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Arab Socialist Action Party – Lebanon
Political party From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Arab Socialist Action Party – Lebanon or ASAP–L (Arabic: حزب العمل الاشتراكي العربي - لبنان | Hizb al-'Amal al-Ishtiraki al-'Arabi - Lubnan), is the Lebanese branch of the Arab Socialist Action Party. The party is the Lebanese equivalent of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
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Origins
The party was founded by George Habash in 1969 and was closely linked to the PFLP, which Habash also led.[1][2] The party held its first congress in 1972, during which it distanced itself from other communists by advocating violence as the best means by which to end class conflict.[3] Although a secular group, most of the party's membership came from the Shia Muslim community.[3]
Military structure and organization
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The ASAP–L's own militia was trained by the PFLP and provided with small-arms by Libya, but collapsed by August 1975.
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The ASAP–L in the Lebanese Civil War
The ASAP–L was a member of both the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and its successor, the Lebanese National Resistance Front (LNRF) during the Lebanese Civil War.[4] In 1976, the party confiscated the estates of the Shia za'im (political boss) Kazem al-Khalil at a village near Tyre. The purpose of the confiscation was to turn the estates into a collective; but the ASAP–L soon lost control of the estates in the wake of the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.[3]
The party's leader Hussein Hamdan took part in the founding of the LNRF, along with George Hawi of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) and Mohsen Ibrahim of the Organization of Communist Action in Lebanon (OCAL).[5]
Illegal activities and controversy
The ASAP–L was also involved in January 1976 in the founding of the so-called People's Republic of Tyre (Arabic: جمهورية صور الشعبية| Jumhūriyya Ṣūr al-Ša'biyya), a short-lived autonomous Canton formed that same month at the port city of Tyre in Southern Lebanon.[6] With the active support of their ASAP–L and Lebanese Arab Army (LAA) allies,[7] local Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) commanders took over the municipal government of the city, proclaimed the "People's Republic of Tyre", occupied the Lebanese Army's Adloun and Benoit Barakat Barracks, set up roadblocks and started collecting customs at the port.[8] However, the joint PLO-LAA-ASAP–L "People's Republic of Tyre" government quickly lost the political support of the local population,[9] mostly due to their "arbitrary and often brutal behavior".[10]
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See also
References
Bibliography
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