Lebanon In June Research Articles

The Position of the Lebanese Shia Community on the Israeli Invasion of Lebanon in 1982

The military operations carried out by Palestinian armed factions against Israel from Lebanese territory were the direct cause of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. The invasion aimed to expel the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Lebanon, end the Syrian military presence, and establish a regime willing to sign a “peace” treaty with Tel Aviv. While the invasion achieved some of its objectives, it was met with resistance, condemnation, and denunciation on various levels, particularly from the Lebanese Shia community. The Shia community strongly opposed the invasion through statements, denunciations, and armed resistance.

River water pollution in Lebanon: the country's most underestimated public health challenge.

Due to the several interconnected crises that Lebanon has been facing for the past 4 years, many important social and environmental issues have been overlooked until more "pressing" ones are dealt with. Consequently, water pollution in Lebanon continues to worsen. This study aimed to describe the microbiological and chemical properties of the 10 main rivers in Lebanon and to assess their suitability for irrigation, while exploring some of the solutions to the problem. This cross-sectional study evaluated the pollution level of water from 10 rivers in Lebanon in June 2023 and their suitability for irrigation. Samples were collected at 3°C and their quality parameters were measured. Statistical analysis was conducted using R statistical software version 4.0.2. Compared to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) guidelines for safe irrigation water use, 4 out of the 10 samples had pH levels exceeding the permissible threshold, resulting in severe limitations on their usability. Three rivers had nitrate concentrations that exceeded the approved range, thus constraining their severe usage. Among the rivers, 60% had Escherichia coli levels higher than the permissible spectrum and 40% had faecal coliform counts exceeding FAO's upper limit recommendation. All water sources, however, had total dissolved solid levels that were within the recommended range. Polluted water can have a negative impact on human, wildlife and ecosystem health. Most of the assessed rivers in our study contained bacterial colonies, above the maximum recommended internationally. There is therefore an urgent need to address pollution issues in Lebanese waters to make them suitable for irrigation and other uses.

Under Pressure: When Refugees Feel Pressured to Leave Their Host Countries

AbstractA significant portion of the global population of 270 million migrants are refugees who were forcibly displaced from and are unable to return to their country of origin for reasons ranging from personal safety to economic instability. Almost 30 million refugees are protected by an international refugee regime, which obliges host states to provide safehaven and protections against forced expulsion. Nonetheless, refugee experiences in host countries are highly varied, including with respect to how welcome they feel in their host states. This matters because refugees that feel pressured to leave may be more likely to look to move on to a third country or return home involuntarily and before conditions are safe to do so. We argue that whether or not refugees feel pressured to leave host countries is affected by the varied nature of their quotidian interactions with authorities and regular citizens. To test the validity of this argument we draw upon approximately 1,700 responses to a survey administered among the Syrian refugee population throughout Lebanon in June and July 2018. Our statistical analyses demonstrate that individuals who are registered with the UN and the Lebanese government both feel more pressure to leave the country, as do individuals who are subject to ill treatment at the hands of Lebanese residents or authorities. We also find some tentative evidence that individuals who are not well socially connected within Lebanese society—those that live in predominantly Syrian neighbourhoods in Lebanon—also feel more pressure to leave the country.

Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites, and Collective Memory

Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites, and Collective Memory

Elizabeth Fernea in Beirut

Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, author and editor of two feminist classics, Women and the Family in the Middle East and Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak (both publishedby the University of Texas Press), visited Lebanon in June with her husband Robert, a renowned anthropologist, to update their book, The Arab World: Personal Encounters (Anchor Press). The book, first begun in 1956, when they initially visited Beirut as young academics, is a personal narrative of their travels in the region, travels which took them to Egypt (1959, 1983 and 1995), to Morocco (1971 , 1983 and 1995), as well as to Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Iran, Yemen, and thePalestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. The updatedversion of the book will conclude with an article on post-war Lebanon.

