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Political Parties (Lebanon)

Last modified: 2009-05-16 by eugene ipavec
Keywords: lebanon | politics |
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Introduction

A basic breakdown of the Lebanese political scene by broad category:

SHIA SUNNI CHRISTIAN ETHNIC (non-Arab) LEFTIST (multi-ethnic) PAN-ARAB (secular)
Amal Movement Fatah Al-Islam*/***/**** Army of South Lebanon*** Aramaic Democratic Organisation (Aramean) Democratic Left Movement Arab Socialist Organization
Hezbollah Future Movement** Free Patriotic Movement Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Armenian) Lebanese Communist Party Movement of Independent Nasserists
Tariq Jdeide Panther Party Guardians of the Cedars* Progressive Socialist Party (Druze) Syrian Social Nationalist Party*****
Lebanese Forces Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Armenian)
Lebanese National Bloc United Phoenician Party ("Phoenician")
Lebanese Phalanx
Marada Party
Maronite League
National Liberal Party
*banned
**commands significant out-group support
***militia; no formal political activity
****Salafist
*****pan-Syrian

Eugene Ipavec, 27 Aug 2007 and 20 Mar 2008

The Christians had two parties, the Jamail [Gemayel] family one (Kataeb) and the Chamoun family one (Ahrar).

Dov Gutterman, 11 May 1999

In Lebanon the word party hasn't got the same meaning as in the West. Parties usually unite members of the same religion and have an army of their own.

Anonymous, 31 August 2001

Gaceta de Banderas, January 2002, contains images of Lebanese political parties, reported by Michel Lupant and drawn by Jorge Hurtado following his specifications. Jorge Hurtado kindly sent me the original vector and text files, and I exported the flag images to FOTW-standard GIFs. All credit to Jorge Hurtado, Michel Lupant and Gaceta de Banderas.

Michel Lupant says,

Pendant ma visite en avril 2001 j'ai découvert de nombreaux drapeaux: Parti Syrien National et Social, Parti Socialiste Progressiste (Druze), Parti Phalangiste, Hezbollah, Parti Communiste Libanais et Parti Chiite Amal. J'ai traversé la vallée de la Bekaa dans l'est du Liban. Partout des drapeaux étaient attachés aux poteaux le long des routes, aux fenêtres, en guirnalde à traves les rues. Il s'agissait de drapeaux du Hezbollah, il y en avait de toutes les couleurs: V/Y, N/R, W/N, W/R, V/N mais aussi nombre de drapeaux noirs (la couleur des chiites) avec l'emblème d'Amal en blanc, parfois avec des inscriptions en arabe, ou bien des drapeaux noirs à inscriptions blanches.
Some of the flags showed differences with the ones in FotW, for which I have added comments. All proportions are measured, not explicitly stated in Gaceta de Banderas. Note that Michel Lupant usually takes detailed notes of the flags he sees, as refers to colours, dimensions etc.

Santiago Dotor, 22 May 2002

My translation:

I saw several flags during my trip in April 2001: National and Social Syrian Party, Socialist Progressist Party (Druze), Phalangist Party, Hizbullah, Lebanese Communist Party and Amal Shiite Party. I traveled across the Bekaa valley in Eastern Lebanon. Everywhere there were Hizbullah flags tied to the [electric] poles along the roads, on the windows, to strings over the streets. Those flag had several colours: Green/Yellow, Black/Red, White/Black, White/Red, Green/Black. There were also several black flags, the Shiite colour with the emblem of Amal in white, sometimes with Arabic inscriptions, and black flags with white inscriptions.
Michel Lupant not only takes notes but pictures when possible.

Ivan Sache, 22 May 2002

Michel Lupant also actually brought these flags home for his collection, and showed them to us at the October 2001 meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Flaggenkunde. I took pictures of these flags. Obviously the illustrations in Gaceta de Banderas are based on these specimens, that do not necessarily represent 'official' regulations or even the most common use.

Marcus Schmöger, 24 May 2002

A news article I read recently mentioned that at the recent demonstrations, the various communities all brought their own flags, but were told to replace them with the Lebanese flag, and quickly did.

Nathan Lamm, 24 Mar 2005


United Phoenician Party

[United Phoenician Party (Lebanon)]
image by Eugene Ipavec, 01 May 2007

Reported by Antonios Abidaoud, 14 Jul 2002