Samir Kassir ( ar, سمير قصير, 5 May 1960 – 2 June 2005) was a
Lebanese-
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 ...
journalist of ''
An-Nahar
''An-Nahar'' ( ar, النهار, lit=The Day or The Morning) is a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper published in Lebanon. In the 1980s, ''An-Nahar'' was described by the ''New York Times'' and ''Time Magazine'' as the newspaper of record ...
''
and professor of history at
Saint-Joseph University, who was an advocate of democracy and prominent opponent of the
Syrian occupation of Lebanon
The Syrian occupation of Lebanon ( ar, الاحتلال السوري للبنان, french: Occupation syrienne du Liban) began in 1976, during the Lebanese Civil War, and ended on 30 April 2005 after the Cedar Revolution and several demonstrati ...
.
[ He was assassinated in 2005 as part of a series of assassinations of anti-Syria Lebanese political figures such as ]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 ...
and George Hawi
George Hawi ( ar, جورج حاوي; born 5 November 1938 – 21 June 2005) was a Lebanese politician and former secretary general of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP). An outspoken critic of Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs, he was kill ...
.
Early life and education
Samir Kassir was born on 5 May 1960.[ His father was a Lebanese-Palestinian and his mother was a Lebanese-Syrian.] He hailed from an Antiochian Greek Orthodox family. And jewish sephardic
Kassir received his degree in political philosophy in 1984. He gained a DEA (roughly equivalent to a Master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in the British university system) in philosophy and political philosophy from Pantheon-Sorbonne University in the same year. He obtained his PhD in modern and contemporary history from Paris-Sorbonne University
Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; french: Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV) was a public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the Universit ...
in 1990, with a thesis on 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 ...
.
Journalism
Kassir's journalistic career began when he was a seventeen-year-old secondary school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
student at the Lycée Français de Beyrouth with unsigned contributions to 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 ...
newspaper ''Al Nidā''. The same year, he began contributing to the French-language daily ''L'Orient-Le Jour
''L'Orient-Le Jour'' () is a leading French-language daily newspaper in Lebanon.
History
''L'Orient-Le Jour'' was first published on 15 June 1971, following the merger of two French language Lebanese dailies, ''L'Orient'' (founded in Beirut in ...
''. From 1981 to 2000, he contributed to the French international political review '' Le Monde Diplomatique''. In 1982 and 1983 he edited the newsletter ''Le Liban en Lutte'' (Struggling Lebanon), which was dedicated to the Lebanese resistance against the 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 ...
i occupation. From 1984 to 1985 he edited the weekly ''Al-Yawm as-Sābi, and from 1986 to 2004 he was a member of the editorial board of the ''Revue des Etudes Palestiniennes'', the French-language journal of the Institute for Palestine Studies
The Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) is the oldest independent nonprofit public service research institute in the Arab world. It was established and incorporated in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1963 and has since served as a model for other such inst ...
. From 1988 to 1989 he contributed to the London-based pan-Arab daily ''Al-Hayat
Al-Hayat ( ar, الحياة meaning "Life") was a London-based, pan-Arab newspaper owned by Saudi Prince Khalid bin Sultan, that had a circulation estimated over 200,000. It was the newspaper of record for the Arab diaspora and the preferred v ...
''.
In 1995 he founded a new monthly political and cultural review, ''L'Orient L'Express'', which he edited until it ceased publication in 1998, from lack of interest and pressure from the advertising industry. From that year on he was a professor at the "Institut des sciences politiques de l'Université Saint-Joseph" in Beirut. It was also in 1998 that Kassir became an editorial writer for the daily ''Al-Nahar'' newspaper. He became widely known for his popular weekly column in which he wrote strong articles against the pro-Syrian government. He also made frequent appearances on several television stations as a political analyst on news programs.
Assassination and funeral
Kassir was assassinated using a car bomb
A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
in Beirut on 2 June 2005, just a few days after the general elections. The investigation into his assassination is still underway, but to date no one has been indicted. Since he had been constantly receiving threats from Lebanese and Syrian Intelligence Officers, there is widespread speculation in Lebanon that the perpetrators were the Lebanese-Syrian security apparatus or remnants of this force (as Syria has claimed that all its intelligence officers were out of Lebanon; in addition, the head of the Lebanese security forces had resigned). The Syrian government has denied these charges.
