The Lebanese Youth Movement – LYM (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, 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 ...

: حركة الشباب اللبنانية , ''Harakat al-Shabab al-Lubnaniyya''), also known as the Maroun Khoury Group (MKG), was a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

militia which fought in the 1975-77 phase of the Lebanese Civil War.

Origins

The LYM was founded in the early 1970s as an association of

Maronite The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

university students, who strongly opposed the 1969 Cairo Agreement and the presence of

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

(PLO) guerrilla factions 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 the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

, by Bashir Maroun el-Khoury (''nom de guerre'' "Bash Maroun"), the son of the former head of the

Dekwaneh Dekwaneh ( ar, دكوانة translit. Dikwene) (also Dekweneh) is a suburb north of Beirut in the Matn District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon. The population is predominantly Maronite Christian. Tel al-Zaatar, an UNRWA administered ...

district of

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 ...

Naim el-Khoury Naim (also spelled Na'im, Nayeem, Naeem, Naiem, Nahim, Naheem, Nyhiem, Nihiem, Nyheim, Niheem, or Nahiem) ( ar, نعیم, he, נעים) is a male given name and surname. Notable persons with the name include: *Naim ibn Hammad (died 843 AD), H ...

Political beliefs

Being violently

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

and anti-

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

, the group's ideology stemmed from the extremist Phoenicist identities espoused by the

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 ...

The LYM in the 1975-77 civil war

The LYM/MKG joined 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 Lebane ...

in January 1976 and raised its own

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 ...

with training, funds and weapons being provided by 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 ...

and

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 ...

. It consisted of about 500-1,000 fighters, backed by a small mechanized force made of ex-

Lebanese Army ) , founded = 1 August 1945 , current_form = 1991 , disbanded = , branches = Lebanese Ground ForcesLebanese Air Force Lebanese Navy , headquarters = Yarze, Lebanon , flying_hours = , websit ...

Panhard AML-90 The Panhard AML (''Auto Mitrailleuse Légère'', or "Light Machine Gun Car") is an armoured car with reconnaissance capability. Designed on a lightly armoured 4×4 chassis, it weighs an estimated 5.5 tonnes, and is thus suitable for airborne depl ...

armoured cars Armored (or armoured) car or vehicle may refer to: Wheeled armored vehicles * Armoured fighting vehicle, any armed combat vehicle protected by armor ** Armored car (military), a military wheeled armored vehicle * Armored car (valuables), an arm ...

and

gun truck A gun truck is an armored vehicle with one or more crew-served weapons, typically based on a commercial vehicle. Gun trucks often have improvised vehicle armor, such as scrap metal, concrete, gravel, or sandbags, which is added to a heavy truc ...

s or '

technical Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...

s'. The latter consisted of commandeered Land-Rover series II-III, Santana Series III (Spanish-produced version of the Land-Rover series III),

Toyota Land Cruiser (J40) The Toyota Land Cruiser (J40), is a series of Land Cruisers made by Toyota from 1960 until 2001. Traditional body on frame, most 40 series Land Cruisers were built as 2-door models with slightly larger dimensions than the similar Jeep CJ. Th ...

, Dodge W200 Power Wagon, Dodge D series (3rd generation), GMC Sierra Custom K25/K30 and Chevrolet C-10/C-15 Cheyenne light pickups armed with

heavy machine guns A heavy machine gun (HMG) is significantly larger than light, medium or general-purpose machine guns. HMGs are typically too heavy to be man-portable (carried by one person) and require mounting onto a weapons platform to be operably stable or t ...

recoilless rifles A recoilless rifle, recoilless launcher or recoilless gun, sometimes abbreviated "RR" or "RCL" (for ReCoilLess) is a type of lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher that is designed to eject some form of countermass such as propel ...

and

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

autocannons An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bull ...

. Personally commanded by Bash Maroun, they usually operated in the Ras-el-Dekwaneh,

Ain El Remmaneh Ain El Remmaneh (Arabic: عين الرمانة, lit. spring of the pomegranate) is a Christian neighborhood, in the Baabda district of Mount Lebanon, Lebanon, a suburb of Beirut and part of Greater Beirut. History and war In the 1950s, the p ...

and Mansouriye districts, manning the local sections of the Green Line, but also fought in other areas (namely at the

Battle of the Hotels The Battle of the Hotels ( ar, معركة الفنادق, ''Maʿrakah al-Fanādiq,'' French: Front des Hotels), was a subconflict within the 1975–77 phase of the Lebanese Civil War which occurred in the Minet-el-Hosn hotel district of downto ...

), earning a reputation of fierce combatants.

