The Karantina massacre (; ) took place on January 18, 1976, early in the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

. La Quarantine, known in Arabic as Karantina, was a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

-inhabited district in mostly

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

East

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

controlled by forces of the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

(PLO), and inhabited by

Palestinians Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

Syrians Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine Arabic, Levantine and Mesopotamian Arabic, Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The culture of Syria, cultural ...

, and Lebanese Sunnis. The fighting and subsequent killings also involved an old Quarantine area near the port and nearby Maslakh quarter.Jonathan C. Randal (1990) ''The Tragedy of Lebanon: Christian Warlords, Israeli Adventurers and American Bunglers'' Hogarth, p 88 Karantina was overrun by militias of the right-wing and mostly Christian

Lebanese Front The Lebanese Front was a coalition of mainly right-wing Lebanese Nationalist parties formed in 1976 by majority Christian groups during the Lebanese Civil War. It was intended to act as a reaction force to the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) ...

, specifically the

Kataeb Party The Kataeb Party (), officially the Kataeb Party – Lebanese Social Democratic Party ( '), also known as the Phalangist Party, is a right-wing Christian political party in Lebanon founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936. The party and its parami ...

(Phalangists), resulting in the deaths of approximately 600–1,500 people.Harris (p. 162) notes "the massacre of 1,500 Palestinians, Shi'is, and others in Karantina and Maslakh, and the revenge killings of hundreds of Christians in Damurbr>
/ref> According to then-

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

-correspondent Jonathan Randal, "Many Lebanese Muslim men and boys were rounded up and separated from the women and children and massacred, while the women and young girls were violently raped and robbed." The Damour massacre two days later was a reprisal for the Karantina massacre.Noam Chomsky, Edward W. Said (1999) Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians

South End Press South End Press was a non-profit book publisher run on a model of participatory economics. It was founded in 1977 in Boston's South End. It published books written by political activists, notably Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Win ...

, pp 184–185 After

Kataeb Regulatory Forces The Kataeb Regulatory Forces – KRF () or Forces Régulatoires des Kataeb (FRK) in French language, French, were the military wing of the right-wing Christianity in Lebanon, Lebanese Christian Kataeb Party, otherwise known as the 'Phalange', fr ...

(KRF),

Guardians of the Cedars The Guardians of the Cedars (GoC; ; ''Ḥurrās al-Arz) was'' a Lebanese nationalist party and former militia in Lebanon. It was formed by Étienne Saqr (also known with the kunya "Abu Arz" or "Father of the Cedars") and others along with th ...

(GoC), National Liberal Party's Tiger militia and

Lebanese Youth Movement The Lebanese Youth Movement – LYM (Arabic: حركة الشباب اللبنانية , ''Harakat al-Shabab al-Lubnaniyya''), also known as the Maroun Khoury Group (MKG), was a Christianity in Lebanon, Christian militia which fought in the Leban ...

(LYM) forces took control of the Karantina district, the Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp was besieged for five months, ending in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre.

References

Sources

* Chomsky, Noam (1989) ''Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies''

, * Fisk, Robert (2001) ''Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War'' Oxford University Press, , * William Harris, (1996) ''Faces of Lebanon. Sects, Wars, and Global Extensions'' Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, US {{ISBN, 1-55876-115-2 Battles of the Lebanese Civil War 1970s crimes in Beirut Massacres of the Lebanese Civil War Massacres in 1976 Persecution of Muslims by Christians January 1976 in Asia Massacres of Palestinians Massacres of Muslims Beirut in the Lebanese Civil War 1976 murders in Lebanon Sexual violence in the Lebanese Civil War Mass murder in Beirut Anti-Palestinian sentiment in Lebanon Violence against men in Asia Rape in the 1970s

See also

References

Sources