Lebanon

Lebanon occupies a narrow coastal strip on the eastern Mediterranean. Its 484 kilometers of land boundaries include an 81-kilometer border with Israel and a 403-kilometer border with Syria; its coastline extends 225 kilometers.[1] The Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges are separated by the fertile Bekaa Valley, and the country's highest point, Qornet es Saouda, rises to 3,088 meters.[1]

Arabic is the official language, while French, English, and Armenian are also used.[1] A 2024 estimate placed the population at approximately 5.36 million; 89.4 percent of residents were classified as urban in 2023, and the Beirut metropolitan area had roughly 2.421 million people.[1] Lebanon has conducted no official census since 1932, so contemporary demographic totals vary by methodology and by whether refugee populations are included.[7]

The territory of modern Lebanon was settled in antiquity by a West-Semitic population later designated Canaanite and, in Hellenistic sources, Phoenician.[3] Phoenician maritime culture flourished in the Fertile Crescent for more than 2,000 years, approximately 2700–450 BCE.[4] For roughly 1,500 years, Lebanon's forests supplied Egypt with timber for shipbuilding, temples, sacred and funerary boats, and palace gates.[3]

In Hellenistic and Roman times, the region was divided among largely Hellenized Phoenician cities and incorporated into the Roman province of Syria; from the third century CE, it was organized as Phoenicia Augusta Libanensis.[3] The mountains later served as a refuge for Christian communities, and Crusaders established strongholds there.[7] The region subsequently experienced Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Ottoman, and French rule.[4]

Within the Ottoman Empire, Mount Lebanon developed into a distinct autonomous region. The Emirate of Mount Lebanon, dated by one history to 1523–1842, was shaped by silk production, international trade, Christian demographic growth, and European intervention.[5] Fakhr al-Din II expanded the emirate, encouraged European merchants, enlarged Beirut's port, and maintained ties with Tuscany.[5] After the 1860 Druze-Maronite conflict, the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifiya remained under Ottoman sovereignty until World War I.[5]

After the Ottoman Empire's defeat in World War I, the League of Nations approved a French Mandate for Lebanon and Syria in 1922.[8] France had proclaimed Greater Lebanon on 1 September 1920 by annexing Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, Tripoli, Hasbaya, Rashaya, Baalbek, and Akkar to the former Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifiya.[5] The resulting entity extended from the Nahr al-Kabir to Palestine and from the Mediterranean to the Anti-Lebanon Mountains.[5]

The annexed coastal and Bekaa territories had mainly Muslim populations, whereas Mount Lebanon was predominantly Maronite Christian. A study published through Ben-Gurion University's research portal argues that this arrangement had far-reaching consequences and placed Christian-Muslim conflict near the center of the new state's political development.[9]

The 1926 constitution renamed the entity the Lebanese Republic, adopted the cedar flag, recognized French and Arabic as official languages, created legislative institutions, and formalized sectarian representation.[5] Lebanon's last official census, conducted in 1932, recorded a total population of 731,000 and linked sectarian affiliation to political representation and access to public institutions.[5]

Bishara al-Khoury was elected president on 21 September 1943 and appointed Riad al-Sulh prime minister. Parliament removed the mandate clauses on 8 November, after which French authorities arrested the president, prime minister, and several ministers. A general strike and popular resistance preceded their release and the effective end of the mandate on 22 November 1943; French troops withdrew in 1946.[1][5]

The unwritten National Pact assigned the presidency to a Maronite Christian, the premiership to a Sunni Muslim, and the speakership of Parliament to a Shiite Muslim. It also maintained a parliamentary ratio of six Christian seats to five Muslim seats.[5]

Lebanon contains significant Sunni, Shia, Maronite Christian, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Druze, and other communities.[10] The World Factbook estimates the citizen population at 67.8 percent Muslim, 32.4 percent Christian, and 4.5 percent Druze, noting that the categories are not additive as presented and exclude sizable Syrian and Palestinian refugee populations.[1] A separate 2018 estimate placed the total population at 6.1 million, illustrating the uncertainty surrounding Lebanese demographic data.[11]

