Information About Lebanon

I. INTRODUCTION

Lebanon (Arabic - Lubnan, French - Liban), is a republic on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea in Southwest Asia. Lebanon's coastal location, high mountain backbone, and climate have greatly influenced the country's history, people, and economy.

The coastal area of present-day Lebanon was settled more than 7,000 years ago, and later evolved as the heart of seafaring Phoenicia. To help conduct their sea trade, the Phoenicians developed the first alphabet and colonized the western Mediterranean.

Following centuries of Ottoman control, France ruled Lebanon under a League of Nations mandate (1920) after the Ottoman Empire was defeated in World War I. During World War II, Lebanon became an independent republic (1943) and for three decades prospered under a free-market economy. Domestic and regional tensions, intensified by foreign influences, erupted into the devastating Lebanese Civil War from 1975 to 1990.

II. LAND AND RESOURCES

Lebanon is a small country of only 10,452 sq km (4,036 sq mi); from north to south it extends 217 km (135 mi) and from east to west it spans 80 km (50 mi) at its widest point.

The country is bounded by Syria on both the north and east and by occupied Palestine (Israel) on the south. Lebanon's landforms fall into four parallel belts that run from northeast to southwest: a narrow coastal plain along the Mediterranean shore; the massive Lebanon Mountains (often referred to locally as Mount Lebanon) that rise steeply from the plain to dominate the entire country before dropping eastward; a fertile intermontane (between-mountain) basin called the Bekáa Valley (Al Biqa'a); and the ridges of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, shared with Syria.

Lebanon's highest peaks are Qurnat as Sawda' (3,088 m/10,131 ft) in the country's north, and volcanic Mount Hermon (2,814 m/9,232 ft) at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanons. The country's name comes from the old Semitic word laban, meaning “white”, which refers to the heavy snow in the mountains.

A. Climate

Most of Lebanon has a Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry summers, and cool, wet winters, although the climate varies somewhat across the landform belts. The coastal plain is subtropical, with 900 mm (35 in) of annual rainfall and a mean temperature in Beirut of 27°C (80°F) in summer and 14°C (57°F) in winter. In the Lebanon Mountains, temperatures decrease and precipitation increases with elevation: Heavy winter snows linger well into summer, making the Lebanon Mountains more pleasant in the summer than the humid coast; higher altitudes receive as much as 1,275 mm (50 in) of annual precipitation. The Bekáa Valley and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains are situated in the rain shadow of the Lebanon Mountains, and as a result have hot - dry summers, and cold winters with occasional rain.

B. Rivers and Lakes

Although Lebanon has no navigable rivers or major natural lakes, springs in the Bekáa feed two small noteworthy rivers: the Litani flows south, where it is used for irrigation and hydroelectric-power generation, and then west through a gorge into the Mediterranean; the Orontes flows north and across Syria into Turkey. Many major springs can be found along the western slopes of the Lebanon Mountains. Throughout the country, many streams flow only during the winter rainy season. Combined with runoff from melting snow, these sources provide Lebanon with a plentiful supply of water, unique in the dry Middle East.

C. Natural Resources

Abundant water, productive soils, and extensively terraced slopes contribute to Lebanon's varied agriculture. The fertile soils of the coastal plain are alluvial, while the soils at higher elevations are a more typical example of the Mediterranean terra rossa, or red earth, which is also prominent in the Bekáa. Only 30.1 percent of Lebanon is agricultural land, and 4 percent is forested. Limestone is widespread and quarried extensively, but there are few other mineral resources.

D. Environmental Issues

Lebanon's environment was seriously damaged during the Lebanese Civil War. During the conflict, habitat was destroyed, environmental regulations were not enforced, and conservation efforts were abandoned.

Following the war, most of the Lebanese government's efforts were directed at restoring the country's basic infrastructure. At the end of the 20th century, however, Lebanon increased its commitment to environmental conservation and cleanup.