On 4 June, a funeral ceremony was performed for him in Beirut with the attendance of hundreds.
Aftermath
There was widespread condemnation for the killing and many prominent opposition figures blaming the blast on the Lebanese and Syrian governments. Among them were Hariri's son, Saad Hariri
Saad El-Din Rafik Al-Hariri ( ar, سعد الدين رفيق الحريري, translit=Saʿd ad-Dīn Rafīq al-Ḥarīrī; born 18 April 1970) is a Lebanese-Saudi politician who served as the prime minister of Lebanon from 2009 to 2011 and 2016 ...
, who said "the blood-stained hands that assassinated Rafiq Hariri are the same ones that assassinated Samir Kassir." Moreover, 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 ...
, Secretary General of the Democratic Left Movement, urged his allies to the presidential palace and remove president Lahoud. However, the calls remained unanswered. Years later, March 14 allies admitted that had Lahoud been removed, Lebanon would have been spared the later political assassinations.
Kassir was among the first victims in the growing list of political assassinations that occurred in Lebanon from 2004 to 2008. These began with the attempted assassination of Marwan Hamadeh
Marwan Hamadeh ( ar, مروان حمادة; born 11 September 1939) is a Lebanese journalist and politician, who served in various capacities in different cabinets, including minister of education, minister of telecommunications, minister of econ ...
and followed with the killing of Rafik Hariri in 2005. After Kassir, George Hawi
George Hawi ( ar, جورج حاوي; born 5 November 1938 – 21 June 2005) was a Lebanese politician and former secretary general of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP). An outspoken critic of Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs, he was kill ...
, the former head 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 ...
was targeted by another car-bomb; this was followed by failed assassination attempts at former Interior Minister and former Syrian ally Elias Murr
Elias Murr ( ar, إلياس المرّ, '; born 30 January 1962) is a Lebanese politician and an International political figure.
Early life and education
Murr was born on 30 January 1962 in Bteghrine. He is the son of former deputy prime min ...
and popular LBCI
The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International ( ar, المؤسسة اللبنانية للإرسال انترناسيونال), widely known as LBCI, is a private television station in Lebanon. LBCI was founded in 1992 by acquiring the asse ...
TV anchorwoman and journalist May Chidiac
May Chidiac ( ar, مي شدياق) (born 20 June 1963) is a journalist and former Lebanese Minister of State for Administrative Development.
Chidiac is a former television journalist at the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) and one of ...
who survived, but lost an arm and leg. On 12 December 2005, Samir Kassir's colleague, ''An Nahars chief editor, and top anti-Syria legislator Gebran Tueni
Gebran Ghassan Tueni ( ar, جبران تويني; 15 September 1957 – 12 December 2005) was a Lebanese politician and the former editor and publisher of daily paper ''An Nahar'', established by his grandfather, also named Gebran Tueni, ...
, was killed by a car bomb. Pierre Amine Gemayel
Pierre Amine Gemayel (Arabic: ; commonly known as Pierre Gemayel Jr., or simply Pierre Gemayel; 23 September 1972 – 21 November 2006) was a Lebanese politician in the Kataeb Party, also known as the Phalange Party in English.
Early life an ...
, the former Minister of Industry, was another victim in the series of assassinations. MP Walid Eido
Waleed (), also spelt as Walid, Oualid, or Velid, is an Arabic-language masculine given name meaning ''newborn child''.
Given name Waleed
*Waleed Ali, Kuwaiti footballer
*Waleed Aly, Egyptian-origin Australian journalist
* Waleed bin Ibrahim al-Ib ...
from the Hariri-led Future movement was killed near the Military Bath of Beirut on 13 June 2007. Shortly afterwards, MP Antoine Ghanem
Antoine Ghanem ( ar, أنطوان غانم; 10 August 1943 – 19 September 2007) was a Lebanese politician and an MP in the Lebanese Parliament. He was also a member of the Kataeb party and the March 14 Coalition. He was killed on 19 Sep ...
of the Lebanese Phalanges Party (aka Kataeb Party
The Kataeb Party ( ar, حزب الكتائب اللبنانية '), also known in English as the Phalanges, is a Christian political party in Lebanon. The party played a major role in the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). In decline in the lat ...