Pew Research Center estimated that between 2010 and 2020 the Muslim share rose by about five percentage points to 68 percent, while the Christian share fell by roughly five points to 28 percent. It attributed much of the change to the influx of Muslim refugees from Syria and estimated that roughly one in five residents was a Syrian refugee.[12]

Confessionalism allocates the presidency to a Maronite Christian, the premiership to a Sunni Muslim, and the parliamentary speakership to a Shia Muslim.[4] The 1989 Taif Agreement replaced the earlier six-to-five Christian-Muslim parliamentary ratio with parity, expanded Parliament to 128 seats, reduced the president's executive powers, and strengthened the prime minister and cabinet.[5]

A Pew survey conducted in 2005 found that 86 percent of Lebanese Muslims held favorable opinions of Christians and 82 percent of Christians held favorable opinions of Muslims, indicating substantial cross-communal goodwill despite periods of sectarian violence.[10]

Jewish presence in present-day Lebanon dates to ancient times. Historical traditions cite Jewish settlement in Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Tripoli, Baalbek, Hasbaya, Mount Hermon, and the Shouf.[13] Synagogues existed in Beirut and Tripoli by the sixth century CE, while Benjamin of Tudela reportedly found 50 Jews in Beirut in 1173.[14][13]

In the nineteenth century, Jewish communities were concentrated in mountain villages and often lived among Druze communities.[14] Deir al-Qamar had approximately 80 Jewish families engaged in agriculture, silkwork, commerce, soap manufacturing, and iron extraction. After the 1860 Druze-Maronite conflict, many moved to Beirut, Aley, and Sidon.[3] Most Jews of Hasbaya were transferred to Rosh Pinah under Baron Rothschild's sponsorship in 1888, and the last three families left in 1913.[3]

Beirut became the center of Lebanese Jewry, with Wadi Abu Jamil serving as its religious, social, and economic heart rather than as a closed ghetto.[13] The Magen Avraham synagogue was inaugurated on 25 August 1926 on land donated by Raphael Levy Stambouli and with funding from Moise Abraham Sassoon of Calcutta. It could accommodate approximately 1,000 men and more than 1,000 women.[13]

The 1932 census recorded 3,588 Jews, including 3,060 in Beirut, and a 1944 census counted 6,261.[3][13] Estimates for the community's mid-century peak conflict: the World Jewish Congress reports approximately 20,000 Jews in 1948, while other historical estimates place the population closer to 9,000 in the early 1950s.[14][13] Lebanese Jews were constitutionally protected and generally identified as Lebanese nationals whose religion was Judaism.[13]

The population declined through successive crises, including the 1958 unrest, the 1966 Intrabank collapse, Palestinian militarization, the 1967 war, and the 1975–1990 civil war.[13] One historical account estimates that approximately 200 Jews were killed in crossfire in 1975–1976 and that only about 200 remained by 1980.[13]

Nine Lebanese Jews were kidnapped in 1984 and 1985 by the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, described by the source as ideologically and operationally linked to Iranian-backed Hezbollah. The group accused its victims of spying, but an investigation found no evidence of involvement in Lebanese politics or the Arab-Israeli conflict; only three bodies were recovered.[15]

A 2020 U.S. religious-freedom report recorded the Jewish Community Council's estimate that 70 Jews resided in Lebanon, while another 2020 estimate cited 29.[3][16] Judaism remains one of 18 officially recognized religious groups but has no allocated parliamentary seat.[16] The World Jewish Congress reports that 4,062 Lebanese Jews have emigrated to Israel since 1948.[14]

Lebanon participated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and signed an armistice with Israel on 23 March 1949, becoming the first Arab country to sign an agreement with Israel.[3][17] The armistice line followed the former international boundary between Palestine and Lebanon, and Israel evacuated 14 Lebanese villages occupied during the fighting.[3]

