Pierre Gemayel

Sheik Pierre Gemayel (name also spelled Jumail or Jumayyil , Sheik is an honorary title in the Arab Pays) (1905 - 1984) (rear RTL الشيخبيارالجميّل) was a political leader Lebanon board of the family Gemayel. It remained like the founder of the left Kataeb (also known under the name of left phalangist ), an influential man at the Parliament, and to be the father of Bachir Gemayel and Amine Gemayel, all the two elected officials, of alive sound, president of Lebanon. At the end of the Thirties and to beginning of the year 40, he was opposed to the French mandate on Lebanon, and pled for a state independent of any foreign control. He was known for his skilful political operations, which carried out it to take positions which were seen by its defenders like pragmatic, but by his adversaries like contradictory, or even hypocrites. For example, although expressing in public its sympathy to the Palestinian cause, it, in deprived, cultivated relations with Israeli agents . Discussed politician, it survived several attacks.

Beginnings

Pierre Gemayel was born the November 6th 1905, in the town of Mansoura, Egypt. He is originating in the village of Bikfaya (Lebanon) where its family holds a preeminent role since 1540. Forced to flee in Egypt after being condemned to died in 1914 to be itself opposite with the Ottoman Empire Gemayel, Catholic high Maronite at the school of the Jesuits, made studies of Pharmacie at the medical college of Beirut, where it opened a dispensary later. It was also interested in the sport, and led the team of Lebanon to the Olympic Games of 1936 with Berlin, where it could observe the organization of the Nazi party. Although rejecting the ideology hitlérienne, he admired of it the formidable organization and his effectiveness, and the same year, on its return to Lebanon, he founded the left Kataeb, and organized it according to a similar structure.

Charles Helou, which will be later president of Lebanon of 1964 with 1970, worked with Pierre Gemayel with the organization of the party at its beginnings. At the time of its presidency, however, Helou was not any more member of the party, and Gemayel tried without success to be opposed to him at the time of the presidential election of 1964.

A leader of independence

In the years preceding independence, the influence of Gemayel and the Kataeb party were limited. He survived a French attempt to dissolve it of force in 1937 and took part in a rising against the French mandate in 1943, but even if he counted 35 000 members, it operated with the fringe of the Lebanese life political. It is not before the civil war of 1958, that Gemayel emerged as leader of the movements of right-hand side (mainly Christian) which were opposed to the movements inspiration Nasser ists which tried to reverse the government of the president Camille Chamoun. The shortly after the war, Gemayel was appointed minister in a government of national unit. Two years later, Gemayel is elected at the National Assembly, for the district of Beirut, sits that it occupied until the end of its life. At the end of the Sixties, the Kataeb party had nine seats at the National Assembly, by doing one of the greatest groups within a manifestly divided Parliament. Although it failed by twice the presidential elections in 1964 and 1970, Gemayel continued to occupy of the important stations during the following quarter century.

Lebanon was near the battle fields of the Israeli-Arab wars, and Gemayel often changed position on this subject. Its partisans saw a sign of flexibility there, while its detractors saw a sign of inconsistency there. Gemayel was opposed to the signature agreements of Cairo imposed on the Lebanese government. In the Seventies, he was opposed to the Palestinian presence armed in Lebanon. The Kataeb party maintained a private militia, which will be ordered by his/her son Bachir, and who during one moment armed, trained, and was financed by Israel.

Gemayel changed also position in connection with the intervention Syria not lasting the Guerre of Lebanon of 1975 with 1990. It accommodated the Syrian intervention initially favorably, but it became soon convinced that Syria occupied Lebanon for reasons which were clean for him. In 1976, it joined the majority of the principal Christian leaders, including the former president Camille Chamoun, the diplomat Charles Malek, and the radical leader Etienne Sacr, to be opposed to the Syrian occupation. The October 11th 1978, Gemayel bitterly denounced the Syrian military presence, and the Lebanese face united with the Lebanese army in the 100 day old war, lost against the Syrian army.

Succession

Gemayel saw its young person sons, Bachir Gemayel, being elected president of Lebanon the August 23rd 1982, and being assassinated the September 14th, nine days before its taking up the duties. It there forever have any certainty as for the identity of the assassins, although it is generally thought that the Syrian mode was behind them. The oldest brother of Bachir, Amine Gemayel was elected in his place. Pierre Gemayel remained initially apart from the government of his son, but soon in 1984, after having taken part in two conferences with Geneva and Lausanne in Suisse, which contributed to put an end to the civil war and the occupation of the country by the Syrian and Israeli troops (which had invaded the country in 1982), it agreed to take part once again in a cabinet of national union. He was always posts some when he died in Bikfaya, the August 29th 1984, 78 years old.

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