the country. The Lebanese were unable to cope with the increase in prices. The leaders couldn't find any solution to the crisis. The popular discontent was on the rise.

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December 5, 1986friday
Abou Melhem died. The great TV comedian, whose real name was Adib Haddad, became famous for playing, for many years, the character of a villager famous for his common sense. The grandfather of all the Lebanese had disappeared.

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January 2, 1987friday
The Minister of Labor Selim El Hoss signed a decree raising the minimum wage to 3,200 LBP. This decision was a timid ray of light in the heavy economic sky.

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\_what the books add

Historians describe the collapse of real wages behind such decrees: against 1974, the statutory minimum wage kept 13 percent of its buying power at the end of 1986 (Hanf, after Abou Rjaily and Labaki).

January 5, 1987monday
While the Camps War raged between Amal and the Popular Palestinian Liberation Front, the Salam mission, aiming at reconciling Presidents Assad and Gemayel, was resumed.

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\_what the books add

The third 'war of the camps' had begun in the south at the end of September 1986; fighting resumed in the Beirut camps in December. By early January 1987 it had cost over 500 dead and 2,000 wounded, by a French diplomatic estimate. The books describe Amal's adversaries as PLO fighters, mostly loyal to Arafat.

February 2, 1987monday
The Swiss Embassy was the last embassy to close in West Beirut.

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July 2, 1987thursday
Lebanon has just lost in Kesrouan, Labaki, one of its best journalists and most fervent defenders.

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December 2, 1987wednesday
While credits are unblocked to buy fuel and service stations are reopened, Victor Cassir, Minister of Industry and Oil, authorizes private companies to import fuel subject to a previous authorization by the Ministry of Oil.

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February 2, 1988tuesday
Jacques Merrin, a Frenchman working for the DGSE, is killed by unknown persons in the neighborhood of the Palace of Justice.

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February 5, 1988friday
Two Scandinavian employees of the UNRWA are kidnapped.

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December 2, 1988friday
General Aoun orders the closure of the Museum-Berbir junction; the passage will be re-opened 17 days later.

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July 5, 1989wednesday
In a joint declaration from Paris, Presidents Mitterand and Gorbatchev call for an immediate cease-fire.

\_this day in full the books also date it 5 June 1989 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf dates a joint declaration by Presidents Gorbachev and Mitterrand on Lebanon, welcoming the Arab troika's efforts, to 5 June 1989.

January 5, 1990friday
After having spent 43 days in the military casern of Ablah, President Elias Hraoui leaves the Bekaa and settles in Ramlet-el-Beida. The photographer of L'Orient-Le Jour and the Nahar, Georges Semerdjian dies while on the field.

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December 5, 1990wednesday
The Lebanese Army controls the port of Beirut and the 5th dock is closed to the maritime traffic.

\_this day in full the books also date it 3 December 1990, 11 March 1991 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf says 300 Lebanese Forces militiamen stayed at Karantina and the port after the December 1990 withdrawal, and dates the army's entry into the Fifth Basin and other militia ports to 11 March 1991.