At Your Service Lebanon

Translation / Interpretation / Caption Text / Source

Arabic translation:

(text on shield)

At your service Lebanon

Guardians of the Cedars

(text under shield)

The leadership of the youth

(text under boot)

The Palestinian Cause

________________

Attitude towards Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims

The Guardians of the Cedars was strongly anti-Palestinian, and argued for the forcible removal of all Palestinians and other non-Lebanese (e.g. Syrians) from Lebanon, both civilians and armed fighters. Critics labeled this a call for ethnic cleansing or genocide. Guardians of the Cedars leader Saqr summed up the organization's attitude to Palestinians in an interview with the Jerusalem Post on July 23, 1982:

"It is the Palestinians we have to deal with. Ten years ago there were 84,000; now there are between 600,000 and 700,000. In six years there will be two million. We can't let it come to that." His solution: "Very simple. We shall drive them to the borders of brotherly Syria ... Anyone who looks back, stops or returns will be shot on the spot. We have the moral right, reinforced by well-organized public relations plans and political preparations."

However, in contrast to the policies of many other sectarian militias (such as the Kataeb), and to their own attitudes towards Palestinians, the Guardians took some care to avoid the impression of religious conflict. The party, while essentially a Christian militia and in violent conflict with most militias during the war, was formally secularist as it publicly stressed this Secular Nationalist identity.

Source:

Wikipedia