Kamal Jumblatt

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In this Lebanese name, the father's name is Fouad and the family name is Jumblatt.
Kamal Jumblatt
كمال جنبلاط
Leader of the Progressive Socialist Party
In office
1 May 1949 – 16 March 1977
Preceded byPost established
Succeeded byWalid Jumblatt
Ministerial offices
Riad al-Solh
Preceded bySaadi al-Manla
Succeeded bySuleiman Nawfal
Minister of Education and Higher Education
In office
1 August 1960 – 20 May 1961
Prime MinisterSaeb Salam
Preceded byGebran Nahhas
Succeeded byMohammad Safy al-Deen
Minister of Public Works and Transport
In office
20 May 1961 – 31 October 1961
Prime MinisterSaeb Salam
Preceded byOthman al Dana
Succeeded byPierre Gemayel
Minister of Interior
In office
31 October 1961 – 20 February 1964
Prime MinisterRashid Karami
Preceded byAbdullah Machnouk
Succeeded byHussein Oweini
In office
25 November 1969 – 13 October 1970
Prime MinisterRashid Karami
Preceded byAdel Osseiran
Succeeded bySaeb Salam
Minister of Post, Telegraph and Telephone
In office
9 April 1966 – 6 December 1966
Prime MinisterAbdullah al-Yafi
Preceded byJoseph Najjar
Succeeded byMichel Edde
Personal details
Born6 December 1917 (1917-12-06)
St. Joseph University
Sorbonne University
Lebanese University

Kamal Fouad Jumblatt (

International Lenin Peace Prize.[3] He is the father of the Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and the son-in-law of the Arab writer and politician Shakib Arslan
.

Early life and education

Kamal Jumblatt was born on 6 December 1917 in

Fouad Joumblatt, the powerful Druze chieftain and director of the Chouf District, was murdered in an ambush on 6 August 1921.[5][6] Kamal was just four years old when his father was killed.[7][5] After his father’s death, his mother Nazira played a significant political role in the Druze community during the following two decades.[8]

In 1926, Kamal Jumblatt joined the Lazarus Fathers Institute in

high school diploma, having studied French, Arabic, science and literature, in 1936, and a philosophy
diploma in 1937.

Jumblatt then pursued higher studies in France, where he attended the Faculty of Arts at the

Saint Joseph University
where he obtained a law degree in 1945.

Early political career

Kamal Jumblatt practiced law in Lebanon from 1941 to 1942 and was designated the Official State Lawyer for the Lebanese Government. In 1943, at the young age of twenty-six years and following the unexpected death of

President, Bechara El Khoury. On 8 November 1943, however, he signed the constitutional amendment (which abolished the articles referring to the Mandate) demanded by the Constitutional Bloc. On 14 December 1946, he was appointed minister for the first time, for the portfolio of economy, in Riad Al Solh's cabinet.[11] His term was from 14 December 1946 to 7 June 1947, and he replaced Saadi Al Munla.[11] Sleiman Nawfal replaced Jumblatt as economy minister.[11]

In 1947, in spite of his own election for the second time as deputy, he thought of resigning from the government. He began to believe that change through the Lebanese political system was impossible.

Kamal Jumblatt officially founded the

Arab Socialist Parties, was held in Beirut in May 1951. Prior to the 1952 elections, Jumblatt declared the formation of the opposition salvation front electoral list in a rally on 18 March 1951 in the village of Barouk, Mount Lebanon. Clashes between Jumblatt's supporters and Lebanese security forces led to the death of four, three of them were PSP supporters. After this incident he gave his famous speech:"Today, our party was baptized with blood". In the same year, he was reelected for the third time as Deputy of Mount Lebanon
.

Jumblatt regularly published articles in

Deir El Kamar
, in the name of the National Socialist Front, calling for the resignation of the President. Due mainly to these pressures, the President resigned the same year.

The 1958 revolt

In 1952, after the resignation of Bechara El Khoury Jumblatt's bloc nominated Camille Chamoun for presidency. Chamoun was elected president in September 1952.

In 1953, Jumblatt was re-elected Deputy for the fourth time. He founded the

Maronite Christian elite in Lebanon tacitly supported the invasion. The sectarian tensions
of Lebanon greatly increased in this period, and both sides began to brace for violent conflict.

In 1957, Jumblatt failed for the first time in the parliamentary elections, complaining of electoral

Fuad Chehab was appointed new President of the Republic
.

