Samir Kassir (rear RTL سميرقصير), born in 1960 with Beirut and assassinated the June 2nd 2005 in an car bomb attack, was a historian and journalist Lebanon board.

Youth

Born from a father of Palestinian origin and from a mother of origin Syria, Samir Kassir grows in Lebanon. Like so much other compatriots, it leaves for Paris to continue there its studies with the Sorbonne from where it obtains in 1984 two diplomas in Philosophie and political Philosophie.

In 1990, it obtains same university, a doctorate in modern Histoire, to join later the department of political studies of the Université Saint-Joseph of Beirut as part-time lecturer.

Career of journalist

Of return to Beirut, it starts a career within several newspapers and periodicals, of which An Nahar, principal Lebanese daily newspaper, the East it Jour, French-speaking daily newspaper beyrouthin , Al Hayat, newspaper panarabe based with London and diplomatic Le Monde. He is also the editor association of French-speaking monthly magazine the East-Express train , which introduces an impertinence, a freedom of new tone and a modernity in the Lebanese press. Composed of young journalists, of students, political economists and seasoned veterans of the Lebanese imbroglio, the East-Express train has fun to hustle the hypocrisy of a rebuilding founded on amnesia . This innovative and impertinent monthly magazine starts the anger of the Lebanese Establishment as foreign as well as the progressive withdrawal of the advertizing agencies in front of the fall of the sales and cease to appear in 1998.

Starting from the medium of the Years 1990, Kassir becomes particularly known for its weekly leading article in An Nahar which appears each Friday. It is among the first to openly declare its opposition to the hegemony of the Syrian mode on Lebanon through its leading articles and its public debates. Moreover, unlike the nationalist Lebanese, it launches a great debate about the Démocratie and of freedom, not only in Lebanon, but also to Syria and in the Arab rest of the world. Nevertheless, its positions do not make him a nationalist. Belonging to a school of thought left internationalist of , it is opposed to chauvinistic nationalism , the dictatorships and repression. It wishes independent, free Lebanon and sovereign which maintaining the democracy and the Laïcité.

He also works for TV5 and makes some appearances in the weekly emission Kiosque .

Revolution of the cedar

Kassir was one of the strategists of the Révolution of the cedar which was more known in Lebanon under the name of L Intifada of L Indépendance, a name which had chosen to him in its articles to mark the local character of this movement which asserts a modern arabity in its style of demonstration, and to echo L oppression in Palestine. With the apogee of the Révolution of the cedar of 2005, when the feeling anti-Syrian reaches his more high level, generating in certain cases, of the violent reactions against the Syrian workers, Kassir is made the defender of the rights of these workmen and reiterates on several occasions that the opposition to the Syrian dictatorship was not to in no case to be confused with the relation between the two people.

Nevertheless, it is firmly convinced that the spring of Beirut leads ineluctably towards a wave of democracy to Damas qu would sweep the Syrian government with the capacity since 1970. However, its writings about the need for restoring the democracy in Syria pass in the second plan behind its concern of removing Lebanon from the Syrian influence by the dismantling of the intelligence services which had undermined the establishment of the democracy in the two countries.

He in addition greets the support of the the United States for the democracy in the Arab world, provided that they give up their “old woman and simplistic comprehension” of the Arab democracy. Moreover he is openly opposed to the administration Bush and critical his unconditional support for Israel.

However, it never takes dogmatic positions against the foreign interference in the businesses of Lebanon and those of the Arab world. While good number of Lebanese express their opposition total or partial to the resolution 1559 of the Safety advice of the United Nations which requires that Syria withdraw its troops of Lebanon and that are congédiées the armed militia always operating on the Lebanese ground, it remains firm in its support for the resolution which is in conformity, according to him, with the preceding resolutions of the United Nations like to those of the Arab Ligue and with the Accord of Taef.

On the interior questions, Kassir does not save any leader. It finds thus unacceptable which Michel Aoun tries to monopolize what itself perceived as the result of a process to which contributed the Lebanese one as a whole.

Politician

Kassir is member of the Mouvement of the democratic left of which he is a cofounder. This grouping founded in Beirut in November 2004, is according to him a need and him and its cofounders insist on the fact that their experiment is not a prolongation of that of the Lebanese Communist party but rather a new initiative. It realizes that the left in Lebanon survived two bitter experiments: the failure within the National movement which is completed after 1990 by a complete marginalisation by the Syrians, and the fall of the Soviet Union which affects the left as a whole. He believes however, that in spite of these tests, Lebanon continues to offer opportunities favorable to the action of the political parties.

Assassination

June 2nd, 2005, at the wheel of its car, parked in front of the building where he lives in Ashrafieh, residential district of Beirut, an explosive load, installed under its seat, explodes when he connects the contact and kills it on the blow.

Its assassination falls under the series which sees the disappearance of Lebanese political personalities such as Rafiq Hariri and George Hawi. It changes to 28 the number of journalists victims up to now of attacks since hanging by the Othoman , in 1918, several journalists and activists Lebanese and Syrians having work for the independence of their country.

Its death causes a deep indignation and a vast judgment in Lebanon and of share the world. While his/her friends and partisans, in Beirut, Washington and Paris, express, Bougie S with the hand, to pay homage to him, the Safety advice meets, according to an unusual step, to condemn this assassination.

Heritage

At 45 years, it leaves behind him his wife Gisele Al-Khouri, also journalist, and his two daughters Mayssa and Liana.

His/her comrades and his/her friends swore to maintain his memory alive and to continue the way which it borrowed to found the democracy, secularity and the social equality in Lebanon and in the Arab world.

It was a perfect example of the Lebanese bicultural tradition, handling as well the Arab feather in as in French, burning defender of the Palestinian cause and a true democracy.

He is the joint author of Itinéraire of Paris with Jerusalem with Farouk Mardam-Bey, which is published in 1992. He publishes the war of Lebanon (1994), the history of Beirut (2003) and two Arabic books the Syrian democracy and the independence of Lebanon (2004) like Militaire against which? (2004). He is also the author of Considération on Arab misfortune and was finishing Beirut, unfinished spring .

External bond

• Price Samir Kassir for freedom of the press
• Biography of Samir Kassir
• Site dedicated to Samir Kassir

• yassar dimocrati/democratic left movement/movement of the democratic left

Random links:

The Monthureux-on-Saone | High-Vigneulles | Callionymus | Speedmaster | Electric machine (constellation)