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Assassination of Bachir Gemayel

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Assassination of Bachir Gemayel
Part of the Lebanese Civil War
The Kataeb headquarters after the explosion
LocationBeirut, Lebanon
Date14 September 1982; 42 years ago (1982-09-14)
TargetBachir Gemayel
Attack type
TNT explosion
WeaponRemote-controlled explosive
Deaths24, including Bachir Gemayel
Injured70+
PerpetratorsSSNP members Habib Shartouni and Nabil Alam

On 14 September 1982, a bomb was detonated during a meeting of the right-wing Christian Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalanges) in the Beirut neighborhood of Achrafieh. Militia commander and Lebanese president-elect Bachir Gemayel and 23 other Kataeb Party politicians were killed in the blast.

The attack was carried out by Habib Shartouni and allegedly planned by Nabil Alam, both members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). Both men were believed to have acted on instructions of the Syrian government led by president Hafez al-Assad.[1] The next day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) moved to occupy the city, allowing members of the Lebanese Forces militia under the command of Elie Hobeika to enter the centrally located Sabra neighborhood and adjoining Shatila refugee camp. Militia members then massacred between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shia Muslims, causing an international uproar.

Background

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Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982.[2] Defense Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, met with Gemayel months earlier, telling him that the Israeli 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 the PLO, 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]

Perpetrators

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Habib Tanious Shartouni, a Maronite Christian, was born in a small village called Chartoun (Arabic: شرتون) in Aley, Mount Lebanon. In the early 1970s, only a few years before the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War, he was inspired and became affiliated with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). When war broke out, he volunteered to serve in one of the SSNP stations in Aley.[9] Shartouni fled to France 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.

Assassination

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On 14 September 1982, Bashir Gemayel was addressing fellow Kataeb Party members (Phalangists) at their headquarters in Achrafieh for the last time as their leader and for the last time as commander of the Lebanese 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 intelligence Jonny 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 close to the site of the explosion where the dead were being collected. The face on the body was unrecognizable; he was identified by the white-gold wedding ring he was wearing and two letters he was carrying addressed to himself. It was concluded that he had been one of the first people moved to the church after the explosion.[12] Then–prime minister Shafik Wazzan confirmed the following morning that Gemayel had indeed been killed in the attack,[13] saying, "I face this shocking news with the strongest denunciation for this criminal act."[11]

Aftermath

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Israeli occupation of Beirut

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Following the news of Gemayel's assassination, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, and Chief of Staff Rafael 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 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) should not enter the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, but that the Phalange should be used instead.[14]

Shortly after 6.00 a.m. on 15 September, the Israeli army entered West Beirut[15] in violation of a 1981 ceasefire brokered by the United States.[16][17] Between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shia Muslims, were massacred by members of the Lebanese Forces militia in an alleged act of retaliation for the assassination, which was overseen by the IDF.

International response

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The United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 520 demanding that Israel withdraw immediately from Lebanon. American President Ronald 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."[18][non-primary source needed]

Election of Amine Gemayel

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Bachir Gemayel's older brother Amine 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.[19] 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.[20] Once elected, he refused to meet any Israeli official.[21][unreliable source?]

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Habib Shartouni was held for eight years in Roumieh prison without an official trial, before escaping during the final Syrian offensive that marked the end of the Lebanese Civil War.[22] In the 1990s, he admitted his part in the assassination.[23] In interviews with Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar in the 2010s, Shartouni stated that after his escape, he resided in Syria, but did not not disclose his whereabouts at the time. He also denied visiting Lebanon since his escape from prison.[23][24]

