| Assassination of Bachir Gemayel | |
|---|---|
| Part of The1982 Lebanon War, TheLebanese Civil War and TheArab-Israeli conflict | |
 The Kataeb headquarters after the explosion | |
| Location | Kataeb Party headquarters,Beirut,Lebanon |
| Date | 14 September 1982; 43 years ago (1982-09-14) 14:10 PM |
| Target |  Bachir Gemayel † |
Attack type | TNT explosion |
| Weapon | Remote-controlled explosive |
| Deaths | 24, includingBachir Gemayel |
| Injured | 70+ |
| Perpetrators |  SSNP-L membersHabib Shartouni and Nabil Alam.Allegedly commanded byHafez Al-Assad |
| Motive | Bashir Gemayel's temporary co-operation with theIDF during the1982 Lebanon war |
| Convictions | |
| Convicted | Habib Shartouni, sentenced to death in 2011. |
On 14 September 1982, a bomb was detonated during a meeting of the right-wingKataeb Party (also known as thePhalanges) in theBeirut neighbourhood ofAchrafieh. Militia commander and Lebanese president-electBashir Gemayel and 23 other Kataeb Party politicians were killed in the attack.
The attack was carried out byHabib Shartouni and allegedly planned by Nabil Alam, both members of theSyrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). Both men were believed to have acted on instructions of the Syrian government led by presidentHafez al-Assad.[1] The next day, theIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) moved to occupy the city, allowing members of theLebanese Forces militia under the command ofElie Hobeika to enter the centrally located Sabra neighborhood and adjoiningShatila refugee camp. Militia members thenmassacred between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians, mostlyPalestinians andLebanese Shia Muslims, causing an international uproar.
Israelinvaded Lebanon in 1982.[2] Defense Minister of Israel,Ariel Sharon, met with Gemayel months earlier, telling him that theIsraeli Defense Force (IDF) were planning an invasion to uproot the PLO threat to Israel and to move them out of Lebanon.[3] While Gemayel did not control Israel's actions in Lebanon, the support Israel gave the Lebanese Forces, militarily and politically, angered many Lebanese leftists. Gemayel had planned to use the IDF to push the Syrian Army out of Lebanon and then use his relations with the Americans to pressure the Israelis into withdrawing from Lebanese territory.[4] On 23 August 1982, being the only one to declare candidacy, Gemayel was elected president in an election boycotted by Muslim MPs, as he prevailed over the National Movement.[5] Israel had relied on Gemayel and his forces as a counterbalance to thePLO, and as a result, ties between Israel and Maronite groups, from which hailed many of the supporters of the Lebanese Forces, had grown stronger.[6][7][unreliable source?][8]
Habib Tanious Shartouni, aMaronite Christian, was born in a small village calledChartoun (Arabic:شرتون) inAley,Mount Lebanon. In the early 1970s, only a few years before the outbreak of theLebanese Civil War, he was inspired and became affiliated with theSyrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). When war broke out, he volunteered to serve in one of the SSNP stations inAley.[9] Shartouni fled toFrance where he attended a university in Paris and obtained a degree in business until the late summer of 1977 during which he officially joined the SSNP upon his first visit to Lebanon and became an active member ever since.[10] Upon his return to France, he carried all the necessary contacts pertaining to the party's delegates in Paris and started attending some of their secret meetings, wherein he met Nabil Alam, the chief of interior of the party at the time. Alam made a significant impression on Shartouni, which paved the way for Bachir's assassination.
On 14 September 1982, Bashir Gemayel was addressing fellow Kataeb Party members (Phalangists) at their headquarters inAchrafieh for the last time as their leader and for the last time as commander of theLebanese Forces. At 4:10 PM, an estimated 180 kilograms of TNT was detonated, killing Gemayel and 23 other Phalange politicians. The first testimonies stated that Gemayel had left the premises on foot or in an ambulance.
For several hours after the explosion, rumors persisted that Gemayel had survived the blast. Some reported that he was receiving ongoing treatment for leg bruises at the nearby Hotel Dieu hospital. In reaction to this, church bells were rung in celebration of his reported survival.[11] The commander of military intelligenceJonny Abdu reported that Gemayel had been taken to a hospital in Haifa by helicopter. The search and rescue teams on the field were unable to find him or his body.[12]
Gemayel's body was finally identified five and a half hours after the explosion by a Mossad agent in a church near the site, where the dead were being collected. It was concluded that he had been one of the first people moved to the church after the explosion.[12] However, Bachir's wife,Solange, says the body was actually identified six hours later at theHôtel-Dieu de France hospital, thanks to a letter from his sister, Arze, the white-gold wedding ring he was wearing, and two letters on the ring addressed to himself.[13] Then–prime ministerShafik Wazzan confirmed the following morning that Gemayel had indeed been killed in the attack,[14] saying, "I face this shocking news with the strongest denunciation for this criminal act."[11]
Following the news of Gemayel's assassination, Israeli Prime MinisterMenachem Begin, Defense MinisterAriel Sharon, and Chief of StaffRafael Eitan agreed that the Israeli army should invade West Beirut. The public reason given was to be that they were there to prevent chaos. In a separate conversation, Sharon and Eitan agreed that theIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) should not enter the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, but that the Phalange should be used instead.[15]
Shortly after 6.00 a.m. on 15 September, the Israeli army entered West Beirut[16] in violation of a 1981 ceasefire brokered by the United States.[17][18] Between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shia Muslims, weremassacred by members of the Lebanese Forces militia in an alleged act of retaliation for the assassination, which was overseen by the IDF.
The United Nations Security Council issuedResolution 520 demanding that Israel withdraw immediately from Lebanon. American PresidentRonald Reagan, who had been one of Gemayel's staunchest supporters, issued a statement of condolences for his death, saying "this promising young leader had brought the light of hope to Lebanon."[19][non-primary source needed]
Bachir Gemayel's older brotherAmine Gemayel was not long after elected president, serving from 1982[5] to 1988. The elder Gemayel was elected during the first round of voting in Parliament; of the 80 members present, 77 ballots were cast in support with three left blank.[20] Amine Gemayel was widely regarded as more moderate than his brother. He never promised the Israelis anything in order to be elected president, but rather that he would follow the path of his brother, whatever that path was. He left his post in the Kataeb Party after the election.[21] Once elected, he refused to meet any Israeli official.[22][unreliable source?]
Habib Shartouni was held for eight years inRoumieh prison without an official trial, before escaping during thefinal Syrian offensive that marked the end of the Lebanese Civil War.[23] In the 1990s, he admitted his part in the assassination.[24] In interviews with Lebanese newspaperal-Akhbar in the 2010s, Shartouni stated that after his escape, he resided in Syria, but did not disclose his whereabouts at the time. He also denied visiting Lebanon since his escape from prison.[24][25]
During the third trial of Shartouni in 2017, protests by supporters of both the SSNP and the Kataeb Party blocked the road in front of the Justice Palace. A SSNP member interviewed byAl-Jadeed said Shartouni was "a hero the size of a nation".[26]On 20 October, the Judicial Council, Lebanon's highest state security court, sentenced Shartouni and Nabil Alam to deathin absentia and stripped them of theircivil rights.[27]
By 1982, the Israeli-Maronite relationship was quite the open secret, with Maronite militiamen training in Israel and high-level Maronite and Israeli leaders making regular reciprocal visits to one another's homes and headquarters.
Ariel Sharon now decided to send his army into West Beirut, breaking a promise to the Americans that they would stay out of that part of the city.