Before the civil war, Lebanon was an important commercial, industrial, and banking center. This productivity had environmental consequences, including pollution from unrestricted dumping of sewage and industrial wastes.

Lebanon's forests of cedar trees were famed in antiquity, but intensive logging over the centuries has reduced the forests to a fraction of their former size. Hailed in the Bible and other works of ancient literature, the cedars of Lebanon remain a point of national pride, it appears prominently on the national flag.

III. THE PEOPLE OF LEBANON

Lebanon has not taken a census since 1932. The 1997 estimated population was 3,111,828, but this figure, provided by the Lebanese government, does not include Palestinian refugees and foreign workers.

An independent 2001 estimate placed the population at 3,627,774, yielding a population density of 347 persons per sq km (899 per sq mi). Densities are highest along the coast and on the lower western slopes of the Lebanon Mountains. Some 89 percent of the population is urban.

Emigration from Lebanon to other countries, has been steady since the mid-19th century, and it increased sharply during the civil war.

Lebanon's major cities were greatly affected by the civil war. Beirut has gradually regained most of its prewar population and remains the country's largest city. Tripoli, the northern port, is the second largest city, followed by Junyeh, north of Beirut. Zahleh, a once-large city overlooking the Bekáa, lost much of its population during the war. The southern towns of Sayda (Sidon) and Sur (ancient Tyre), also lost population.

A. Languages

Arabic is the official language, but French is commonly used. English is also widely used, particularly as the language of business and education.

B. Religion

The government recognizes 17 distinct religious sects: 5 Muslim (Shiite, Sunni, Druze, Ismaili, and Alawi), 11 Christian (4 Orthodox, 6 Catholic, and 1 Protestant), and Judaism.

C. Education

Lebanon has one of the most educated and technically prepared populations in the Middle East. In 2001, 95 percent of Lebanese aged 15 and older were literate. Primary education in Lebanon is free and compulsory for five years; school attendance is near universal for primary school-aged children.

Beirut is home to six universities: the well-known American University of Beirut; the Jesuit-sponsored Saint Joseph University; the government-supported Lebanese University; the Egyptian-sponsored Beirut Arab University; the Lebanese American University; and the Armenian Hagazian College. Lebanon also has more than 100 technical, vocational, and other specialized schools.

D. Way of Life

The Lebanese value individualism, which contributes to their creativity and inventiveness. Close family relations, loyalty to family and friends, and honor are also important.

People strive to gain influence and to accumulate and display wealth, which are signs of success that win respect. Men and women mix freely and attend schools in equal numbers. In their leisure time, Lebanese people enjoy lively conversations over Turkish coffee, participating in outdoor activities, and eating good food. Traditional foods include kebbe, a dish of lamb and crushed wheat, and tabbouleh, a salad made of parsley, mint, tomatoes, and crushed wheat.

IV. CULTURE

Lebanon's rich history has been shaped by many cultural traditions, including Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Islamic (including Mamluk), Crusader, Ottoman Turkish, French, and recently American. The resulting culture is “distinctively” Lebanese, a combination of East and West, past and present.

A. Literature

In the mid-1800s Lebanese writer Nasif al-Yaziji pioneered the simplification of written Arabic. Jurji Zaydan, also a writer of the mid-1800s, is celebrated for historical novels that romanticized the Arab past. The most distinguished Lebanese or Lebanese-American writer is Kahlil Gibran, who in 1923 published The Prophet, in English. Gibran became known for his style of mystical poetry.

Other prominent writers of the 20th century include political writers Antun Saadeh, Michel Chiha, and Clovis Maksoud; novelists Layla Ba'labakki and Khalil Taki ed-Din; and poets Charles Corm, Hector Klat, Georges Shehadeh, Michel Chiha, and Adonis (Ali Ahmad Sa'id). These authors write variously in Arabic, French, and English.

