Last modified: 2024-08-17 by ian macdonald
Keywords: lebanon | politics |
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A basic breakdown of Lebanese political parties by broad category:
CONFESSIONAL: SHIA | CONFESSIONAL: SUNNI | CONFESSIONAL: CHRISTIAN | ETHNIC: NON-ARAB | ETHNIC: ARAB / PAN-ARAB | LEFTIST |
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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 Aug 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.
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.
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
Reported by Antonios Abidaoud, 14 Jul 2002