Uniting the opposition

Jumblatt (left) with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, 1966

Jumblatt chaired the

Lebanese Parliament
. From 1960 to 1961 he was Minister for the second time, for the National Education portfolio and then in 1961 he was appointed Minister of Public Work and Planning. From 1961 to 1964 he served as Interior Minister.

On 8 May 1964, he won at the parliamentary elections for the sixth time. In 1965, he began joining together

People’s Republic of China
in 1966.

He supported the

Shi'a
and leftist Christians into an embryonic national opposition movement.

Build-up to civil war

On 9 May 1968, Jumblatt was reelected Deputy for the seventh time. In 1970, he was once again appointed Minister of the Interior, a reward for his last-minute switch of allegiance in the presidential election that year, which resulted in

Elias Sarkis. His support of Franjieh, whose presidency 1970-1976 is regarded as egregiously corrupt, from a sometime supporter of the Chebab reforms, was crucial.[15] As Interior Minister, he legalized the Communist Party (LCP) and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). In 1972, Jumblatt was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union. The same year, he was reelected Deputy for the eighth time. The following year, he was unanimously elected Secretary General of the Arab Front, a movement supportive of the Palestinian revolution
.

The 1970s in Lebanon were characterized by rapidly building tension between the Christian-dominated government and Muslim and leftist opposition forces, demanding better representation in the government apparatus and a stronger Lebanese commitment to the Arab world. The conflict took place more or less along the same sectarian and political lines as the 1958 rebellion.

Both the opposition and their mainly Christian opponents organized armed militias, and the risk of armed conflict increased steadily. Jumblatt had organized his own PSP into an armed force, and made it the backbone of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM), a coalition of 12 left-wing parties and movements.[16] He also headed this coalition.[16] The LNM demanded the abolition of the sectarian quota system that permeated Lebanese politics, which discriminated against Muslims. The LNM was further joined by Palestinian radicals of the Rejectionist Front, and maintained good relations with the officially non-committal Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).[17] The Palestinian presence in the ranks of the opposition was a new development compared to the 1958 conflict.

The Lebanese Civil War

Main article: Lebanese Civil War

In April 1975, a series of tit-for-tat killings culminating in a Phalangist massacre of Palestinian civilians, prompted full-blown fighting in Beirut. In August 1975, Jumblatt declared a program for reform of the Lebanese political system, and the LNM openly challenged the government's legitimacy. In October 1975, a new round of fighting broke out, and quickly spread throughout the country: the Lebanese Civil War had begun.

During the period between 1975 and 1976, Jumblatt acted as the main leader of the Lebanese opposition in the war, and with the aid of the PLO the LNM rapidly gained control over nearly 80% of Lebanon. They were on the verge of military decisiveness and putting the civil war into an end. Jumblatt paid a visit to Hafez al-Assad in March 1976, during which it was made clear that the Syrian position is very contrary to the one of the LNM.[18] This prompted an end of the political relationship between the two political leaders.[19] The Syrian intervened militarily on the 1 of June 1976, since the Syrian government claimed fearing a collapse of the Christian-dominated order and a subsequent Israeli invasion in order to aid the Christians and control the country, thus furthering Israel's influence in the region. However, this claim proved to be wrong for Israelis invaded Southern Lebanon in 1978 under the pretext of defending its northern borders from any possible Syrian aggression. Some 40,000 Syrian soldiers invaded Lebanon in 1976 and quickly smashed the LNM's favorable position; a truce was declared and the fighting subsided. During a pan-Arabic conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the same year, an agreement was signed which included the presence of a Syrian military peace keeping force under the auspices of the Arab League.[20]

Jumblatt's son Walid Jumblatt was kidnapped by Christian militants during the civil war and released after the intervention of former president Camille Chamoun.[21] Kamal Jumblatt was the target of an assassination attempt during the same period. Although he survived, his sister Linda was killed by a group of armed men who burst into their apartment in 1976.[21]

Personal life

Catholic prayers several years later over his cousin Hikmat Joumblatt's death bed.[22]

On 1 May 1948, Jumblatt married May Arslan, daughter of Prince Shakib Arslan (the Arslans being the other prominent Lebanese Druze family), in Geneva.[23] Their only son, Walid Jumblatt, was born on 7 August 1949.

