Bachir Gemayel

Gemayel's father Pierre Gemayel studied pharmacology in Europe and founded the Phalange Party in 1936 (also known as Kataeb) upon his return to Lebanon, modelling the party after the Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed there.

It swelled to 40,000 members.

Bachir Pierre Gemayel (بشير بيار الجميّل ; 10 November 1947 – 14 September 1982) was a Lebanese militia commander who led the Lebanese Forces, the military wing of the Kataeb Party in the Lebanese Civil War and was elected President of Lebanon in 1982.

He founded and later became the supreme commander of the Lebanese Forces, uniting major Christian militias by force under the slogan of "Uniting the Christian Rifle".

Gemayel allied with Israel and his forces fought the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Syrian Army.

Bachir Gemayel was born in the Achrafieh neighborhood of Beirut on 10 November 1947, the youngest of six children.

The Gemayel family originated from Bikfaya village in the Matn District of Lebanon and is one of the most influential Christian families in the country.

He attended the Jesuit Collège Notre Dame de Jamhour and the Institution Moderne du Liban (IML) – Fanar.

He completed his university education at St. Joseph University (Université Saint-Joseph – USJ) in Beirut.

He realized the dangers that surrounded Lebanon in 1958, and spent a lot of time with the organized political wing of the Kataeb Party.

In the late 1960s, he underwent paramilitary training in Bikfaya, and he was appointed squad leader of a militia unit of the Kataeb Regulatory Forces (RKF), the party's military wing formed in 1961.

He attended the meetings organized by the Kataeb Student Section, and was the president of the Kataeb Circle in St. Joseph University between 1965 and 1971.

In 1968, he participated in a student colloquium organized by the newspaper Orient, following events which occurred across Lebanese universities between the Muslim and leftist Pan-Arabist students supporting the Palestinians in Lebanon on one side, and Christian Lebanese nationalist students (whom Gemayel represented) on the other.

After the 1968–69 clashes between the Lebanese Army and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Gemayel gathered a group of Christian students, and started training them in the Kataeb-run Tabrieh training camp, located near Bsharri in the Keserwan District mountains.

This was the start of what would later become the Lebanese Forces.

At this stage, he was a junior militia commander under the orders of William Hawi, the founder and head of the KRF.

In 1969, Gemayel was briefly kidnapped by Palestinian militants in Lebanon and taken to the Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp, where he was beaten.

He was released eight hours later, after Kamal Jumblatt, who was the interior minister at the time, personally mediated with Yasser Arafat in this matter.

Gemayel became a member of the "BG Squad" of the Kataeb Regulatory Forces formed by William Hawi.

He was a revolutionary in the party.

In the early 1970s, he formed the "Bikfaya Squad" within the RKF, where he became acquainted with the basics of military combat.

After teaching for three years at the Lebanese Modern Institute, he graduated in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in law and another in political sciences in 1973.

In 1971, Gemayel studied at The Center for American and International Law near Dallas, Texas in the United States.

He became close with Jean Nader, the leader of Achrafieh at that time, and became the vice president of that Lebanese Capital district, a position that he held from 1971 until 1975.

Gemayel became the head of the "BG Squad" after its members found him as a leader more close to their views.

This group was formed of 12 specially trained members such as Fouad Abou Nader, Fadi Frem, Elie Hobeika and others.

They were fierce fighters, and they were known for their violent performance in the field.

This group was out of the direct control of the party.

He had his own views and principles, and he wanted to run for the Vice Presidency of the party, but his men said to him that they wanted him as the leader of the "Lebanese Forces" and not the VP of a party.

In addition, many members of the party did not want him as the VP because he was the son of Pierre Gemayel, the founder and president of the party.

The elections were cancelled and did not take place until after his assassination.

Qualifying in 1972, he joined the bar association and opened an office in Hamra Street, West Beirut.

He was elected president on 23 August 1982, but he was assassinated before taking office on 14 September, via a bomb explosion by Habib Shartouni, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.

Gemayel is described as the most controversial figure in the history of Lebanon.

He remains popular among Maronite Christians, where he is seen as a "martyr" and an "icon".

Conversely, he has been criticized for committing alleged war crimes and accused of treason for his relations with Israel.

A month after Gemayel's death, his brother Amine Gemayel was elected president in 1982, remaining in office until the end of his constitutional second term in 1988.

Although he became a Lebanese minister, and was targeted in at least two assassination attempts, Pierre Gemayel never rose to the prominence of his sons, yet remained a powerful figure until his death in 1984.

Many of Gemayel's other family members would go on to be elected into the Lebanese parliament: His widow Solange Gemayel (in 2005), his son Nadim Gemayel (in 2009 and 2018), his nephews Sami Gemayel (in 2009 and 2018) and Pierre Amine Gemayel (in 2000 and 2005) who also served as the Minister of Industry from 2005 until his assassination on 21 November 2006.

Gemayel became a member of the Kataeb Party's youth section when he was 12 years old.