Before his expulsion from Jordan, described in part 2 of these blog entries, Arafat entered into Cairo Accord brokered in 1969 by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser between PLO represented by Arafat and Lebanese army commander (yes, not Lebanese state) general Emile Boustany. The exact official text of this accord has never been made public, but the unofficial version was published in Lebanese paper in 1970. Under this agreement 16 refugee camps based in Southern Lebanon and housing at the time some 300,000 Palestinian refugees were removed from the jurisdiction of Lebanon, executed by Lebanese Army’s Deuxieme Bureau and put the camps under Arafat’s command. Here a slight digression: in 1948-49 some 100,000 Arabs escaped war to Lebanon, but since Lebanon did not offer them any path to full rights, citizenship or even possibility of entering many professions the problem was growing through subsequent years as – contrary to what one might expect – the number of refugees grew instead of diminish. The first freedoms for the refugees/ emigres were actually proposed in Cairo Accords, and only then have they been given the right to work, reside and move about in Lebanon. But this poor treatment of fellow Arabs had nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with Lebanese wish to show them as victims. The same Cairo Accord has given Palestinians in Lebanon the right to engage in armed actions against Israel. In practice the accord turned Southern Lebanon to a launch pad for attacks against Israel for which Lebanon was blamed but could do nothing to prevent them, as PLO established a state within a state (a role later taken over by Hezbollah). The victim, apart from Israel and Israelis, were local villagers who found themselves living and working the land on what turned to be guerilla-controlled battleground. Their misery was later blamed on Israel but brought on by Palestinian terrorists under Arafat.
The great influx of Palestinian terrorists to Lebanon and the Cairo Accord establishing officially PLO military bases for attacks against Israel destabilized Lebanon and were huge stepping stones towards civil war in Lebanon that started in 1975. Thus, for the third time in his life (but not the last) Arafat brought war and misery to his Arab compatriots and neighbors whom he claimed (always falsely) to represent.
It is worth noting that already in 1968 there were clashes between Lebanese army and PLO and in 1969 Arafat was 3 days late for signing the Cairo Accord as PLO was busy fighting Lebanese army, shooting a helicopter down and killing the Lebanese general.
The Cairo Accord was to remain a top secret. No wonder, if we take into account, that it required Lebanese Army to facilitate the work of the medical, evacuation, and supply centers for guerilla activities to release terrorist detainees and confiscated weapons and for all practical purposes was establishing a state within state (PLO’s in Lebanon). In effect the Lebanese Army gradually lost its control over the scope of the PLO’s armed activities, which widened beyond the areas limited by the agreement. In April 1975 clashes erupted between the PLO and the Lebanese Phalange (Kataeb Party) following the attempt assassination of Sheikh Pierre Gemayel, head of the Kataeb Party. This was an ultimate path to civil war.
This is the text of the Cairo Accord (unofficial, the official one was never published, and voided in 1987 by Lebanese president Amine Gemayel, nevertheless accurate).
It is true that the raids by PLO brought actions by IDF in Southern Lebanon. That was exactly what Arafat was after, but the list of atrocities committed by PLO acting from Lebanese soil in Israel was extensive and could not remain without Israeli reaction. Probably the worst was Ma’alot massacre of school children by terrorists infiltrating from Lebanon.
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