A circle around lines from a Soviet newspaper: “Events in Lebanon have cast doubt on the nationalism of Arab regimes with regards to Palestine.”
Riyadh Airport. King Khaled welcomes Sadat, Assad, Sarkis, Yasser Arafat and the Emir of Kuwait.
Beirut. Jumblatt to reporters: “The situation is in the hands of the oil states now.”
Large headlines in a Lebanese newspaper: “Riyadh conference resolves on a ceasefire in Lebanon beginning from October 21, 1976. The conference resolves to change the Arab security forces into a Deterrent Force under the command of Sarkis. The new force will be made up of 30,000 troops, the bulk of which will be Syrian forces (21,000 troops) in addition to two Saudi and Sudanese battalions.”
A photograph in a newspaper of the meeting between Jumblatt and Abu Jihad, the leader of the joint forces in Mount Lebanon and one of the most prominent Fatah leaders. Below the photo are two captions: “Abu Jihad: ‘All is lost in the civil war’” and “Jumblatt: ‘I demand a united position from the Palestinians.’”
Title card:
Finally the war halted.
Crowds of Beirut’s civilians welcome the armored cars of the Deterrent Forces. A welcome and a slaughtering of sheep in Chouf, Keserwan and Jbeil. The Deterrent Forces occupy military barracks next to official military organizations. Their tanks cruise through bombed-out streets.
Newspaper headlines: “Return of telephone service between the two parts of Beirut. Electricity back for 8 hours a day.”
A Beirut street. A bulldozer clears away rubble. In the middle of the street, a barricade made of two burned-out passenger cars.
A hospital room. In the center of it is a bed, with the independent Maronite leader Raymond Eddé lying on it. Jumblatt enters to visit. As he leaves he announces to a reporter: “I expect further assassination attempts.”
A newspaper headline: “Al-Sa’iqa organization attacks the Democratic Front to reclaim its headquarters in the Studio Building.”
Title card:
•The Swedish Red Cross announced that 700,000 Lebanese had been harmed in the war. And that 10,000 people are missing or unaccounted for in Lebanon.
•Losses to the telegraph and telephone systems were estimated at 110 million lira.
•Losses in capital in the years 1975 and 1976 were estimated at 700 million lira.
•Indirect losses to the national income in the manufacturing sector were 2.274 billion lira.
•Losses in imports were 5.35 billion lira.
•Losses in exports were 2.225 billion lira.
•The war made it necessary to restrict the number of Australia’s visas for Lebanese citizens to 9,000.
•It was estimated that the war left behind a quarter-million orphans.
Kamal Jumblatt to reporters: “America has paid out 250 million lira during the course of the war.”
The headquarters of the United Nations in New York. Votes are cast on a resolution for Israel’s withdrawal from occupied Arab regions, and for the founding of a Palestinian state. The resolution is approved, with ninety votes in favor and sixteen against.
Damascus. Abd al-Halim Khaddam, Syria’s foreign minister, to reporters: “Disarmament includes the Palestinian resistance movement. The criterion for its Arab nationalism is its relationship with Syria.”
Amin Gemayel to reporters: “The Syrian position has saved us some very difficult steps.”
The Beirut street where Kamal Jumblatt’s home is located. The remnants of a detonated car-bomb near his home. Pieces of flesh on tree branches. Blood stains a nearby white car. An ambulance carries the victims of the explosion. A doctor makes a public statement to a reporter: “So far, two killed and twenty-four wounded.”
A newspaper headline: “Elements from the al-Sa’iqa organization attack the offices of the al-Muharrir, Beirut and al-Dustur newspapers. Syrian spy agency attacks the offices of al-Safeer, arrests several of its editors, and transports them to a Damascus prison.”
A newspaper headline: “Jumblatt demands the resignation of Colonel Ahmad al-Hajj, head of the Deuxième Bureau, whom Sarkis appointed as chief of the Arab Deterrent Forces.”
A newspaper headline: “Phalangists refuse to shut down their radio broadcasts.”
Zgharta. Frangieh’s palace. The former president to reporters: “We won’t throw down our rifles until calm returns.”
A newspaper headline: “The Lebanese National Movement informs the Deterrent Forces’ leadership of the two places for collecting their weapons.”
Abu Mazen to reporters: “The resistance will not hand over its weapons but it will move them from the cities to the south.”
The French magazine Nouvel Observateur. A circle around a paragraph from a conversation with Jumblatt: “The Palestinians had carried on a kind of mandate over us: military administration and the means of subsistence and communication were in their hands.”
A newspaper headline: “Censorship of Lebanese newspapers has begun.”
A newspaper headline: “United political leadership between Egypt and Syria. Agreement to hold the Geneva conference before April, provided that the Palestinians are represented by an independent delegation.”
Alexandria. Saint Mark’s Cathedral.
Title card:
On January 17, 1977, Egyptian Copts in Alexandria held the first conference of its kind in modern Egyptian history. In attendance was Pope Shenouda III, who, since his election to the papal chair in 1971, had won great popularity among the Copts. Abba Samuel, the official in charge of foreign relations for the Coptic Church, had played a prominent role in organizing this conference. The conference examined “freedom of belief” and “the freedom to practice religious ceremonies”, “protection of the family and Christian marriage”, “equality and equal opportunity and the representation of Christians in parliamentary bodies”, and “the danger of extremist religious movements”.
The conference presented several demands to the authorities: “cancelling the proposed law on apostasy from Islam”, “abandoning plans to apply laws derived from Islamic sharia to non-Muslims”, “revoking Ottoman-era laws that restrict the right to build churches”, “rejecting sectarianism in filling government employment positions at all levels”.
On the same day…
Egyptian newspapers carry giant headlines: “Cancellation of subsidies for some commodities in compliance with demands of International Monetary Fund. List of 25 commodities whose prices have ‘moved’.”
Title card:
Early morning the next day, January 18, 1977, demonstrations set out to protest the new price increases in Alexandria. Then, hours later, they broke out in Cairo. Before noon, the demonstrations had struck the length and width of Egypt.
On the next day, the demonstrations were joined by some elements that rashly gave in to looting and destruction. Angry masses in Aswan marched by the presidential retreat there that Sadat loved — it was his favorite winter headquarters — and he was forced to flee and return to Cairo under the protection of Central Security troops.
Dozens were killed, fallen victim to the bullets of Central Security.
Chouf in Lebanon. Mourners flock to the funeral of a local resident. Kamal Jumblatt joins the mourners. Some form a circle around him. He talks to them about his philosophy of death, saying: “A person smells the odor of his impending death three days beforehand.”
Title card:
Two days later, on March 16, 1977, Kamal Jumblatt (age sixty) gets into his black Mercedes on his way from al-Mukhtara palace to his country house in Chawiya, where he was accustomed to secluding himself every Friday, immersed in books and nature, 1,500 meters above sea level.