Palestinian armed groups later expanded their presence in Lebanon. The 1969 Cairo Agreement recognized Palestinian armed activity while attempting to regulate cross-border attacks, and the PLO's relocation from Jordan after 1970 undermined Lebanon's political balance.[3][18] By the late 1970s, the PLO had created what one contemporary analysis called a "state-within-a-state" in southern Lebanon.[18]

Israel launched Operation Litani in March 1978 amid attacks from Lebanese territory. The operation was followed by UN Security Council Resolution 425 and the establishment of UNIFIL, whose purposes included confirming Israel's withdrawal, restoring international peace and security, and helping the Lebanese government reassert authority in the south.[19][20]

Following the attempted assassination of Israeli Ambassador Shlomo Argov in London on 3 June 1982, Israel attacked PLO targets and launched Operation Peace for Galilee on 6 June.[21][20] Israeli forces overran PLO positions, destroyed Syrian installations in the Bekaa Valley, and reached Beirut by 9 June.[21] A contemporary account records 345 Israeli soldiers killed and 2,130 wounded through 1 September, along with the destruction of the PLO's military and political infrastructure in southern Lebanon and Beirut.[20]

A U.S.-mediated arrangement led to the PLO's evacuation from Beirut, completed on 1 September under a multinational force involving France, Italy, and the United States.[18] After President-elect Bashir Gemayel was assassinated, Phalangist forces entered the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and massacred hundreds of Palestinian civilians. Israel's Kahan Commission later found Defense Minister Ariel Sharon indirectly responsible, and Sharon resigned.[21][20]

Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement in May 1983 terminating the state of war, but Lebanon repudiated it the following year under Syrian pressure.[21][17] Israel withdrew to a security zone in southern Lebanon in 1985 and maintained it until 2000.[21]

Lebanon's civil war lasted from 1975 to 1990. The World Factbook estimates that it caused 120,000 fatalities, although historical casualty totals vary substantially.[1] The war involved Lebanese Christian and leftist-nationalist coalitions, the PLO, Amal, Hezbollah, Syria, Israel, the United States, France, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and numerous rival militias.[5]

The immediate trigger described by one history occurred on 13 April 1975, when shots were fired at a Phalange gathering in Ain al-Rummaneh and Phalangist militiamen later attacked a bus traveling toward the Tall al-Zaatar refugee camp, killing 21 Palestinians.[5] Fighting spread rapidly across Beirut.

Syria entered Lebanon in 1976 and effectively occupied much of the country. Its approximately 30,000 troops were presented as an Arab League-sanctioned peacekeeping force but also served Syria's effort to assert hegemony over Lebanon.[1][18] Militias meanwhile controlled ports, checkpoints, customs, taxation, imports, and public services; one account estimates that they expropriated at least 20 percent of state revenues.[5]

Lebanese parliamentarians signed the Taif Agreement on 22 October 1989. It established Christian-Muslim parliamentary parity, expanded Parliament to 128 seats, redistributed executive authority, and called for militia disarmament.[5] Hezbollah was permitted to retain its weapons because of its stated resistance role against Israeli forces.[5] Syria maintained dominant influence until withdrawing its troops in 2005 after the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.[1]

Hezbollah was established in the 1980s with Iranian assistance and operates as a militia, political party, and provider of social services.[22] Its origins followed discussions between Iranian and Lebanese Shia clerics after Iran's 1979 revolution. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent forces to Lebanon in 1982 and helped establish the organization; its founders included Abbas Musawi.[6]

Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto rejected mediation with Israel and declared that confrontation would cease only when Israel was "completely obliterated from the face of the earth." Its 2009 manifesto reaffirmed its "total refusal to any kind of compromise with the Zionist entity [Israel]," calling that position "predetermined and permanent."[6]

