The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; ar, جيش لبنان الجنوبي, Jayš Lubnān al-Janūbiyy), also known as the Lahad Army ( ar, جيش لحد, label=none) and referred to as the De Facto Forces (DFF) by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

, was a

Lebanese Christian Christianity in Lebanon has a long and continuous history. Biblical Scriptures purport that Peter and Paul evangelized the Phoenicians, whom they affiliated to the ancient patriarchate of Antioch. The spread of Christianity in Lebanon was ...

-dominated

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

that was founded during 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 ...

and operated as a quasi-military force from 1977 until its disbandment in 2000. It was originally known as the Free Lebanon Army after its breakaway from the

Army of Free Lebanon The Army of Free Lebanon – AFL ( ar, جيش لبنان الحر, ''Jayish Lubnan al-Horr'') or "Colonel Barakat's Army" ( ar, جيش بركات, ''Jayish Barakat''), also designated Armée du Liban Libre (ALL) and Armée du Colonel Barakat in ...

(AFL), another Christian-dominated force. After 1979, the militia mainly operated in

southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa Districts, the southernmost distri ...

under the authority of

Saad Haddad Saad Haddad ( ar, سعد حداد; 1936 – 14 January 1984) was the founder and head of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) during the Lebanese Civil War. For years Haddad was closely collaborating and receiving arms and political support from Israe ...

, and was based in the unrecognized

Free Lebanon State The Free Lebanon State ( ar, دولة لبنان الحر, translit=Dawlat Lubnān al-Ḥurr), also known as the State of Free Lebanon, was a short-lived state that existed from 1979 to 1984. Proclaimed on 18 April 1979 by Saad Haddad, a Lebane ...

. The SLA was supported by

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, and became its primary ally in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

during the 1985–2000 South Lebanon conflict against Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia militant Islamist group.

History

file:Shaddad.jpg,

In January 1976, as a result of the ongoing civil war, the Lebanese Armed Forces, Lebanese Army began to break up into two rival factions, the Muslim-led

Lebanese Arab Army The Lebanese Arab Army – LAA (Arabic: جيش لبنان العربي transliteration ''Jayish Lubnan al-Arabi''), also known as the Arab Army of Lebanon (AAL), Arab Lebanese Army or Armée du Liban Arabe (ALA) in French, was a predominantly M ...

(LAA) who sided with the Muslim-leftist militias of the

Lebanese National Movement The Lebanese National Movement (LNM) ( ar, الحركة الوطنية اللبنانية, ''Al-Harakat al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya'') or Mouvement National Libanais (MNL) in French, was a front of leftist, pan-Arabist and Syrian nationalist p ...

(LNM) and their allies of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrilla factions, and the Christian-led

(AFL) aligned with the Christian-rightist militias of the

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 ...

. Some Christian Lebanese Army officers commanding units based throughout the country joined the AFL with their men, including Major

, the commander of the 700-strong

Marjayoun Marjayoun ( ar, مرج عيون: Lebanese pronunciation), also Marj 'Ayoun, Marjuyun or Marjeyoun (lit. "meadow of springs") and Jdeideh / Jdeida / Jdeidet Marjeyoun, is a Lebanese town and an administrative district, the Marjeyoun District, i ...

garrison in

. By late 1976, pressure from PLO and LNM-LAA militias finally forced Major

to evacuate the town and withdraw unopposed with his battalion to the village of Qlaiaa, close to the border with

. Here Maj. Haddad and his men placed themselves under the protection of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), eventually providing the cadre – after merging with local Christian,

Shia Muslim Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

and Druze militias, gathered since October 21 into the informal "Army for the Defense of South Lebanon" or ADSL ( French: ''Armée de Défense du Liban-Sud'' or ADLS) – of the so-called "Free Lebanese Army" (FLA). Initially based at the towns of

and Qlayaa in southern Lebanon, the FLA fought against various groups including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Amal Movement and (after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon) the emerging Hezbollah. While the group was no longer under the direct control of the Lebanese Army command, from 1976 to 1979 its members were still receiving their pay from the Lebanese central government. The 1978 Israeli invasion allowed the Free Lebanon Army to gain control over a much wider area in southern Lebanon. On April 18, 1979 Haddad proclaimed the area controlled by his force the "Independent Free Lebanon". The following day, he was branded a traitor by the Lebanese government and officially dismissed from the Lebanese Army under presidential decree No. 1924. Part of the Free Lebanon Army returned to government control, while Haddad's part split away and was renamed the South Lebanon Army (SLA) in May 1980. Following Haddad's death from cancer in 1984, he was replaced as leader by retired Lieutenant General Antoine Lahad. In 1984 SLA militiamen were paid $300 a month. The SLA was closely allied with Israel. It supported the Israelis by fighting the PLO in southern Lebanon until the 1982 invasion. After that, SLA support for the Israelis consisted mainly of

fighting Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

other Lebanese guerrilla forces led by Hezbollah until 2000 in the " security zone" (the area under occupation after a partial Israeli withdrawal in 1985). In return, Israel supplied the organization with arms, uniforms, and logistical equipment. The SLA hosted the Christian radio station Voice of Hope (established and funded by George Otis, founder of High Adventure Ministries). Beginning in 1982, the SLA played host to

Middle East Television Middle East Television (METV) is a Christian satellite television broadcasting network located in Limassol, Cyprus. Programming on METV includes a mixture of Christian programming, plus non-religious entertainment programs like '' The Red Green ...

