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Pierre Gemayel | |
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بيار الجميّل | |
.jpg) Gemayel in 1967 | |
| Member of Parliament forBeirut | |
| In office 1960–1984 | |
| Preceded by | Hussein Sejaan |
| Succeeded by | Farid Ammoun |
| 2nd President of theLebanese Football Association | |
| In office 1935–1939 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1905-11-06)6 November 1905 |
| Died | 29 August 1984(1984-08-29) (aged 78) Bikfaya, Lebanon |
| Resting place | Bikfaya |
| Nationality | Lebanese |
| Political party | Kataeb Party |
| Spouse | Genevieve Gemayel |
| Relations | Grandsons: Pierre Amine Gemayel Samy Gemayel Nadim Gemayel |
| Children | 6 children, including: Bachir Gemayel Amine Gemayel |
| Alma mater | Saint Joseph University |
| Occupation | Pharmacist |
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Pierre Amine Gemayel, also spelledJmayyel,Jemayyel oral-Jumayyil (Arabic:بيار الجميّل; 6 November 1905 – 29 August 1984), was aLebanese political leader. AMaronite Catholic, he is remembered as the founder of theKataeb Party (also known as the Phalangist Party), as a parliamentary powerbroker, and as the father ofBachir Gemayel andAmine Gemayel, both of whom were elected to thepresidency of the republic in his lifetime.
He opposed theFrenchMandate over Lebanon in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and advocated an independent state, free from foreign control.[1] He was known for his deft political maneuvering, which led him to take positions which were seen by supporters as pragmatic, but by opponents as contradictory, or even hypocritical. Although publicly sympathetic to thePalestinian cause, he later changed his position due toPalestinian support of theLebanese National Movement and its calls to end theNational Pact and establishnon-sectarian democracy.
Gemayel also had a career infootball in the 1930s, captaining theLebanon national team as a player. He also became the first Lebanesefootball referee to officiate matchesinternationally, and was the second president of theLebanese Football Association, between 1935 and 1939.
Pierre Gemayel was born on 6 November 1905 inBikfaya, Lebanon into aMaronite family.[2] His father Amine Bachir Gemayel and his uncle were forced to flee toEgypt after beingsentenced to death in 1914 for opposingOttoman rule, returning to Lebanon only at the end ofWorld War I.[citation needed]
Gemayel was educated atJesuit school. He went on to study pharmacy[3] at the French faculty of medicine inBeirut, where he later opened a pharmacy. He owned a pharmacy inHaifa,British Mandatory Palestine. The pharmacy was located in Sahat Al Hanatir (Carriage Square).[citation needed]
Gemayel also took an interest in sport, playingfootball.[4] In 1935 he became president of theLebanese Football Association (LFA); the same year he became Lebanon's firstreferee to officiateinternationally.[5] Ascaptain of theLebanon national team, Gemayel attended the1936 Olympic games inBerlin,[4] alongsideHussein Sejaan,[6] the former LFA president.[7] After the games, he also visited various Central European countries.[6] Gemayel remained president of the LFA until 1939.[5]
On his return to Lebanon from Europe, in 1936 Gemayel foundedAl Kataeb Al Loubnaniyyah party (Kataeb Party) with Georges Naqqache, Charles Helou, Chafic Nassif and Hamid Franjieh, who was later replaced with Emile Yared, modelling the party after the Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed there.[8][9][10][11]
At first, the goal of the party was to enhance people's patriotism and civic-mindedness, but later on turned into a political resistance to the French authorities in the region.[12] Gemayel was also influenced from theSokol movement ofCzechoslovakia during this visit to the Central Europe after the 1936 Olympic games, and employed the doctrine of this movement while founding the Kataeb party.[6] Kataeb Party is described as a right-wing Christian Party.[13]
The foundation ofthe Syrian Social Nationalist Party byAntun Saadeh in 1932 was the trigger for the establishment of the Kateb Party, since the former actively tried to influence Lebanon towards the Syrian interests, leading to direct challenge for Lebanese nationalists.[6] The founders of the Kataeb Party were young, French-educated and middle-class professionals who committed to independent and Western-oriented Lebanon.[6]
Charles Helou, who later served as Lebanon's president from 1964 to 1970,[14] was one of the founders. By the time of his presidency, however, Helou was no longer a party member, and Gemayel unsuccessfully opposed him in the presidential election of 1964.