), was killed in another car bomb on 19 September 2007 in the Sin al-Fil suburb of Beirut. Then, second-in-command of the Lebanese Armed Forces
)
, founded = 1 August 1945
, current_form = 1991
, disbanded =
, branches = Lebanese Ground ForcesLebanese Air ForceLebanese Navy
, headquarters = Yarze, Lebanon
, flying_hours =
, website ...
, General François al-Hajj
François al-Hajj ( ar, اللواء فرنسوا الحاج; , 28 July 1953 – 12 December 2007) was a Lebanese major general. He was assassinated by a car bomb on 12 December 2007.
Early life and education
Al Hajj was born in the southern L ...
was killed in the military-secured suburb of Baabda on 12 December 2007. One month later, security chief and top Lebanese investigator into the International Tribunal for the Hariri assassination was killed in January 2008. Many have blamed Syria for all the recent assassinations of its opponents.
Views
A prominent left-wing activist, Kassir was a strong advocate of freedom for the Palestinians, democracy in Lebanon and Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
and a vocal critic of the Syrian presence in Lebanon
The Syrian occupation of Lebanon ( ar, الاحتلال السوري للبنان, french: Occupation syrienne du Liban) began in 1976, during the Lebanese Civil War, and ended on 30 April 2005 after the Cedar Revolution and several demonstrati ...
. He was a keen advocate of secular democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
in the Middle East.
" ... What rab-Americanreconciliation needs, if the United States were really willing to reach such reconciliation, is first merica'srevision of its understanding of Arab democracy, which has been restricted until now, to the American convention that mandates Arabs give up their pan-Arab ties... and the issues that steer their feelings most, on top of them the Palestinian issue ..."
Known for his unrelenting courage, Kassir was unafraid of expressing trenchant opinions. He continuously spoke for the rights of the Palestinians. He recognised courage and determination in others and took under his wing leading young pro-democracy and human rights activists such as Wissam Tarif
Wissam Kassem Tarif (born 10 April 1975) has played a key role in the field of pro-Democracy and Human Rights work in Syria and Lebanon, as both an intellectual and activist. Currently Director of an influential Middle East human rights organisati ...
, with whom Kassir developed a warm and close friendship. It was his non-compromising views on the Ba'ath
Ba'athism, also stylized as Baathism, (; ar, البعثية ' , from ' , meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"Hans Wehr''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th ed.), page 80) is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation ...
government that many believe led to his assassination.
He maintained a keen and sympathetic interest in Syria despite his criticism of its involvement in Lebanon, and was on close terms with many Syrian intellectuals, including those involved in the Damascus Spring
The Damascus Spring ( ar, ربيع دمشق, ) was a period of intense political and social debate in Syria which started after the death of President Hafiz al-Asad in June 2000 and continued to some degree until autumn 2001, when most of the act ...
. He was a founding member of the Democratic Left Movement, which won a seat in the Lebanese parliamentary elections of 2005. Kassir and the party he helped establish were both very influential in triggering the popular upheavals following Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's killing.
Works
Kassir's books, in French and Arabic, include a history of Beirut and a study of the Lebanese Civil War. He also co-authored a book about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Palestinian-French relations. His last book in Arabic concerned with the "Damascus Spring" and the consequences for Lebanon of Syrian political developments; Syrian dissident film-maker Omar Amiralay
Omar Amiralay ( ar, عمر أميرالاي) (1944 – 5 February 2011) was a Syrian documentary film director and civil society activist. He is noted for the political criticism in his films, and played a prominent role in the events of the Da ...
penned its introduction. Before his assassination, he was working on another book about the "Beirut Spring" that aimed to discuss the recent momentous developments in Lebanon, that was supposed to be published by Actes Sud. In February 2006, a book was published with the same title, by Actes Sud, but contained translations of Arabic articles written mainly after Hariri's assassination.
* ''Itinéraires de Paris à Jérusalem. La France et le conflit israélo-arabe'', 2 volumes, Paris, Revue des études palestiniennes, 1992 et 1993 (with Farouk Mardam-Bey).
* ''La guerre du Liban; De la dissension nationale au conflit régional (1975-1982)'', Paris, Karthala/Cermoc, 1994.
* ''Histoire de Beyrouth'', Paris, Fayard, 2003.
* Askar 'ala mén? Lubnan al-jumhúriyya al-mafqúda'', Beirut, Dár al-Nahár, 2004. ''(Soldiers against whom? Lebanon, the lost republic)''.
