Gemayel, Sami

Born in the reputable Maronite family of Gemayel . Pierre Gemayel , grandfather of Sami Gemayel, was the founder of the right-wing Christian phalangist party Kataib . Amin Gemayel , the father of Sami Gemayel, from 1982 to 1988 was the president of Lebanon . Bashir Gemayel , uncle Sami Gemayel, led the phalangist police and Lebanese forces during the civil war , was elected president and died in a terrorist attack. Since childhood, Sami Gemayel was brought up in the traditions of the Lebanese phalanx, under the cult of his grandfather and uncle.

Sami Gemayel studied at the University of St. Joseph . Since 1999, he headed the Kataib student cell at the university. At the same time, he was a member of the Foundation Kataib organization, which rejected the policy of the pro-Syrian leadership of the party and inherited the traditional ideology of the Lebanese phalanx of the Jmayel times ^[1] .

Received a law degree in public law. He was a strong opponent of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.

Sami Gemayel actively participated in the 2005 Cedar Revolution , organized anti-Syrian demonstrations of Lebanese students. He advocated the removal of the pro-Syrian party leadership, headed by Karim Pakraduni .

In 2005 - 2006, Sami Gemayel’s brother Pierre Amin Zhmayel the Younger played an active role in the reform of Kataib. He developed a plan for dividing the top party leadership between Amin Gemayel and Karim Pakraduni and subsequent re-election in 2007 . Sami Gemayel did not accept this compromise, left Kataib and created the organization Lubnanuna ( Our Lebanon ).

On November 21, 2006, Pierre Gemayel Jr. was killed. The responsibility was assumed by the pro-Syrian terrorist group ^[2] . After that, Sami Gemayel returned to Kataib with a radical program dating back to the ideas of Pierre Sr. and Bashir ^[3] . He led a youth and student organization, then became the coordinator of the Kataib Central Committee.

We are back to our roots. To the credit of the Lebanese phalanx. To the truth of Pierre Gemayel. The priority for me is the confidence of the people in our party. This requires openness and honesty. We will not be silent about our mistakes.
Sami Gemayel ^[4]

In the 2009 elections, Sami Gemayel was elected to the Lebanese parliament . On October 19, 2012, on behalf of Kataib , Sami Gemayel sharply condemned the assassination of Visam al-Hassan , the head of the police intelligence investigating the terrorist acts of the Syrian intelligence services in Lebanon ^[5] .

On June 14, 2015, Sami Gemayel was elected chairman of the Kataib party, thus inheriting the post of his father. In an energetic policy statement, he said that the party does not intend to adapt to the prevailing political standards of Lebanon, but rather will bring them into line with its principles. Opponents of his election, who criticized the "dynastic principle of Gemayel," he called "renegades" and "fragments of the Syrian era" ^[6] .

Informed observers sometimes contrast Sami Gemayel with his late brother Pierre Amin. It is alleged that Pierre Gemayel Jr. was a more compromise politician, and in this he resembled his father. At the same time, Sami Gemayel is seen as a straightforward radical in the spirit of the “president forever” Bashir Gemayel. This is manifested in Sami Gemayel’s tough course regarding Syria and Muslim political forces, in calls for the unity of the Christian community , in constant readiness for confrontation ^[7] .

Another feature of Sami Gemayel’s policy is emphasized confessional priorities:

There can be no Lebanon without Christians. There is no Sunni- Christian, Shiite- Christian or Druze- Christian plan. There is only a Christian-Christian plan.
Sami Gemayel ^[8]

Despite this, it was Sami Gemayel who first announced the confessional openness of the party and called on Lebanese Muslims to join Kataib ^[9] .

Sami Gemayel stands on the positions of Lebanese nationalism and right-wing Christian democracy . He is a supporter of the federalization of Lebanon. He advocates administrative decentralization, the development of self-government and socio-cultural pluralism, guaranteeing the equal rights of women, free education and a tough fight against corruption ^[1] . Kataib's first deputy chairman, Joseph Abu Khalil , an activist in the Lebanese phalanx from the first half of the 1940s, an ally of the party’s founder, personifying the connection of the times, sees in Sami Gemayel features of Pierre Gemayel Sr. ^[10] . Sami Gemayel is supported by the prominent figure Kataib Fuad Abu Nader , founder of the Freedom Front movement, which advocates from the perspective of Christian unity.

Sami Gemayel takes a tough anti-Syrian position, actively opposes the Hezbollah Islamist movement. The relations of the chairman of Kataib with the allies in the Coalition on March 14 - Saad Hariri and the Lebanese Forces party, headed by former commander of the phalangist special forces Samir Jaadjaa ^{[11], are} complicated . Inside Kataib, sharp contradictions are noted between Sami Zhmayel and his cousin Nadim (son of Bashir Zhmayel ), who is oriented towards an alliance with the Lebanese forces ^[8] .

In the 2014–2016 presidential election in Lebanon, Kataib, as part of the Coalition, supported the candidacy of Samir Jaajaa on March 14. However, in 2016, Jaajaa unexpectedly supported Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement. This decision led to a conflict between the Lebanese Forces and Kataib. Sami Gemayel refused to support the union of Jaadjaa with Aun ^[12] .

Sami Gemayel is married to tripolitan Karin Tadmouri, who previously worked as a dentist in France ^[13] . Leaders and veterans of Kataib, including the head of the clan Amin Gemayel ^[14], attended the wedding in Bikfay.

By religion, Karin Gemayel is a Muslim Sunni. Such a marriage of Sami Gemayel, famous for pathetic Christian-confessional rhetoric, aroused bewilderment and critical reviews among political opponents ^[9] .