In the years before and after Lebanon's independence, Gemayel's influence and that of the Kataeb Party was limited. It survived a French attempt to forcibly dissolve it in 1937 and took part in an uprising against the French Mandate in 1943, but despite its membership of 35,000, it operated on the fringes ofLebanese politics.[15]
In theCivil War of 1958, Gemayel emerged as a leader of the right-wing nationalist (mainly Christian) movement that opposed aNasserist andArab-nationalist inspired attempt to overthrow the government of presidentCamille Chamoun[16] and supported the return of foreign troops to Lebanon. In the aftermath of the war, Gemayel was appointed acabinet minister in a four-member Unity government. Two years later, Gemayel was elected to theNational Assembly, from a Beirut constituency, a seat he held for the rest of his life. In 1958, Gemayel was appointed deputy to then prime ministerRashid Karami.[17][15]
By the end of the 1960s, the Kataeb Party held 9 seats in the National Assembly, making it one of the largest groupings in Lebanon's notoriously fractured and sectarian parliament. Although his bids for thepresidency in 1964 and 1970 were unsuccessful, Gemayel continued to hold cabinet posts intermittently throughout the remaining quarter-century of his life. For instance, he wasminister of finance from 1960 to 1961 and in 1968,[18] and the minister of public works in 1970.[19]
Lebanon has long been a battleground in theIsraeli-Arab conflict, and Gemayel's position was always solid and consistent advocating a Lebanon separated from the other Arab states and linked to France and the West. He opposed the presence of thePalestinian refugees. His supporters viewed this as a sign of strength and patriotism, while his detractors saw it as incoherent.
Gemayel reluctantly signed theCairo Agreement of 1969 under enormous pressure from the international community, which allowedPalestinian guerrillas to set up bases on Lebanese soil, from which to carry out actions againstIsrael. He later defended his actions, saying that Lebanon really had no choice. In the 1970s, he came to oppose the armed Palestinian presence in Lebanon. The Kataeb created a military Security Council led byWilliam Hawi, which came to be commanded by Gemayel's sonBachir upon the assassination of Hawi.
Gemayel was also to reverse his position on the Syrian intervention in theLebanese Civil War of 1975 to 1990. He initially welcomed Syrian intervention on the side of the Christians and against theLebanese National Movement, but he soon became convinced that Syria was occupying Lebanon for reasons of its own.
In 1976, he joined other mainly Christian leaders, including former presidentCamille Chamoun, the diplomatCharles Malik, and theGuardians of the Cedars leaderÉtienne Saqr, to oppose the Syrians. On 11 October 1978, Gemayel bitterly denounced the Syrian military presence, and theLebanese Front joined theLebanese regular army in a successful "Hundred Days War" against the Syrian army.
On 4 June 1979, an attempt was made to assassinate Pierre Gemayel.[20] The previous month, 13 May,Amine Gemayel also escaped an assassination attempt.[21]
Gemayel saw his younger son,Bachir Gemayel, elected president of Lebanon on 23 August 1982, onlyto be assassinated on 14 September, nine days before his scheduled inauguration. Bachir's older brother,Amine Gemayel was elected to replace him. Pierre Gemayel himself initially stayed out of Amine Gemayel's government, but in early 1984, after participating in two conferences inGeneva andLausanne, Switzerland, aimed at ending the civil war and the occupation of the country by Israeli troops in 1982, he agreed to serve in a cabinet of national unity that was formed byRashid Karami in May 1984.[22] He served as the minister of public health and communications in the cabinet led by then prime minister Karami.[3]
Gemayel was still in office when he died of a heart attack inBikfaya on 29 August 1984.[23] He was at the age of 78.[3] Gemayel's body was buried next to Bachir Gemayel's grave in Bikfaya on 30 August 1984.[24]
Gemayel was married toGenevieve Gemayel, and they celebrated the 50th anniversary of their marriage in August 1984.[25] They had six children. His younger son, Bachir Gemayel was assassinated on 14 September 1982 after being elected to the presidency. His grandsonPierre Amine Gemayel, then industry minister, was similarly assassinated on 21 November 2006. Several other descendants of Pierre Gemayel, including two grandchildren, were also murdered during thecivil war period.[24]
lebanon phalange fascism.
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