* ''Dímúqrátiyyat súria wastiqlál lubnan; al-ba`th 'an rabí' dimashq'', Beirut, Dár al-Nahár, 2004. ''(Syrian democracy and Lebanese independence: in search of the Damascus Spring)''.
''Considerations sur le malheur arabe''
Paris, Actes Sud, 2004. Translated and published by, Dár al-Nahár, in November 2005.
* ''Liban: Un printemps inachevé'', Actes Sud, 2006. Translated from Arabic by Hoda Saliby.
''L'infelicità araba ''
Giulio Einaudi
Giulio Einaudi (; 2 January 1912 – 5 April 1999) was an Italian book publisher. The eponymous company that he founded in 1933 became "a European wellspring of fine literature, intellectual thought and political theory"Saxon, Wolfgang ''The New ...
editore s.p.a. Torino 2006.
* ''Primavere per una Siria Democratica e un Libano Independente'', Mesogea by GEm s.r.l. 2006.
''Das Arabische unglück''
Schiler 2006
''De la desgracia de ser árabe''
Almuzara 2006
''Being Arab''
Verso, London 2006
* ''Den arabiska olyckan'', Ruin, Stockholm 2006
* ''At være araber'', Informations Forlag, Købehavn 2009
''Arap Talihsizliği''
İletişim Yayınları
İletişim Yayınları (English: ''Contact Publications'') is an independent publishing company based in Istanbul, Turkey. It has published authors including Orhan Pamuk, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Cemil Meriç, Şerif Mardin, and Mehmet Murat ...
, İstanbul 2011
Personal life
He was married to Giselle Khoury, a talk-show host on Al-Arabiya television. He had two daughters, Mayssa and Liana, from a previous marriage.
Legacy
His wife, Giselle Khoury, and a group of Kassir's friends, students and colleagues from ''l'Orient Express'', including writer Elias Khoury
Elias Khoury ( ar, إلياس خوري; born 12 July 1948) is a Lebanon, Lebanese novelist, and prominent public intellectual. Accordingly, he has published myriad novels related to literary criticism, which have been translated into several fore ...
, created the Samir Kassir Foundation. One of the foundation's objectives would be translating his works into English, Italian, and Norwegian. A special edition of ''l'Orient Express'' was published in November 2005 to celebrate its tenth anniversary under the title "The Unfinished Spring" and was dedicated in memory of Kassir. This project was initially Kassir's idea who was working on it before he was assassinated. A square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
in downtown 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 ...
, behind the Annahar building, was named in Kassir's honor.
The EU Delegation to Lebanon and the Kassir Foundation initiated a journalism prize in 2006. Dina Abdel Mooti Darwich, an Egyptian journalist, won the first Samir Kassir Prize in 2006. The Kassir Foundation erected a bronze statue of the journalist there on 2 June 2006, exactly a year after his assassination.
See also
* List of assassinated Lebanese politicians
This is a list of many, but not all, of the assassinated Lebanese political figures:
*Amine Abouchahine - senior member of the Progressive Socialist Party. Assassinated on 15 July 1975 by a member of the Kataeb Regulatory Forces.
*Sheikh Ahmad A ...
References
Notes
Journalist's murder rattles Beirut
''Christian Science Monitor'', 3 June 2005
Death in Beirut
''New York Sun'', 3 June 2005
Hundreds mourn Beirut journalist
BBC News, 3 June 2005
Adam Shatz - The principle of hope: Samir Kassir 1960-2005
''The Nation'', 4 July 2005
Ramsay Short - ''The Telegraph'', 3 June 2005
Petition Urges Justice for Samir Kassir
iFEX, 5 July 2005.
External links
Samir Kassir Website done by members of the Democratic left movement
(inactive since January 2006)
Connecting the dots in Lebanon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kassir, Samir
20th-century journalists
1960 births
2005 deaths
Assassinated Lebanese journalists
Deaths by car bomb in Lebanon
Greek Orthodox Christians from Lebanon
Lebanese democracy activists
Lebanese left-wing activists
Lebanese people of Palestinian descent
Lebanese people of Syrian descent
Lebanese secularists
Lebanese socialists
Members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch
Palestinists
Paris-Sorbonne University alumni
Saint Joseph University alumni
Saint Joseph University faculty
Terrorism deaths in Lebanon