Bachir Gemayel
Bachir Gemayel, first name also spelt
Bashir (
Arabic: بشير الجميل), (
November 10,
1947 â€"
September 14,
1982) was a
Lebanese military commander, politician and president elect.
He was born in
Beirut, the son of
Pierre Gemayel, founder of the influential Lebanese
Kataeb party, or
Phalangist Party, a right-wing nationalist organization that, although officially secular, was supported mostly by
Maronite Christians. Gemayel was educated at the
Lebanese Modern Institute. In
1962, he joined the Kataeb party. He completed his formal education at
St. Joseph University in Beirut after teaching for three years at the
Lebanese Modern Institute, graduating in
1971 with a degree in Law and another in Political Science in
1973. A year prior to that, in
1970, he had been briefly kidnapped by
Palestinian militants, in an incident that may have influenced his later hostility to the Palestinian cause.
In
1971, he was appointed inspector in the para-military branch of the Kataeb party, the
Kataeb Regular Forces. In
1971 he also took another law qualification from the
American and International Law Academy in
Dallas, Texas. Qualifying in
1972 he joined the bar association and opened an office in
West Beirut. However, outside of his legal work in
1974, he founded the "
BG squad", a Lebanese militia, to face
PLO aggression against Lebanese Christians. In
1976, he became president of the
Kataeb Military Council and formed the Unified
Lebanese Forces to combat
Syrian advances into Lebanese territory. In
1978 he successfully led the "
Hundred Days War" against
Syrian forces to liberate Christian areas from the illegal presence of
Syrian troops. Gemayel became a member of the
Lebanese Front in
1980 and in
1981 he led the unified Christian Lebanese militias in the Battle of
Zahleh. In his military campaigns, Gemayel secretly accepted military supplies from
Israel, and is widely believed, to have accepted Israeli training for his troops.
Israeli forces invaded Lebanon in
1982. Although Gemayel did not cooperate with the Israelis publicly, his long history of tactical collaboration with Israel counted against him in the eyes of many Lebanese, especially Muslims. Although the only announced candidate for the presidency of the republic, the
National Assembly elected him by the second narrowest margin in Lebanese history (57 votes out of 92) on
August 23,
1982; most Muslim members of the Assembly boycotted the vote. Nine days before he was due to take office, Gemayel was assassinated along with twenty-five others in an explosion at the Kataeb headquarters in
Achrafieh on
September 14,
1982.
After his death Israeli army reoccupied West Beirut and Maronite militias carried out
Sabra and Shatila massacres.
Bachir Gemayel was succeeded as president by his older brother
Amine Gemayel, who served from
1982 to
1988. Rather different in temperament, Amine Gemayel was widely regarded as lacking the charisma and decisiveness of his brother, and many of the latter's followers were dissatisfied.
Habib Tanious Shartouni, a member of the pro-Damascus
Syrian Social Nationalist Party, confessed to the crime, was apprehended and handed to
Amine Gemayel. He escaped but was captured again a few hours later and handed over to Lebanon's justice system. He was imprisoned in the
Roumieh prison. He was released from Roumieh in October
1990 by the
Syrian army, in what many consider an illegal action.
More than 21 years after his assassination, Bachir Gemayel remains a divisive figure in Lebanese politics. Many Christians remember him nostalgically as a hero, seeing him as the embodiment of what Lebanon could and should have been. His widow,
Solange Gemayel works to keep his legacy alive through the
Bachir Gemayel Foundation, a political and informational organization. His first daughter,
Maya was ruthlessly murdered by a car bomb intended for Gemayel himself in
1979, when Maya was eighteen months old. He has two surviving children: a daughter,
Youmna, who received her degree in political science in
Paris, and is now working towards her Masters in Management at ESA (
École supérieure des affaires) in
Beirut, and a son,
Nadim, a law student and political activist.
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Bachir Gemayel Community Site