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 by Al-Jadeed said Shartouni was "a hero the size of a nation".[25] On 20 October, the Judicial Council, Lebanon's highest state security court, sentenced Shartouni and Nabil Alam to death in absentia and stripped them of their civil rights.[26]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Phalangists Identify Bomber of Gemayel As Lebanese Leftist". The New York Times. Reuters. 3 October 1982. p. 19. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  2. ^ Bsisu, Naji (Spring 2012). "Israeli Domestic Politics and the War in Lebanon" (PDF). Lights: The MESSA Journal. 1 (3). University of Chicago; Middle Eastern Studies Student Association: 29–38. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  3. ^ The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs (DVD video). The Big Picture. BBC. 1998. OCLC 900843337.[time needed]
  4. ^ Khalifeh, Nabil (2008). Lubnán fí strátíjiyyat kísinjar: muqáriba siyásiyya wa-jiyyú-strátíjiyya [Lebanon in Kissinger's Strategy: A Political and Geostrategic Comparison] (in Arabic). Byblos: Byblos Center for Studies and Research. p. 271.
  5. ^ a b Avon, Dominique; Khatchadourian, Anaïs-Trissa; Todd, Jane Marie (2012). Hezbollah: A History of the "'Party of God'. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674067523.[page needed]
  6. ^ Eisenberg, Laura Zittrain; Caplan, Neil (1998). Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-253-21159-0. 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.
  7. ^ "Sabra and Shatilla". Jewish Voice for Peace. n.d. Archived from the original on 30 October 2006.
  8. ^ Asser, Martin (14 September 2002). "Sabra and Shatila 20 years on". BBC News. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  9. ^ "Habib al-Shartouni: Striking the Head of Collaboration". Al Akhbar English. 23 July 2012. Archived from the original on 13 April 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  10. ^ O'Brien, Conor Cruise (1986). The Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 629. ISBN 978-0-671-60044-0.
  11. ^ a b Campbell, Colin (15 September 1982). "Gemayel of Lebanon is Killed in Bomb Blast at Party Offices". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  12. ^ a b Schiff, Ze'ev; Ya'ari, Ehud (1984). Israel's Lebanon war. Translated by Ina Friedman. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-47991-6.[page needed]
  13. ^ Friedman, Thomas L. (1990). From Beirut to Jerusalem. London: William Collins Sons. ISBN 978-0-00-215096-5.[page needed]
  14. ^ Kahan. pp. 13, 14[full citation needed]
  15. ^ Kahan. p. 15[full citation needed]
  16. ^ Ensalaco, Mark (2012). Middle Eastern Terrorism: From Black September to September 11. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-8122-0187-1.
  17. ^ "The Accused". Panorama (transcript of broadcast). BBC News. 17 June 2001. Retrieved 22 July 2024. 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.
  18. ^ "Statement on the Assassination of President-elect Bashir Gemayel of Lebanon". 14 September 1982. Retrieved 22 July 2024 – via Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum.
  19. ^ "Election of the Presidents of the Lebanese Republic". The Monthly Magazine. Beirut. 9 July 2014. Archived from the original on 1 January 2023.
  20. ^ "Anti-Gemayel 'front' formed in Lebanon". The Milwaukee Journal. 23 July 1983. ISSN 1052-4452. Retrieved 23 March 2013 – via News.google.com.[permanent dead link]
  21. ^ Maroun, Pierre (February–March 2003). "Dossier: Amine Gemayel". Middle East Intelligence Bulletin. 5 (2). Philadelphia: Middle East Forum. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
  22. ^ "Naharnet — Lebanon's leading news destination". Naharnet.com. Retrieved 18 August 2016.[permanent dead link]
  23. ^ a b "Lebanese court issues death sentence over 1982 Gemayel assassination". Reuters. 20 October 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  24. ^ Diab, Afif (23 July 2012). "Habib al-Shartouni: Striking the Head of Collaboration". al-Akhbar. Archived from the original on 26 February 2017.
  25. ^ "Conflict Incident Report: Protests erupt as third trial on Bachir Gemayel assassination begins". Beirut: Civil Society Knowledge Centre, Centre for Social Sciences Research & Action. n.d. Archived from the original on 7 January 2024.
  26. ^ "Chartouni, Alam Sentenced to Death over Bashir Gemayel Assassination". Naharnet. 20 October 2017. Archived from the original on 10 November 2017.
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