B. Art and Architecture

Painting became significant in Lebanon in the late 20th century. Most Lebanese painting is experimental and vibrant. Among contemporary painters, Wajih Nahle uses sweeping Arab calligraphy; Samir Abi Rashed paints photographic surrealism; and Soulema Zod creates abstract landscapes.
Other artists often exhibited are Hrair, George Akl, and Hassan Jouni. Alfred Basbous is among the country's most outstanding sculptors. Traditional architecture is a blend of Mediterranean, Turkish, and Islamic styles.

C. Music and Dance

Lebanese vocal and instrumental music is varied and extremely popular. It characteristically blends traditional Arabic classical and folk modes with European styles. French and American influences are especially strong in radio and popular music.

Folk dancing is widely practiced and before the war was emphasized at an annual folk dance festival and the professionally performed Baalbek International Festival. The debkeh, a rural group dance from Lebanon, has influenced many European and American folk dances.

V. ECONOMY

Before the civil war, Lebanon developed as a free-market economy with minimal government regulations. Because the country had a stable and open economy and strict laws regarding secrecy in banking, Beirut became the banking and investment center of the Middle East. From 1975 to 1990, however, warfare severely dislocated most economic sectors and destroyed structures and infrastructures totaling an estimated $25 billion to $30 billion. As the war damaged Lebanon's economy, most of the rest of the Middle East experienced an economic boom, and businesses moved from Beirut to other Middle East economic centers. Lebanon's economy did not collapse completely during the war, however, largely because foreign aid to competing militias fueled the wartime economy.

Since 1991 Lebanon's economy has begun to revive. Annual inflation, about 500 percent in 1987, was manageable by the mid-1990s. Gross domestic product (GDP) totaled $17.2 billion in 1998, with the GDP expanding by an average of 7.7 percent annually in the period 1990-1999. Horizon 2000, a multibillion-dollar reconstruction program to rebuild Beirut's central district, is the main focus of the government's energies. The government hopes the redevelopment will encourage a broader national recovery. Services, trade, manufacturing, and agriculture are now leading sectors, and the booming construction sector is also significant. However, the government remains severely short of funds and has increasingly privatized public functions, including some official monopolies, such as the postal service.

A. Labor

In the mid-1990s Lebanon's annual unemployment rate was estimated at about 20 to 25 percent. Lebanese workers. An estimated 62 percent of the employment is in services, including tourism, trade, government, construction, and finance.

Approximately 31 percent of the labor force works in industry, including manufacturing, construction, and mining; and 7 percent in agriculture. Wages and buying power are low, and unions are encouraged. Periodically the unions strike, sometimes in a general action, often eliciting changes from the government.

B. Services

Before the civil war erupted in 1975, domestic, foreign, and transit trade (the re-export of products manufactured outside Lebanon but distributed through it) stimulated prosperity; these forms of trade have begun to revive since the war. Financial services such as banking, investment, and insurance—significant before the war—have also begun a slow recovery. Tourists, who support an industry of hotels, restaurants, casinos, and nightclubs, are attracted to Lebanon's scenery, climate, historical sites, and cultural activities. Before 1975 an estimated 550,000 tourists visited Lebanon annually. In 1999, there were about 673,000 visitors, mostly from Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas.

C. Manufacturing

Manufacturing constitutes the second-greatest share of GDP and is a major employer. Light industry is especially prominent and includes the production of cement, oil products, processed foods, printed material, textiles, clothing, chemicals (typically paints), and jewelry. Two cement plants near Tripoli are major installations. Oil refineries near Tripoli and Sayda, badly damaged during the civil war, are being rebuilt. Most of the rest of Lebanon's industry is in or near Beirut.

