The Karantina massacre (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

: مجزرة الكرنتينا, French: Massacre de La Quarantaine/Karantina) took place on January 18, 1976, early in the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

. La Quarantaine, known in Arabic as Karantina, was a predominantly Palestinian Muslim district in mostly Christian East

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, controlled by forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and inhabited by Palestinians,

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...

, Syrians,

Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diasp ...

and Lebanese Shiites. The fighting and subsequent killings also involved an old quarantine area near the port and nearby Maslakh quarter. According to then-

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

-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. Karantina was overrun by militias of the right-wing and mostly Christian

Lebanese Front The Lebanese Front ( ar, الجبهة اللبنانية, ''al-Jabha al-Lubnaniyya'') or ''Front Libanais'' in French, was a coalition of mainly Lebanese Nationalist parties formed in 1976 by majority Christian intellectuals during the Leban ...

, specifically the

Kataeb Party The Kataeb Party ( ar, حزب الكتائب اللبنانية '), also known in English as the Phalanges, is a Christian political party in Lebanon. The party played a major role in the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). In decline in the lat ...

(Phalangists), resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,500 people, mostly Muslims.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> After

Kataeb Regulatory Forces The Kataeb Regulatory Forces – KRF ( ar, قوى الكتائب النظامية, translit=Quwwāt al-Katāʾib an-Niẓāmiyyah) or Forces Regulatoires des Kataeb (FRK) in French, were the military wing of the right-wing Lebanese Christian Ka ...

(KRF),

Guardians of the Cedars The Guardians of the Cedars (GoC) ( ar, حراس الأرز; ''Ḥurrās al-Arz''; French: ''Gardiens du Cedre'' or ''Gardiens des Cèdres'', GdC) are a far-right ultranationalist Lebanese party and former militia in Lebanon. It was formed ...

(GoC), NLP 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 Christian far-right militia which fought in the 1975-77 phase of the ...

(LYM) forces took control of the Karantina district on 18 January 1976,

Tel al-Zaatar The Siege of Tel al-Zaatar ( ar, حصار تل الزعتر, French: Siège de Tel al-Zaatar), alternatively known as the Massacre of Tel al-Zaatar, was an armed siege of Tel al-Zaatar (meaning ''Hill of Thyme'' in Arabic), a fortified, UNRWA-adm ...

was placed under siege, leading to the

Tel al-Zaatar massacre The Siege of Tel al-Zaatar ( ar, حصار تل الزعتر, French: Siège de Tel al-Zaatar), alternatively known as the Massacre of Tel al-Zaatar, was an armed siege of Tel al-Zaatar (meaning ''Hill of Thyme'' in Arabic), a fortified, UNRWA-adm ...

.Kazziha, Walid (1979) Palestine in the Arab dilemma Taylor & Francis, p 52 The

Damour massacre The Damour massacre took place on January 21, 1976, during the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War. Damour, a Maronite Christian town on the main highway south of Beirut, was attacked by the left-wing militants of the Palestine Liberation Organisa ...

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, pp 184-185

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Sources

Chomsky, Noam Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

(1989) ''Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies'' South End Press, * 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, USA {{ISBN, 1-55876-115-2 1976 in Lebanon Battles of the Lebanese Civil War Conflicts in 1976 Massacres of the Lebanese Civil War Mass murder in 1976 Massacres in 1976 Persecution of Muslims by Christians January 1976 events in Asia Violence against Muslims Massacres of Muslims History of Beirut 1976 murders in Lebanon

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