The United States designates Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization, and Iran has supplied most of its funding, training, weapons, explosives, and political and organizational assistance.[22] Hezbollah has participated in Lebanese elections since 1992 and first entered the cabinet in 2005.[22] It has nevertheless maintained an armed organization outside exclusive state authority, contrary to the Taif disarmament provisions and the principles reiterated in UN Security Council Resolution 1701.[23][5]

Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the southern Lebanon security zone on 24 May 2000 and redeployed to the UN-demarcated Blue Line. The withdrawal followed failed negotiations in 1999–2000 and was based on UN Security Council Resolution 425; Lebanon declined to participate in the UN team's demarcation process.[17]

On 12 July 2006, Hezbollah attacked an Israeli military position, killing soldiers and taking hostages and triggering a 34-day war. The Congressional Research Service reports that approximately 160 Israelis and 1,200 Lebanese were killed.[24]

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted unanimously on 11 August 2006, called for an immediate end to Hezbollah attacks and Israeli offensive military operations, deployment of the Lebanese government and UNIFIL in southern Lebanon, and the parallel withdrawal of Israeli forces.[23] It authorized up to 15,000 UNIFIL troops and called for the area between the Blue Line and Litani River to be free of armed personnel and weapons other than those of the Lebanese government and UNIFIL.[23]

The Congressional Research Service reports that Hezbollah did not comply with the disarmament provisions and began rearming.[24] UNIFIL has monitored the cessation of hostilities and supported the Lebanese Armed Forces, but Hezbollah's continuing military buildup has prevented it from fulfilling its mandate.[19]

On 8 October 2023, one day after the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel, Hezbollah began firing rockets and missiles across the Lebanon-Israel border in what the Congressional Research Service called a "show of solidarity with Hamas."[24] The ensuing fighting displaced approximately 60,000 Israeli and 95,000 Lebanese residents from the border area. The same report stated that more than 2,500 people from Lebanon and more than 70 from Israel had reportedly been killed.[24]

The escalation demonstrated Hezbollah's continuing use of Lebanese territory for attacks against Israel and its role as an Iranian-backed terrorist organization.[6]

Lebanon experienced periods of prosperity after independence, with Beirut serving as a regional center for finance and trade.[1][25] Lebanon also became a cultural producer and intermediary for the broader Arab region.[5]

The economic and financial crisis that began in 2019 reversed much of that prosperity. In March 2020, the government defaulted on $31 billion in eurobonds after years of government borrowing, slowing remittances, and declining foreign financial support.[25] The Congressional Research Service reports that nominal GDP fell from nearly $55 billion in 2018 to less than $20 billion in 2021. Banks closed, the Lebanese pound lost most of its value, and shortages of medicine, water, and fuel followed the depletion of foreign exchange needed for imports.[22]

Mount Lebanon's snow-covered peaks gave the country its name, while the Bekaa Valley separates the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges.[1][2] Ancient Tyre was among the Phoenician cities associated with the region's maritime history, and Lebanon's celebrated cedar forests supplied timber to Egypt for centuries.[3]

In Beirut, Wadi Abu Jamil was historically the center of Lebanese Jewish communal life. Its Magen Avraham synagogue, inaugurated in 1926, became the community's principal synagogue and remains a prominent monument to Lebanon's Jewish history.[13]

Lebanon participated in the Arab coalition during Israel's 1948 War of Independence and signed an armistice with Israel on 23 March 1949, becoming the first Arab state to sign an agreement with it.[3][17] The armistice line followed the pre-existing international boundary.[3]

Lebanon later became a base for Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel, prompting Israeli operations in 1978 and 1982. The 17 May 1983 Israel-Lebanon agreement would have terminated the state of war, but Lebanon repudiated it under Syrian pressure.[21][17] Israel maintained a security zone in southern Lebanon until May 2000.[21]

The Blue Line drawn after Israel's withdrawal became the de facto border, although disputes remained and Hezbollah continued building military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.[19][17] The 2006 war and the cross-border campaign that began in October 2023 kept the frontier a recurring focus of conflict.[24]