Violent Polarisation: 1976

Abstract

On 3 January 1976 Pierre Gemayel, leader of the Falange Party, publicly denounced the Cairo Agreement of 1969, which allegedly guaranteed the Palestinian presence in Lebanon, and together with Camille Chamoun, leader of the National Liberal Party, rejected any suggestion of abandoning the National Covenant of 1943, which had established the confessional system. Both leaders virtually declared war on the armed Palestinian militias active in the country and mounted a new propaganda campaign against them. They Syrian foreign minister, Abdul Halim Khaddam, accused the Lebanese Christian leaders of seeking to partition the country and warned that this would mean Syrian military intervention.