Kamal Jumblatt lectured extensively and wrote more than 1200 editorials in both Arabic and French. He is described as a socialist idealist under the influence of the European left movement.[24] He published his mémoires under the title I Speak for Lebanon.[23]

Death

Kamal Jumblatt Square in the Southern Lebanese port city of Tyre, a traditional stronghold of the Amal Movement. The naming reflects the fact that Walid became a main ally of Amal during the war.

On 16 March 1977, Kamal Jumblatt was gunned down in his car near the village of

Baakline in the Chouf mountains by unidentified gunmen.[25][26][27] His bodyguard and driver also died in the attack.[25]

Prime suspects include the

Hafez al Assad and uncle of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, had been behind the killing of Jumblatt.[28]

His son Walid Jumblatt immediately succeeded him as the main Druze leader of Lebanon and as head of the PSP. He was elected leader of the PSP on 1 May 1977.[25] In 2015, Walid Jumblatt accused two Syrian officers, Ibrahim al-Hiwaija and Mohammed al-Khauli, as being responsible of killing his father.[29]

Kamal Jumblatt Centennial (1917-2017)

On the centennial anniversary of the birth of Kamal Jumblatt, the Leadership of the Progressive Socialist Party launched the " Kamal Jumblatt centennial". During the celebration of this anniversary, a small bust of Kamal Jumblatt with a certificate signed by the PSP chief Walid Jumblatt with a yellow pin badge of the People's Liberation Army has been awarded to more than 22,000 PSP, PLA, and National Movement supporters, and veterans, all over Lebanon.

See also

Notes

  1. Deir El Kamar.[4]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-674-08105-5
    . Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  2. ^ "Dar al Takadoumya".
  3. ^ "Timeline | Kamal Joumblatt Digital Library".
  4. ^ "Kamal Jumblatt". Wars of Lebanon. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  5. ^ a b "Le camarade Kamal Bey Joumblatt, seigneur de Moukhtara (1/3)". www.lesclesdumoyenorient.com. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  6. ISSN 1943-6149
    .
  7. ^ Gambill, Gary C.; Nassif, Daniel (May 2001). "Walid Jumblatt". Middle East Intelligence Bulletin. 3 (5). Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  8. ^
    ISBN 3-87997-225-7
    .
  9. ^ a b Schenk, Bernadette (1994) p.66–67
  10. ^ Schenk, Bernadette (1994) p.61
  11. ^ a b c "About Us". Ministry of Economy. Archived from the original on 21 February 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  12. ^ Schenk, Bernadette (1994) p.71
  13. ^
    JSTOR 44746852
    .
  14. ^ "Timeline. Al Anba'". Kamal Jumblatt Digital Library. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  15. ^ David Gilmour, 'Lebanon, The Fractured Country', p.46
  16. ^ a b Yassin, Nasser (2010). "Violent urbanization and homogenization of space and place: Reconstructing the story of sectarian violence in Beirut" (PDF). World Institute for Development Economics Research. Working paper. 18. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  17. ISBN 978-0-692-00328-2
    . Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  18. ^ Schenk, Bernadette (1994).p.87
  19. ^ Schenk, Bernadette (1994), p.88
  20. ^ Schenk, Bernadette (1994), p.89
  21. ^ a b "Leftist Jumblatt slain in Lebanon". The Milwaukee Sentinel. Beirut. UPI. 17 March 1977. Retrieved 15 December 2012.[permanent dead link]
  22. ^ Chammoun, Camille (1963). Crise au Moyen-Orient. Paris: Gallimard. p. 391.
  23. ^ a b Glass, Charles (1 March 2007). "The lord of no man's land: A guided tour through Lebanon's ceaseless war". Harper's Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 February 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  24. ^ Pokrupová, Michaela (2010). "The Chameleon's Jinking. The Druze Political Adaptation in Lebanon" (PDF). Beyond Globalisation: Exploring the Limits of Globalisation in the Regional Context (Conference Proceedings): 73–78.
  25. ^
    ISBN 978-0-312-21593-4
    .
  26. ISBN 978-1-84511-735-1
    .
  27. S2CID 154792218
    .
  28. ^ "George Hawi knew who killed Kamal Jumblatt". Ya Libnan. 22 June 2005. Archived from the original on 7 June 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  29. ^ "البيك في لحظة استقرار: الاغتيال ضد مصلحة سوريا". Al-Akhbar (in Arabic). 8 May 2015.

External links

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