D. Agriculture

Historically, agriculture was a key element in Lebanon's economy. In the 19th century, mountain clans built thousands of stone terraces to facilitate their farming of steep slopes. Agriculture, including forestry and fishing, employed only 7 percent of workers and contributed only 12 percent of GDP. Cultivated fields cover 18 percent of Lebanon, and 13 percent is in permanent crops (orchards and vineyards). Premium produce, especially oranges and peaches, are a valuable export. The intensively farmed coastal plain produces citrus, bananas, vegetables, melons, and strawberries, while the lower slopes of the mountainsides support vineyards and fruit orchards of olives, figs, peaches, cherries, and plums. Apples are grown at higher elevations. The Bekáa produces wheat, barley, sugar beets, tobacco, grapes, and fruits. Farm-raised animals include goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, and chickens.

E. Forestry, Fishing, and Mining

The famous cedars of the Lebanon Mountains were depleted centuries ago and only a few protected stands remain. While commercial forestry is now limited, pines and other trees are logged for local production. Commercial fishing is also minor, but it is locally important as a major source of food. Commercial mining is limited to large-scale quarrying of Lebanon's plentiful limestone and smaller-scale production of gypsum.

F. Energy

A major goal of postwar reconstruction is to modernize and expand electric power facilities damaged during the war. Two thermal stations, one just north of Tripoli, the other just south of Sayda, were damaged by 1996 Israeli air raids. The Litani River hydroelectric project in the Bekáa is Lebanon's largest power facility.

G. Transportation and Communications

Lebanon is rapidly restoring its essential transportation facilities. For a mountain country, the network of roads is dense, and more than four-fifths of the roads are paved. In 1975 three rail lines served Lebanon, but these deteriorated during the war and in the mid-1990s were inoperable. Beirut International Airport was formerly the main aviation hub for the Middle East but was used minimally during the war. In the mid-1990s, it served only a fraction of the number of passengers it served before the war. A $450 million reconstruction project is designed to revive airport activity and attract 6 million passengers annually. Lebanon's Middle East Airlines (MEA), once a large and efficient private company, deteriorated during the 1980s and was turned over to the government.

The formerly bustling seaport of Beirut was isolated during the war and lost its role as the transit port for nearby Syria and Jordan. A $550 million project is underway to speed up the port recovery and expand it five-fold. Tripoli is Lebanon's second most important port. The famous old Phoenician ports of Tyre (now Sur) and Sayda are now minor, but Sayda's port is scheduled for major expansion. Juniyah's port expanded greatly during the 1980s.

In the mid-1990s the government licensed the many unregulated wartime radio and television stations and reduced their number, awarding licenses to 6 television stations and 58 radio stations. Lebanese press is comparatively free of government interference. Some 15 daily newspapers are published in Arabic, French, Armenian, and English, with a similar number of weeklies and monthlies.

H. Foreign Trade

In addition to the very important domestic and transit trade, foreign trade plays a major role in the Lebanese economy. Traditionally, Lebanon's balance of trade has been overwhelmingly unfavorable; in 1999 exports totaled $677 million, while imports totaled $6.2 billion. Nonetheless, Lebanon maintains a total balance-of-payments surplus because it receives large inflows of money in the form of remittances from family members who live abroad, investments in postwar reconstruction, and deposits in savings accounts that take advantage of the high interest rates. In 1995 these transfers amounted to $7.5 billion, yielding a balance-of-payments surplus of more than $1 billion. Exports go mainly to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, France, Italy, and the United States. Imports come from Italy, the United States, Germany, France, Syria, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Lebanon's chief exports are food and food products, paper products, chemicals, textiles, jewelry, and metal products. Imports include automobiles, trucks, heavy equipment, communications equipment, electronic goods, appliances, machinery, and petroleum and petroleum products.

I. Currency and Banking

The unit of currency is the Lebanese pound or lira, consisting of 100 piastres (1,508 Lebanese pounds equal U.S.$1; 1999 average). The Banque du Liban is the central bank and the sole bank of issue. All other banks are private. Lebanon's financial laws require secrecy in banking, and there are few restrictions on the free flow of funds. These qualities attracted many foreign banks between 1956 and 1975, making Beirut the banking center of the Middle East. Beirut's financial services industry collapsed during the civil war but has begun a gradual recovery. A stock exchange, closed in 1983 but reopened in 1996, is located in Beirut.

