Kata'ib
| Hizb al-Kata'ib al-Lubnaniyya Party of the Lebanese Brigades |
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|---|---|
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| Party leader | Amin Gemayel |
| founding | 1936 by Pierre Gemayel |
| Headquarters | Beirut , Lebanon |
| Alignment |
Nationalism , fascism (formerly) , national conservatism , federalism , Christian Democracy (today) |
| Parliament seats | 5 of 128 |
| International connections | Christian Democratic International |
| Website | www.kataeb.org |
The Kata'ib ( French Kataëb , Arabic حزب الكتائب اللبنانية Hizb al-Kata'ib al-Lubnaniyya , DMG Ḥizbu l-Katāʾib al-Lubnānīya ' Party of the Lebanese Brigades '), also referred to as Phalange (French Phalanges libanaises ), is a Lebanese political party that originally came from the Maronite- Christian national Youth movement emerged. The members and supporters of the party are known as Phalangists .
history
The party was founded in 1936 by Pierre Gemayel and was inspired by the Spanish Falange . The original uniforms included the brown shirts . The party took part in the Lebanese struggle for independence from France , which was achieved in 1943.
On April 13, 1975, the so-called "bus massacre" of Palestinians took place in the Christian quarter of Ain El Remmaneh in West Beirut. This crime is seen as the prelude to the Lebanese civil war . The Kata'ib was an important political and military power in the country. She was allied with Israel at times and fought against the PLO and the Amal militia , among others . The leader of the phalange was Bachir Gemayel , who was elected President of Lebanon in 1982. When the latter fell victim to a fatal bomb attack on September 14, 1982, before his inauguration, members of the Kata'ib committed a massacre as an act of revenge in the West Beirut refugee camps Sabra and Shatila. According to various sources, between 460 and 3,300 people, most of them civilians, fell victim to the Sabra and Shatila massacre . At that time, the Israeli army surrounded the camp and did not prevent the massacre, which led to a domestic political crisis in Israel and the establishment of the Kahan Commission . Gemayel's brother Amin was then President of Lebanon from September 23, 1982 to 1988.
The Kata'ib militia comprised almost 20,000 men at the beginning of the 1980s and formed the majority of the Forces Libanaises . In 1988 there were still 12,000 men under the command of Samir Geagea , who had ousted Elie Hobeika in 1985 . Initially allied with the regular Lebanese army , they contributed to its destruction after Michel Aoun took over the presidency and his war against Syria in 1990.
Todays situation
Since the dissolution of the militias at the end of the civil war, the Kata'ib have been an independent political party that, like the Forces Lebanaises, was a member of the victorious anti-Syrian party alliance under Saad Hariri in the 2005 parliamentary elections . The Kata'ib and two allied parties achieved six seats in parliament , the Forces Libanaises five seats. The movement's motto was "God, Nation and Family". Despite the small parliamentary group, party leader Gemayel has "a lot of weight in Lebanon". The party's general secretary, Nazar Najarian , was killed in the explosion in the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Pierre Entelis: Pluralism and party transformation in Lebanon: Al-Kataeb Party, 1936-1970 (= social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East . Band 10 ). Brill, 1974, ISBN 90-04-03911-2 , pp. 45 .
- ^ Anne Françoise Weber: Between Corruption and Confession , Deutschlandfunk January 28, 2018.