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An Unusual Revolution: the Palestinian Thawra in Lebanon, C Durham Middle East Papers AN UNUSuaL REVOLUTION: THE PALESTINIAN THAWra IN LEBANON, C. 1969-82 Dr Anne Irfan Durham Middle East Paper No. 103 Durham Middle East Papers Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Durham University Al-Qasimi Building Elvet Hill Road Durham AN UNUSuaL REVOLUTION: Durham Middle East Papers No. 103 DH1 3TU ISSN 1476-4830 THE PALESTINIAN THAWra IN LEBANON, C. 1969-82 Tel: +44 (0)191 3345680 September 2020 The Durham Middle East Papers series covers all aspects of the economy, politics, social science, history, literature and languages of the Middle East. Authors are invited to submit papers to the Editorial Board for consideration for publication. Dr Anne Irfan The views expressed in this paper are the author(s) alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher or IMEIS. All Rights Reserved. This paper cannot be photocopied or reproduced without prior permission. Durham Middle East Paper No. 103 © Dr Anne Irfan and Durham University, 2020 About The Institute Editorial Board The Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (IMEIS), within the Professor Anoush Ehteshami Dr Colin Turner School of Government & International Affairs, is a Social Science-focused Exofficio member Reader in Islamic Thought in academic institute of excellence, research-led in ethos, with a track-record of Professor of International Relations the School of Government and internationally acclaimed research outputs across all sub-areas of its activity. in the School of Government and International Affairs Success in this respect obtains largely from the interdisciplinary nature of International Affairs the Institute’s activities and the fruitful interaction of political economists, Dr Carly Beckerman political scientists, historians and Islamicists, as well as with colleagues from Professor Clive Jones Art editor Professor of Regional Security in Assistant Professor in the Anthropology, Arabic, Archaeology, Geography, Business – all linked together the School of Government and International Relations of the Middle by their collective focus on the study of the Middle East and the Muslim world International Affairs, Durham East in the School of Government and in the widest sense. University International Affairs Dr Rory McCarthy Assistant Professor in Politics and About the Papers Islam in the School of Government and International Affairs Established in the early 1970s the multidisciplinary series includes topics on all aspects of the social sciences and arts in the Middle East, written by leading and emerging scholars in their respective fields. Advisory Board Professor Rory Miller Professor James Piscatori Georgetown University, Doha Australian National University Professor Beverly Milton-Edwards Sir Harold Walker, KCMG Queen’s University, Belfast Member, Luce Foundation Mr Richard Muir, CMG Chair, Luce Committee 4 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Bio I presented a very early version of this paper during my PhD at Dr Anne Irfan is Departmental Lecturer in Forced Migration at the LSE workshop ‘Rethinking Revolution’. I would like to thank the University of Oxford, where she is part of the Refugee Studies Professor George Lawson, Professor Daniel Ritter, Dr Michael Centre. Her work has been published in Journal of Palestine Studies, Mason, and colleagues at the LSE Middle East Centre, for their Journal of Refugee Studies, and Jerusalem Quarterly, where her essay helpful comments and constructive suggestions in developing ‘Is Jerusalem international or Palestinian? Rethinking UNGA my ideas for this paper. Resolution 181’ was named joint winner of the 2017 Ibrahim Dakkak Award for Best Essay on Jerusalem. She is currently working on a book about the historical relationship between Palestinian refugee camp communities and the UN regime. Email: [email protected] 6 7 conventionally associated with revolution. It did not engender Selbin himself the overthrow of a national “ government or the declaration of a new nation-state. Nor did emphasises instead it destroy one socio-economic system in favour of another. While it created a new status the role and INTRODUCTION quo in which the fidaiyyin controlled and ran the refugee camps – along with parts of experiences of In 1969, Palestinians across Lebanon declared that they were carrying out a southern Lebanon – these revolution in their refugee camps. Nationalist militants known as fidaiyyin* areas remained part of Lebanon the actors who ousted state security authorities from the camps and took charge themselves, and the Palestinian refugees asserting control over access and services. The new status quo was codified in remained stateless. As such, the the Cairo Agreement, signed the same year between the Lebanese