VI. GOVERNMENT

Lebanon is a parliamentary republic with a centralized, multireligious, and multiparty government. Because political power and the government bureaucracy are organized according to religious groups, a policy known as confessionalism, Lebanon's government has been described as a confessional democracy. The 1926 constitution, amended by France in 1927, 1929, and 1943, was complemented by the National Pact of 1943, when Christians were a majority. The National Pact, an unwritten covenant, provided for a Maronite Christian president, a Sunnite Muslim prime minister, and a Shiite Muslim speaker of parliament. It also provided that the ratio of seats in parliament would be six Christian seats for every five Muslim seats, and other government posts would be allotted on similar sectarian criteria. When Muslims later became the majority, they sought greater power, but Christians refused to make significant changes. The first violent conflict occurred in a limited 1958 rebellion, and tensions later erupted into the Lebanese Civil War from 1975 to 1990.

The 1989 National Reconciliation Charter (commonly known as the Ta'if Agreement) brought an end to most of the fighting and required amendments to the Lebanese constitution, which were passed in 1990. The constitutional amendments preserved certain confessional allotments but gave Muslims increased power, for example, by dividing parliament's seats equally between Christians and Muslims. The new constitution also made the Shiite speaker a member of a troika (executive threesome) with the Maronite president and Sunnite prime minister.

Voting lists (a form of political grouping in which a slate of candidates runs for office) are organized mainly along confessional lines, and each list is usually headed by a traditional zaim (semifeudal leader). The Lebanese government was unable to function in most respects during the civil war. Since the war, it has lacked real sovereignty because of several conflicting forces: Israel and Syria have used Lebanon as a buffer state and battleground; stateless Palestinians are active in Lebanon; Hezbollah guerrillas, who advocate creation of an Islamic state, operate in the south; and Syria maintains a decisive influence in Lebanese affairs.

A. Executive

The head of state is the president, a Maronite Christian, elected by parliament for a single six-year term. However, in 1995 parliament passed a once-applicable constitutional amendment extending the term of President Elias Hrawi for an additional 3 years. The head of government is the prime minister, a Sunnite Muslim, who is appointed by the president in consultation with the Shiite Muslim speaker of parliament. The prime minister selects cabinet members in consultation with parliament.

B. Legislature

Lebanon's one-house parliament, previously called the Chamber of Deputies, was renamed the National Assembly in 1979. Under the constitutional amendments of 1990, seats are allocated equally between Christians and Muslims, and the speaker of parliament must be a Shiite Muslim. A 1992 amendment expanded membership from 108, which was set in 1990, to 128. Members of parliament are elected to four-year terms.

C. Judiciary

The judicial system is based on the French Napoleonic Code and uses no juries. The secular (nonreligious) court system has three levels: courts of first instance, courts of appeal, and the court of cassation (final appeal). The Ministry of Justice appoints judges according to confessional ratios. In addition to the secular courts, various religious tribunals have exclusive jurisdiction over some personal matters such as marriage and divorce.

D. Local Government

Patterned on the French system, Lebanon's government is highly centralized. Provincial governments have only administrative power. The six provinces, or governorates (Arabic muhafazat), are Al Biqa', Al Janub, Ash Shamal, Bayrut, Jabal Lubnan, and Nabatiyah. Governorates are further subdivided into aqdia (districts).

E. Social Services

Severely disrupted during the civil war, government-provided social services have been generally restored. About half of all Lebanese are covered by some form of public insurance, which is managed by the National Fund for Social Security and the Cooperative of Public-Sector Employees. The rest of the population receives service from the ministries of Health, Social Affairs, and the Displaced. The quality of health care in Lebanon is high, and its facilities attract patients from neighboring countries.