(which was also established, funded and operated by High Adventure Ministries). Otis gave Middle East Television (METV) to

Televangelist Televangelism ( tele- "distance" and "evangelism," meaning " ministry," sometimes called teleministry) is the use of media, specifically radio and television, to communicate Christianity. Televangelists are ministers, whether official or self-pr ...

Pat Robertson Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (born March 22, 1930) is an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, political commentator, former presidential candidate, and former Southern Baptist minister. Robertson advocates a conservative Christian ...

, founder of CBN. On May 2, 2000 Middle East Television relocated to

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

. In 1985 the SLA opened the

Khiam detention center The Khiam detention center was an army barracks complex originally used by the French military in the 1930s in Khiam, French Lebanon. Following the establishment of independent Lebanon in 1946, it was used by the Lebanese military until the ...

. Torture was a common tactic, and occurring on a large scale. Israel denies any involvement, and claims that Khiam was the sole responsibility of the SLA; this has been contested by

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

organizations such as Amnesty International. The SLA also imposed military conscription, under which males over 18 living in the territory it controlled served one year as military recruits. While the SLA received funding, weapons and logistics from Israel during its existence, the SLA did much fighting independent from Israeli forces. The SLA also handled all civilian governmental operations in Israel's zone of control. Antoine Lahad

During the 1990s Hezbollah carried out increasingly effective attacks on the SLA, aided in later years by Lebanese army intelligence which had infiltrated it. These changed circumstances led to a progressive loss of morale and members. In 1997, Israel maintained approximately 1,000 to 1,200 troops in southern Lebanon and supported another 2,000 in the SLA. By 2000 the SLA was reduced to 1,500 soldiers, compared to 3,000 ten years earlier. At its peak during the early 1980s, the SLA was composed of over 5,000 soldiers.

Israeli withdrawal, SLA collapse and surrender

The increase in Israeli casualties in Lebanon over the previous few years led to growing domestic pressure for an end to Israel’s military presence in Lebanon. Ehud Barak’s Labor Party pledged during his March 1999 election campaign for Prime Minister to withdraw Israeli troops from Lebanon by July 2000. Barak won a victory in the May 1999 elections. On 1 June 1999 the South Lebanon Army began dismantling its TV station and headquarters in Jezzine. In the following two weeks they withdrew from the town and thirty six surrounding villages. Retreating SLA members and their families commandeered empty houses in Marjayun, Ibl al-Saqi and

Kawkaba Kawkaba (), known to the Crusaders as Coquebel, was a Palestinian Arab village that was occupied by Israel during Operation Yoav during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and depopulated. Location The village was situated on an uneven stretch of red-br ...

in the Indian UNIFIL zone. At the time it was estimated that the SLA had only four hundred men. On March 5, 2000 the Israeli cabinet voted unanimously for a full troop withdrawal from Lebanon by July. The expectation then was that such a withdrawal would be part of an agreement with Lebanon and Syria; however, negotiations with Syria broke down. On May 22, Israeli forces unilaterally began handing over their forward positions in the occupied zone to the SLA. As the chaotic nature of the withdrawal became obvious, civilians from the zone overran SLA positions to return to their occupied villages while Hezbollah guerrillas quickly took control of areas previously controlled by the SLA. The SLA in the central sector of the security zone collapsed in the face of the civilians and Hezbollah's rapid advance. The next day, SLA forward positions in the eastern sector collapsed and Israeli forces began their general withdrawal from the remaining areas of the security zone. With the Israeli withdrawal, the SLA collapsed totally. The withdrawal was complete on Wednesday, May 24, 2000; the sight of Saad Haddad's statue being dragged through the streets of the Lebanese town of

was a sure sign that the South Lebanon Army was gone. As the Israeli withdrawal rapidly progressed, SLA militiamen were left with few choices. The Lebanese government, Hezbollah and many civilians in the area considered them

traitor Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

s and collaborators. In addition, they were told that Israel's border would be closed after the withdrawal. Many were terrified of being captured (and possibly killed) by Hezbollah guerrillas or vengeful mobs, or being jailed or executed by the Lebanese government. Many members of the SLA (including some with their families) fled to Israel; the Christian majority feared being suspected of serious offences committed by SLA members, and a number of members were reportedly granted asylum in European countries (primarily