government thawra does not comply with make revolutions and Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organisation.1 Around the same time, the fidaiyyin took many of the most influential control of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), previously overseen theories of revolution which by the Arab League, and established the infrastructure of a pseudo-state in take a structural approach in happen.” exile. Until the Israeli invasion and emphasising outcomes. This siege of Beirut in 1982, the PLO not approach, pioneered by Theda Skocpol and continued by Jack Goldstone and “It was only trained thousands of fighters but Jeff Goodwin, is grounded in a particular definition of revolutions that does also provided healthcare services, ran not apply to the Palestinian case.4 What, then, is the value of studying the comprised of social clubs, and organised cultural thawra through the analytical framework of revolutions? facilities in refugee camps across political cultural the country. Numerous Palestinian It is argued here that in fact, the thawra’s unconventional nature as a , refugees and nationalist leaders, revolution is precisely what makes it so illuminating as a historical case study. along with a range of historians and Examinations of the thawra can highlight the importance of avoiding overly and intellectual sociologists, have termed this period restrictive definitions of ‘revolution’, and provide an opportunity to take al thawra al filastiniya (‘the Palestinian greater account of subjectivities, narratives and experience. As Eric Selbin elements revolution’), or simply the ‘days of the argues, studies of revolution need to expand their analyses beyond structural ...” 2 thawra’ – revolution. outcomes if they are to avoid being reductive.5 Selbin himself emphasises instead the role and experiences of the actors who make revolutions happen.6 The thawra shares certain characteristics with other more widely-known The Palestinian thawra is a perfect example of this. As such, it has considerable revolutions such as those of China, Russia, France, and Iran.3 It was comprised potential as a subject of scholarly enquiry. The thawra’s historical significance of political, cultural and intellectual elements as well as a military campaign; demonstrates both the importance of subjectivities and the limitations of it mobilised people and resources using the rhetoric of liberation and structural outcomes-oriented theories, of the kind promoted by Skocpol, popular struggle; and it established substantive connections with other Goldstone and Goodwin. radical and revolutionary movements around the world. Yet despite these commonalities, the Palestinian thawra fails to meet most of the criteria Accordingly, this paper’s analysis is grounded in critiques of conventional theories of revolution. In particular, it draws on the work of George Lawson, who * The term fidaiyyin (singular fidaiyi) literally means ‘those who sacrifice themselves’. It is usually translated argues that outcomes-based theories are essentialist and overly restrictive. as ‘militants’ or ‘guerrillas’. According to Lawson, such theories erroneously conceptualise revolutions 8 9 in fixed terms, thus denying their or even the Middle East, but have a The Palestinian refugee camps true nature as ‘dynamic processes’ far bigger potential significance. “...the key point in Lebanon, 1948-69 embedded in varying historical contexts.7 In its concurrence with With these considerations in mind, The Palestinians first entered such critiques, this paper has much this paper examines the events of the to highlight Lebanon en masse as refugees in common with the work of William Palestinian thawra to assess how, why, following the 1948 War, which Sewell, whose study of the French and with what repercussions it can is that the resulted in the creation of the state revolution emphasises the impact be understood as a revolution. The of Israel and the dispossession 11 of events rather than structures.8 first section examines the historical of around 750,000 Palestinians Similarly, the Palestinian thawra is a developments that precipitated the refugees went (known in Arabic as the Nakba, 12 case of a revolution that was made by thawra, including the background to meaning ‘catastrophe’). An agential rather than structural forces; the refugee camps’ establishment in into exile estimated 100,000 sought refuge in other words, its history is entirely Lebanon and their connection to the in Lebanon, mostly coming from at odds with Skocpol’s infamous politics of Palestinian displacement. Galilee and coastal cities in 13 contention that ‘revolutions are not This provides crucial context for with the firm northern Palestine. The nature made, they come’.9 Thus at the heart understanding the events of the of their
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