Palestinians predicament in Lebanon, Part 1.

With the creation of the State of Israel and its determination to ethnically cleans Palestinians of its habitants, many of the Palestinians fled north seeking refuge in Lebanon, establishing one of the largest concentration of Palestinian refugees.
Unlike Jordan which took in the refugees and soon tried to integrate the refugees into Jordan, Lebanon was a different story.
Lebanon is a mosaic of some 17 religious and ethnic sects; each one by hook or crook tries to keep its "right" place within this mosaic. In the short history of Lebanon, many massacres were committed by warring sectarian communities. It is second to Iraq in sectarian conflicts and sectarian killings.
With such a delicate balance between Christian and Muslims the large influx of "Muslim" Palestinians into Lebanon raised fears among some members of the Christian communities especially the Marronites who were afraid that offering citizenship to these Palestinians will harm their privileged position balance within the political and social establishment. Thus the Palestinians were "put in their place" within Lebanon.
The Palestinians were distributed among many refugee camps with the largest concentration in the south. Some of these camps later became the sites of large scale massacres committed by the Lebanese Christian Forces and of course Israel and Syria.
In 1970 King Hussein fed up with the PLO and its armed militias and their behavior within Jordan and with the challenge they posed to the Hashemite Kingdom, decided to evict Palestinian militias in what became known as Black September. Arafat as the leader escaped Jordan into Lebanon where he tried again to rebuild his own "revolutionary republic" in Lebanon and was able to establish his "Fakhani Republic".
The PLO failed to learn its lessons from Jordan and again, tried to be a state within a state with its militias all over the place, and most of the times challenging the host countries security and police organizations far away from the front lines with Israel. The militia's presence in Beirut has nothing to do with liberation but to give Arafat the political and social leverage he needed. Something that no Lebanese or Jordanians was willing to accept and tolerate even if they supported the liberation of Palestine.
The challenge became too much to bear for the Lebanese and the government of Lebanon wanted to set the rules of the games for the PLO within Lebanon, and on 3 November 1969 the Cairo Agreement was signed between Arafat as head of the PLO and Lebanese Army General Emil Bustani on behalf of President Charles Helou. The Cairo Agreement endorsed the PLO freedom of action in Lebanon to recruit, arms, train and employ fighters against Israel. That agreement not only legitimize military actions against Israel but also opened so much abuse by Palestinian militias in Beirut and many Lebanese, Christians and Muslims went out to greet the invading Israeli army as they advanced to Beirut in 198 to evict Arafat and his militias..
The PLO presence and Arafat management style did not endear such goodwill and the way he dismissed Lebanese politicians did not create a hospitable environment.
Arafat not only failed to understand the delicate balance within the different communities but his dismissive behavior of their leadership precipitated the Lebanese civil war. The Lebanese Phalanges and the Lebanese Forces where simply waiting for and agitating to take on Arafat and his militias. The Lebanese civil war was ignited with the Lebanese Forces attacking a bus carrying Palestinians in Ein Al-Rummaneh massacring and killing its entire passengers. In 1976 Bashir Gemeal as head of the Lebanese Forces laid siege against the Palestinian refugee camp of Tel-Zaater and with the tacit support of Hafiz Assad committed a large scale massacre that resulted in the murder of more than 9,500 Palestinians and the total destruction of the camp and the expulsion of its entire inhabitant. The story of the Palestinian camps did not end their. The Christian Phalanges and Lebanese Forces under the command of Elie Hobeika and with active logistical support from Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Defense Forces committed the famous cold blooded massacre of thousand of Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla. The massacre was committed within days of Arafat departure from Lebanon and after the United States gave its guarantees that no harms will come to the Palestinians civilians left behind. So much for US promises.