George Hawi ( ar, جورج حاوي; born 5 November 1938 – 21 June 2005) was a Lebanese

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

and former secretary general of the

Lebanese Communist Party The Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), abbr. PCL is a communist party in Lebanon. It was founded in 1924 by the Lebanese intellectual, writer and reporter Yusuf Yazbek and Fu'ad al-Shamali, a tobacco worker from Bikfaya. History Creation The Sy ...

(LCP). An outspoken critic of Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs, he was killed in 2005 by a bomb placed under the passenger seat of his car. Lebanese people accused the Syrian government of assassinating him. He was the stepfather of the Lebanese Armenian politician Rafi Madayan, who also has a stepson, Charbel Khalifeh Hachem.

Early life and career

George Hawi was born in the village of

Bteghrine Bteghrine ( ar, بتغرين, also spelled Bteghrin and Btighrin) is a municipality in the Matn District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. Etymology The exact origin of the town name ''Bteghrine'' is unknown, but possibilities inclu ...

, Lebanon on 5 November 1938 to a Lebanese family. Although born into an Antiochian Greek Orthodox Christian family, Hawi was a professed atheist. He became active in student politics in his early years at university, participating in numerous strikes and demonstrations and in several popular movements. He joined the LCP in 1955 and became one of the main leaders of its Student League by the end of the decade. In 1955 he became a member of the LCP which had been illegal in Lebanon. In 1964, he was imprisoned for his involvement in a strike against Lebanon's state-controlled

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

manufacturer. In 1969 he was again in prison for participation in a demonstration on 23 April in support of the

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

cause, and again in 1970 for his part in attacking an

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

detachment. Hawi was briefly expelled from the LCP in 1967 for calling for more independence from the policies of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. He rejoined the Party and was elected a member of its political bureau in the second and third congresses in 1968 and 1972. Hawi was elected as the general secretary of the

after its fourth congress in 1979 – a position he kept until 1993 when he resigned. He was the fourth general secretary of the party following Fuad Shemali, Farajallah el-Helou and Nicolas Shawi. He was succeeded by Farouk Dahrouj. During the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

Hawi, who used the kunya-style nom de guerre "

Abu Abu or ABU may refer to: Places * Abu (volcano), a volcano on the island of Honshū in Japan * Abu, Yamaguchi, a town in Japan * Ahmadu Bello University, a university located in Zaria, Nigeria * Atlantic Baptist University, a Christian university ...

Anis", established the Popular Guard, the LCP militia, which was aligned with the

Lebanese National Movement The Lebanese National Movement (LNM) ( ar, الحركة الوطنية اللبنانية, ''Al-Harakat al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya'') or Mouvement National Libanais (MNL) in French, was a front of leftist, pan-Arabist and Syrian nationalist p ...

(LNM) of Druze leader

Kamal Jumblatt Kamal Fouad Jumblatt ( ar, كمال فؤاد جنبلاط; 6 December 1917 – 16 March 1977) was a Lebanese politician who founded the Progressive Socialist Party. He led the National Movement during the civil war against the Lebanese Front. ...

in its opposition to the Maronite-dominated government and Christian-backed

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

s. The LCP was also active in the guerrilla warfare against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and its proxy militia, the

South Lebanon Army The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; ar, جيش لبنان الجنوبي, Jayš Lubnān al-Janūbiyy), also known as the Lahad Army ( ar, جيش لحد, label=none) and referred to as the De Facto Forces (DFF) by the United Nat ...

(SLA), in southern Lebanon, after the Israeli invasion in 1982. During the invasion he created the

Lebanese National Resistance Front The Lebanese National Resistance Front – LNRF ( ar, جبهة المقاومة الوطنية اللبنانية, ''Jabhat al-Muqawama al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya'') or Front National de la Résistance Libanaise (FNRL) in French, but best known ...

together with

Muhsin Ibrahim Mohsin Ibrahim ( ar, محسن إبراهيم ''Muḥsin ‘Ibrāhīm''), kunya Abu Khaled (; 1935 – June 3, 2020), was a Lebanese politician. He was a prominent personality of the Lebanese and Arab left. Initially a Nasserist nationalist, he ...

. LNRF was commanded by

Elias Atallah Elias G Atallah ( ar, إلياس عطا الله) (born 1947), is a Lebanese politician, and an elected member of parliament during the 2005 elections. He is also the chairperson of the Democratic Left Movement, and a prominent member in the M ...

. At later stages of the war, the LCP under Hawi allied with Syria, which had entered Lebanon in 1976, but was to stay in the country for nearly 30 years. He became a critic of the influence of Damascus on

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

late in his life, after having left the LCP in 2000. In 2004, he supported the foundation of the leftist Democratic Left Movement (DLM), that was against the Syrian presence in Lebanon and participated in the Independence Uprising of 2005. Murdered

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

Samir Kassir Samir Kassir ( ar, سمير قصير, 5 May 1960 – 2 June 2005) was a Lebanese- Palestinian journalist of '' An-Nahar'' and professor of history at Saint-Joseph University, who was an advocate of democracy and prominent opponent of the Sy ...

was a prominent member and co-founder of this group. In June 2005, Hawi claimed in an interview with

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

, that

Rifaat al-Assad Rifaat Ali al-Assad ( ar, رِفْعَتُ عَلِيِّ ٱلْأَسَدِ, Rifʿat al-ʾAsad; born 22 August 1937) is the younger brother of the late President of Syria, Hafez Assad, and Jamil al-Assad, and the uncle of the incumbent President ...

, brother of

Hafez al Assad Hafez al-Assad ', , (, 6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian statesman and military officer who served as President of Syria from taking power in 1971 until his death in 2000. He was also Prime Minister of Syria from 1970 to 197 ...

and uncle of Syria's current

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Bashar al-Assad, had been behind the killing of Jumblatt.

Assassination

George Hawi was assassinated on 21 June 2005 when a bomb planted in his Mercedes car was detonated by remote control, as he travelled through

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

's Wata Musaitbi neighbourhood. A nearly one-pound charge was placed under his seat, and was detonated by remote control. His driver survived, but Hawi was mortally wounded in the blast. Several sources including the

March 14 Alliance The March 14 Alliance ( ar, تحالف 14 آذار, taḥāluf 14 adhār}), named after the date of the Cedar Revolution, is a coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon formed in 2005 that are united by their anti-Syrian stance ...

and members of the Western media immediately blamed Syria for his killing and for the other explosions in the capital though a definitive culprit has yet to be found. In August 2011, the

Special Tribunal for Lebanon The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), also referred to as the Lebanon Tribunal or the Hariri Tribunal, is a tribunal of international character applying Lebanese criminal law to carry out the investigation and prosecution of those responsib ...

informed members of Hawi's family that they had found a link between his murder and that of former Lebanese Prime Minister

Rafic Hariri Rafic Bahaa El Deen Al Hariri ( ar, رفيق بهاء الدين الحريري; 1 November 1944 – 14 February 2005) was a Lebanese business tycoon and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from ...

. The STL had previously issued indictments against members of Hezbollah for the Hariri killing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawi, George 1938 births 2005 deaths Former Lebanese Orthodox Christians Lebanese atheists Lebanese left-wing activists Lebanese socialists Lebanese democracy activists Assassinated Lebanese politicians Deaths by car bomb in Lebanon Lebanese terrorism victims People from Matn District People murdered in Lebanon Terrorism deaths in Lebanon Lebanese former Eastern Orthodox Christians Former Greek Orthodox Christians Lebanese Communist Party politicians People of the Lebanese Civil War Lebanese secularists

Early life and career

Assassination

See also

References