Black Saturday (Lebanon)
| Black Saturday Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Lebanese Civil War | |
| Location | Beirut, Lebanon |
| Coordinates | 33°44′N 35°27′E / 33.733°N 35.450°E |
| Date | 6 December 1975 |
| Target | Lebanese Muslims, Druze and Palestinians in Lebanon |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Deaths | 200+ killed[1] |
| Perpetrators |  Kataeb Party |
| Motive | Anti-Palestinianism, revenge for the murder of a Phalangists son |
Black Saturday (Arabic: السبت الأسود; French: Samedi noir) was the massacre of about 300 Lebanese Muslims and Druze in Beirut by Phalangists on Saturday 6 December 1975, during the early stages of the Lebanese Civil War.[2][3][4] It set a precedent for later outbreaks such as the Battle of the Hotels, the Karantina massacre and the Damour massacre.[4]
The killings were led by Joseph Saade, a Phalangist whose son was killed in Fanar earlier that day along with 3 other young men while heading to a cinema in Brumana. The four young Christian men were found dead with axes and gunshots wounds on the Fanar road in Lebanon. Saade's first son was also murdered by Palestinian gunmen while participating in a rally paper in Bekaa earlier in 1975. [5]
In response to the killing of the 4 young Phalangists, Kataeb members set up checkpoints in the port area in East Beirut, which was in the vicinity of the party's headquarters. They proceeded to kill and abduct unarmed Lebanese Muslims or Palestinians, most of whom worked at the port. One of the perpetrators reported that they would kidnap Muslims from the streets or their homes, and if the ISF saw them, they would look the other way. He also described how they kidnapped and then killed Palestinians and threw the bodies in a garbage dump in the Tahwita area of Beirut. It is reported that between 56 and 70 civilians in East Beirut were summarily executed. Over 200 people were killed that day[6]
The massacre set Beirut ablaze, and accelerated the rapidly escalating civil war.[2]
On December 8, 1975, in retaliation for Black Saturday, the Mourabitoun, Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and Palestinian militias launched an attack against the Kataeb in downtown Beirut and the hotel district.[6]
References
- ^ Lebanese Civil War 6 December 1975 Saturday. Website liberty05. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
- ^ a b Tamimova, May (2018). "The Black Saturday Massacre of 1975: the discomfort of assembling the Lebanese civil war narrative". Contemporary Levant. 3 (2): 123–136. doi:10.1080/20581831.2018.1531531. S2CID 165385219.
- ^ "Lebanon - The Early Stages of Combat". www.country-data.com. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
- ^ a b May Tamimova (2018) The Black Saturday Massacre of 1975: the discomfort of assembling the Lebanese civil war narrative, Contemporary Levant, 3:2, 123-136, DOI: 10.1080/20581831.2018.1531531
- ^ Venter, Al J. (19 October 2010). Barrel of a Gun: A War Correspondent's Misspent Moments in Combat. Casemate. ISBN 978-1-61200-032-9.
- ^ a b Lebanons Legacy of Political Violence (PDF). International Centre for Transitional Justice. 2013. p. 24.
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