Controversy

However, they were also renowned for their brutality. In January–August 1976, a force of 100 LYM/MKG militiamen took part in the sieges and subsequent massacres of the

Palestinian refugee camps Camps are set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian ...

situated at the coastal town of

Dbayeh Dbayeh ( ar, ضبية) is a city in Lebanon located on the Mediterranean Sea in the Matn District, Mount Lebanon, between Beirut and Jounieh. The majority of the population is Christian, apart from some Gulf Arab Muslims who live there during th ...

in the

Matn District Matn ( ar, قضاء المتن, '), sometimes spelled Metn (or preceded by the article El, as in El Matn), is a district (''qadaa'') in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon, east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut. The district capital is Jd ...

, and at

Karantina La Quarantaine, which is colloquially referred to as Karantina (Arabic: الكرنتينا) and sometimes spelled Quarantina, is a predominantly low-income, mixed-use residential, commercial, and semi-industrial neighborhood in northeastern Beirut ...

, Al-Maslakh and

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 ...

in East Beirut. At the latter battle, the LYM/MKG intensified the blockade of the refugee camp by launching on 22 June a full-scale military assault alongside the

Phalangists 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 la ...

that lasted for 35 days,Cobban, ''The Palestinian Liberation Organisation: People, Power, and Politics'' (1984), p. 73. and the cruelty displayed by LYM/MKG members' in this assault and other atrocities, earned them the unflattering nickname "The Ghosts of the Cemeteries" (

: أشباح المقابر , Ashbah al-Maqabir'') – Bash Maroun's men were normally seen wearing necklaces made from human body parts cut from their victims.

Disbandement

The LYM/MKG was subsequently absorbed into the

Lebanese Forces The Lebanese Forces ( ar, القوات اللبنانية '')'' is a Lebanese Christian-based political party and former militia during the Lebanese Civil War. It currently holds 19 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament and is therefore th ...

structure in 1977, thereafter ceasing to exist as an independent organization. Under LF command, they later again played a key role in the eviction of the

Syrian Army " (''Guardians of the Homeland'') , colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive * Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki , anniversaries = August 1st , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six ...

out from the Christian-controlled

in February 1978 during the

Hundred Days' War The Hundred Days War ( ar, حرب المئة يوم, ''Harb Al-Mia'at Yaoum,'' French: La Guerre des Cent Jours) was a subconflict within the 1977–82 phase of the Lebanese Civil War which occurred in the Lebanese capital Beirut. It was foug ...

Notes

References

* Denise Ammoun, ''Histoire du Liban contemporain: Tome 2 1943-1990'', Éditions Fayard, Paris 2005. (in French) �

*Helena Cobban, ''The Palestinian Liberation Organisation: People, Power, and Politics'', Cambridge University Press, 1984. * Fawwaz Traboulsi, ''A History of Modern Lebanon: Second Edition'', Pluto Press, London 2012. * Jean Sarkis, ''Histoire de la guerre du Liban'', Presses Universitaires de France - PUF, Paris 1993. (in French) * Jonathan Randall, ''The Tragedy of Lebanon: Christian Warlords, Israeli Adventurers, and American Bunglers'', Just World Books, Charlottesville, Virginia 2012. * Rex Brynen, ''Sanctuary and Survival: the PLO in Lebanon'', Boulder: Westview Press, Oxford 1990. �

*

Robert Fisk Robert Fisk (12 July 194630 October 2020) was a writer and journalist who held British and Irish citizenship. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. His stanc ...

, ''Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War'', London: Oxford University Press, (3rd ed. 2001). �

* Marius Deeb, ''The Lebanese Civil War'', Praeger Publishers Inc., New York 1980. * Samir Kassir, ''La Guerre du Liban: De la dissension nationale au conflit régional'', Éditions Karthala/CERMOC, Paris 1994. (in French) *Walid Kazziha, ''Palestine in the Arab dilemma'', Taylor & Francis, 1979. * William W. Harris, ''Faces of Lebanon: Sects, Wars, and Global Extensions'', Princeton Series on the Middle East, Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton 1997. , 1-55876-115-2

Secondary sources

* Moustafa El-Assad, ''Civil Wars Volume 1: The Gun Trucks'', Blue Steel books, Sidon 2008. * Samer Kassis, ''30 Years of Military Vehicles in Lebanon'', Beirut: Elite Group, 2003. * Samer Kassis, ''Véhicules Militaires au Liban/Military Vehicles in Lebanon 1975-1981'', Trebia Publishing, Chyah 2012.

External links

* http://www.ouwet.com/n10452/news/bash-maroun-rip/
Guardians of the Cedars official siteHistoire militaire de l'armée libanaise de 1975 à 1990
(in French)
Chamussy (René) – Chronique d’une guerre: Le Liban 1975-1977 – éd. Desclée – 1978
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lebanese Youth Movement (Mkg) Israeli–Lebanese conflict Lebanese Front Factions in the Lebanese Civil War