‘Political Remittances’: The Case of Lebanese Expatriates Voting in National Elections

This paper examines a particular event that occurred in Australia within the Australian-Lebanese community: it is the political mobilisation of a substantial number of this community to participate in the general elections that took place in Lebanon in June 2009. This event is analysed by looking into the various components of what we call ‘the Lebanese diasporic public sphere’. It is argued that this diasporic public sphere generates different political views and positions entertained by various members of the Australian-Lebanese community and materialised into specific ‘political remittances’ sent to Lebanon. Finally, an analysis of the impact of this political transfer to Lebanon is made in terms of a broader discussion of ‘political remittances’ as represented in the current literature.

The Legality of the use of Armed Force by Israel in Lebanon—June 1982

The Government of the United States cannot be expected to suffer the indefinite continuance of existing lawless conditions along its border, which expose its citizens to maltreatment at the hands of ruffianly elements of the Mexican population, which their Government seems unable to control. …No violation of the national sovereignty of Mexico was intended by this expedition [into Mexico by United States troops to hunt down bandits]. It was despatched upon the hot trail of the bandits in question with the sole object of punishing them …, and of preventing future activities of a similar nature upon our frontier…United States Secretary of State Lansing, 26 August 1919The entrance of Israeli forces into Lebanon in June 1982 (“Operation Peace for Galilee”) raises far-reaching legal issues that transcend this particular occurrence. One of the issues raised in this context is the legality of the use of armed force by a State to counter terrorists directing their attacks against its citizens from the territory of another State. Israel considered the action it took against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon to be legitimate self-defence, directed not against the territorial integrity of Lebanon, but rather against the armed PLO terrorists operating from it against Israel. Others viewed Israel's actions as aggression, and Israel as an invader violating Lebanon's sovereignty. This invasion, it was asserted, was contrary to international law.

From Sidon to Tripoli

Born in Canada of Greek parents, Dr Giannou trained at the Universi ty of Algiers medical school and completed his medical degree at Cairo University, specialising in cancer surgery. There he became fluent in Arabic. He then joined the Egyptian National Cancer Institute as a resident and worked in its hospital. Being on call from 7 am to mid night, at times seven days a week, for three years was to be excellent preparation for war surgery with its demands of discipline, drudgery and improvisation. After the Israelis invaded southern Lebanon in June 1982, Dr Gian nou operated on the wounded while shells and bombs fell around the hospital in Sidon where he was then working. Arrested by the Israelis, he witnessed beatings of prisoners and testified before the Canadian Ministry of External Affairs and the US House Foreign Affairs sub committee on the Middle East during the summer of 1982. That sum mer and in the autumn he toured thirty US cities, speaking at colleges and before church and community groups about his experiences in Lebanon. Dr Giannou returned to the Middle East to set up a hospital in the Tripoli region where he worked for eight months. When thefighting in the ranks of the Palestine Liberation Organisation spread to Tripoli, he continued to work there. As a new member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, he plans to return to the Middle East and practise surgery among Palestinians. He also will be responsible for helping to administer the extensive Palestine Red Crescent public health network. As a medical doctor he treated Arafat loyalists and dissidents alike. He came in contact with Israeli prisoners whom the PLO had earlier captured. In the course of his work he met with Arafat on a daily basis and participated in the difficult negotiations which led to the exchange of prisoners held by the Israelis and Palestinians. His eyewitness ac count provides one of the first insights we have into what transpired during the intense fighting in the Tripoli region prior to the evacuation of Palestinian forces in mid-December 1983. The events in Tripoli have caused him chagrin and deep anxiety, but he remains optimistic about the future, arguing that out of the Tripoli conflict will emerge new clarity and new political initiatives. These, he believes, will be based on the Arafat wing of the PLO accepting the principles of majority rule, rather than continuing to make decisions on the basis of difficult-to-achieve unanimity. He expects Franco- Egyptian peace initiatives to dominate the diplomatic stage in the mon ths ahead and he sees no alternative to Yasser Arafat's leadership of the PLO. He also expects Arafat to carry out changes while being sup ported by the majority of the Palestinian population living under Israeli occupation.