Al Rahib ☦︎

The assassination of Bachir Gemayel on September 14, 1982, sparked an enormous wave of grief across Lebanon, extending far beyond his own political camp and the Christian community. During his state funeral on September 15, numerous political figures and parties paid tribute to him despite the deep divisions caused by the civil war. Even Walid Jumblatt, a political opponent of Bachir Gemayel, had a wreath of flowers laid in his honor, as he was abroad at the time. The Lebanese Communist Party and the Communist Action Organization also expressed their condolences. For a few days, the death of the president-elect seemed to unite a significant part of a country that had previously been deeply divided. The Frangieh family, however, stood out as a particularly notable exception to this wave of national solidarity. Former President Soleiman Frangieh had harbored deep hostility toward Bachir Gemayel since the Ehden massacre in June 1978, during which his son Tony, his daughter-in-law Vera, and their daughter Jihane were killed in an operation carried out by the Kataeb Party. Following Bachir's death, Soleiman Frangieh showed no willingness to reconcile and even expressed satisfaction at his assassination. This episode illustrates that, despite the tributes paid to Bachir Gemayel by a large part of Lebanon's political establishment, the wounds and rivalries of the civil war remained deeply entrenched.