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

). Others who remained in Lebanon surrendered to authorities or were captured by Hezbollah and handed over to the police. SLA members captured by Lebanon and Hezbollah were tried by Lebanese military courts for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

. Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak was criticized in Israel by the Jewish settler movement on the grounds that his decision to withdraw without consulting his SLA allies led to the speed and confusion of its collapse.Jerusalem Journal
Israel's Withdrawal From Lebanon Hezbollah was criticized for preventing the arrest of some members of the SLA; it justified this on the grounds that it was in a position to know who among them had been informants. By the next month (June 2000), 3,000 former SLA members were in the custody of the Lebanese government; by the end of the year, about 90 percent had been tried in military courts. It has been estimated that a third of the SLA members were sentenced to less than a month and another third received one-year sentences. Two members of the SLA accused of torture at Al-Khiam prison received life sentences. The death penalty was recommended for 21 SLA members, but in each case the military reduced the sentence. Certain other individuals were barred from returning to

Southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa Districts, the southernmost distri ...

for a number of years. Of those who initially fled to Israel, many SLA members and their families eventually chose to return to Lebanon after Hezbollah promised they would not be harmed. Others accepted Israel's offer of full citizenship and a financial package similar to that granted new immigrants, and settled permanently in Israel. On April 6, 2006 the Israeli

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

Finance Committee approved the payment of 40,000

shekel Shekel or sheqel ( akk, 𒅆𒅗𒇻 ''šiqlu'' or ''siqlu,'' he, שקל, plural he, שקלים or shekels, Phoenician: ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly —and became c ...

s per family to SLA veterans, payable over seven years. Many of the SLA fighters who settled in Israel later moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. Approximately 6,500 SLA fighters and family members moved to Israel, of whom 2,700 remained in the country permanently. They are mainly concentrated in Nahariya,

Kiryat Shmona Kiryat Shmona ( he, קִרְיַת שְׁמוֹנָה, ''lit.'' Town of the Eight) is a city in the Northern District of Israel on the western slopes of the Hula Valley near the Lebanese border. The city was named after the eight people, inclu ...

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's F ...

Ma'alot-Tarshiha Ma'alot-Tarshiha ( he, מַעֲלוֹת-תַּרְשִׁיחָא; ar, معالوت ترشيحا, ''Maʻālūt Taršīḥā'') is a city in the North District in Israel, some east of Nahariya, about above sea level. The city was established in 1 ...

, and

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

. As of 2021, there are 3,500 Lebanese in Israel, former SLA members and their families. South lebanon army memory monument

Israel continues to host the Government of Free Lebanon, on whose behalf the SLA had operated. The Government of Free Lebanon has operated from Jerusalem since 2000, and still claims to be the true government of Lebanon.

Field organization

The SLA was organized into two regions (western and eastern), each with its own infantry brigade. Each brigade consisted of three battalion-sized infantry regiments; the strength of support included several heavy-artillery batteries (155 and 130mm), subdivided into the infantry battalions as needed. There was also an armored regiment of 55 tanks. This force manned 46 locations along the front (from

Naqoura Naqoura (, ''Enn Nâqoura, Naqoura, An Nāqūrah'') is a small city in southern Lebanon. Since March 23, 1978, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been headquartered in Naqoura. Name According to E. H. Palmer (1881), the nam ...

in the west to the eastern slopes of Mount Hermon), while the Israeli Army had 11 centers, mostly in the rear lines. The SLA Security Service consisted of 250 officers and men, tasked with: * Counter-espionage by outside forces * Border security The service included field and intelligence officers, investigators, intelligence analysts, administrative personnel, security officers and guards.

References

Bibliography

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Edgar O'Ballance Major Edgar “Paddy” O'Ballance (17 July 1918, Dublin, Ireland – 8 July 2009, Wakebridge, Derbyshire, England) was an Irish-born British military journalist, researcher, defence commentator and academic lecturer specialising in intern ...

, ''Civil War in Lebanon, 1975-92'', Palgrave Macmillan, London 1998. * Beate Hamizrachi, ''The Emergence of South Lebanon Security Belt'', Praeger, New York 1984. *Farid El-Kazen, ''The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon 1967-1976'', I.B. Tauris, London 2000. �

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*Joseph A. Kechichian, ''The Lebanese Army: Capabilities and Challenges in the 1980s'', Conflict Quarterly, Winter 1985. *Joseph Hokayem, ''L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985)'', Lulu.com, Beyrouth 2012. , 1291036601 (in French) �

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*Zachary Sex & Bassel Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'', Modern Conflicts Profile Guide Volume II, AK Interactive, 2021. ISBN: 8435568306073 *Zahera Harb, ''Channels of Resistance in Lebanon, Liberation, Propaganda, Hezbollah and the Media'', I.B. Tauris, London 2011.

External links