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{{Coord|33|53|43.6|N|35|29|1.3|E|display=titleCampaignbox 1982 Lebanon War}}[[File:Poster commemorating Khaled Alwan SSNP.jpg|thumb|right|Poster commemorating Khaled Alwan. Main text reads 'The hero of the Wimpy Operation – Martyred Comrade Khaled Alwan']]The '''Wimpy Operation''' ({{lang-ar|عملية الويمبي}}) was an attack on [[Israeli soldier]]s in [[Hamra, Beirut|Hamra]], a neighbourhood in the west of the [[Lebanon|Lebanese]] capital [[Beirut]] on September 24, 1982 during the [[1982 Lebanon War]].<ref name="fm">Mermier, Franck. ''[https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/file/index/docid/494481/filename/franck-mermeir-commemorer-la-resistance-a-beyrouth-ouest.doc Commémorer la résistance à Beyrouth ouest]'', published in Franck Mermier and Christophe Varin (ed.), ''Memoirs of wars in Lebanon (1975–1990)'', Arles, Sindbad / Actes Sud / Ifpo, 2010, p. 185-204</ref><ref name="d2"/> The Wimpy Operation has a strong symbolic significance, as it marked the start of resistancea actionscampaign against Israeli forces in Beirut.<ref name="fm"/><ref name="Larkin2012"/><ref>''Al-Akhbar''. [http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/192007 ذكرى عملية الويمبي]</ref>
 
==The attack==
Located on [[Hamra Street]], the [[Wimpy (restaurant)|Wimpy Cafe]] was an establisheda gathering point for the cosmopolitan [[intelligentsia]] of Beirut.<ref name="d2"/><ref name="Sawalha2010">{{cite book|author=Aseel Sawalha|title=Reconstructing Beirut: Memory and Space in a Postwar Arab City|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hfkq7blO4f0C&pg=PA93|date=1 May 2010|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-77483-4|page=93}}</ref>
 
In the afternoon on September 24, 1982 Khaled Alwan, a 19-year-old member of the [[Syrian Social Nationalist Party]] (SSNP) walked along the sidewalk. Reaching the Wimpy Cafe, he opened fire on Israeli soldiers at Wimpy.<ref name="fm"/><ref name="d2">''Daily Star''. ''[http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/1998/Jan-20/18189-wimpy-reopens-in-heart-of-hamras-cafe-society.ashx Wimpy reopens in heart of Hamra’s café society]''</ref><ref name="d1"/><ref name="e"/><ref name="محمد،كريستين2005"/> He killed an Israeli officer with his pistol and injured two Israeli soldiers accompanying the officer (one injured in the chest, the other in the neck).<ref name="e">{{cite book|title=Near East/South Asia Report|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1iS6AAAAIAAJ|edition=84165|year=1984|publisher=Foreign Broadcast Information Service|page=35}}</ref><ref name="محمد،كريستين2005">{{cite book|author1=بزي، يوسف محمد،|author2=طعمه، كريستين|author3=سلطي، رشا|title=نظر الي ياسر عرفات وابتسم :: يوميات مقاتل /|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=llgZAQAAIAAJ|year=2005|publisher=الجمعية اللبنانية للفنون التشكيلية، أشكال ألوان،|isbn=978-9953-0-0540-9|page=29}}</ref> After the shooting, Alwan walked home calmly.<ref name="Larkin2012">{{cite book|author=Craig Larkin|title=Memory and Conflict in Lebanon: Remembering and Forgetting the Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gd3FBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT126|date=15 March 2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-49061-3|page=126}}</ref> Popular legend has it that Alwan had been upset with seeing the Israeli officer insisting to pay his bill at Wimpy with [[Old Israeli shekel|shekel]]s.<ref name="Larkin2012"/>▼
 
▲In the afternoon on September 24, 1982 Khaled Alwan, a 19-year-old member of the [[Syrian Social Nationalist Party]] (SSNP) walkedopened alongfire theon sidewalk.Israeli Reachingsoldiers thedrinking Wimpycoffee Cafe,at hethe openedentrance fireto onthe IsraeliWimpy soldiers at WimpyCafe.<ref name="fm"/><ref name="d2">''Daily Star''. ''[http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/1998/Jan-20/18189-wimpy-reopens-in-heart-of-hamras-cafe-society.ashx Wimpy reopens in heart of Hamra’s café society]''</ref><ref name="d1"/><ref name="e"/><ref name="محمد،كريستين2005"/> He killedmurdered an Israeli officer with his pistol and injured two Israeli soldiers accompanying the officer (one injured in the chest, the other in the neck).<ref name="e">{{cite book|title=Near East/South Asia Report|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1iS6AAAAIAAJ|edition=84165|year=1984|publisher=Foreign Broadcast Information Service|page=35}}</ref><ref name="محمد،كريستين2005">{{cite book|author1=بزي، يوسف محمد،|author2=طعمه، كريستين|author3=سلطي، رشا|title=نظر الي ياسر عرفات وابتسم :: يوميات مقاتل /|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=llgZAQAAIAAJ|year=2005|publisher=الجمعية اللبنانية للفنون التشكيلية، أشكال ألوان،|isbn=978-9953-0-0540-9|page=29}}</ref> After the shooting, Alwan walked home calmly.<ref name="Larkin2012">{{cite book|author=Craig Larkin|title=Memory and Conflict in Lebanon: Remembering and Forgetting the Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gd3FBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT126|date=15 March 2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-49061-3|page=126}}</ref> Popular legendLegend has it that Alwan had been upset with seeing the Israeli officer insisting to pay his bill at Wimpy with [[Old Israeli shekel|shekel]]s.<ref name="Larkin2012"/> The [[Lebanese National Resistance Front]] claimed responsibility for the operation.<ref name="e"/>
The [[Lebanese National Resistance Front]] claimed responsibility for the operation.<ref name="e"/>
 
==Aftermath==
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==Legacy==
The SSNP commemorates the Wimpy Operation annually.<ref name="d1">''Daily Star''. ''[http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2000/Sep-30/12717-alwans-one-man-war-remembered.ashx Alwan’s one-man war remembered]''</ref> In 2000, the site of the attack was renamed "Place Khaled Alwan" by the municipality of Beirut, in honour of his contributions to the resistance.<ref name="fm"/><ref name="d1"/> In 2003 Alwan, who was killed in an [[ambush]] in 1984, was awarded the [[Order of Merit (Lebanon)|Lebanese Order of Merit]] posthumously.<ref name="fm"/> Writing on the political dimensions of resistance memorials, [[Franck Mermier]] notesnoted that members of the [[Lebanese Communist Party]] claimed that Alwan had been aided in the Wimpy Operation by two persons; another SSNP member and a Communist Party member named Charbel Abboud. According to Mermier, this claim does not appear in the official SSNP narratives regarding the operation.<ref name="fm"/>
 
In ''Memory and Conflict in Lebanon'', Craig Larkin argues that the "[t]he mythical power of this act" enabled a narrative which helped subsume memories of intra-Lebanese violence in the [[Lebanese Civil War|Civil War]] in favour of a "more pressing narrative of Israeli aggression and violence".<ref name="Larkin2012"/>
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[[Category:Lebanese National Resistance Front]]
[[Category:September 1982 events in Asia]]
[[Category:Syrian Social Nationalist Party]]
[[Category:Attacks on coffeehouses and cafés in Asia]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in Beirut]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 1982]]
[[Category:Beirut in the Lebanese Civil War]]
[[Category:Beirut in the Israeli–Lebanese conflict]]
[[Category:Syria in the Arab–Israeli conflict]]
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