Kamal Fuad Jumblatt is a Lebanese politician who founded the Progressive Socialist Party and led the national movement against the Lebanese Front during the Civil War. He was an important ally of the Palestine Liberation Organization until he was assassinated in 1977. He is the author of more than 40 books. An author of books on various political, philosophical, literary, religious, medical, social, and economic topics. In September 1972, Kamal Jumblatt won the International Lenin Peace Prize. He is the father of Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and the son-in-law of Arab writer and politician Shakib Arslan.
Kamal Jumblatt was born on 6 December 1917 in Moukhtara. He was born into the celebrated Jumblatt family, who were ancient leaders of the Lebanese Druze community. His father Fouad Joumblatt, the powerful Druze chieftain associate degreed director of the Chouf District, was killed in an ambush on 6 August 1921. Kamal was simply four years old when his father was killed. After his father’s death, his mother Nazira played a significant political role within the Druze community throughout the subsequent 20 years.
In 1953, Jumblatt was re-elected for the fourth time. In the same year, the People’s Socialist Front was established to lead the opposition to the new President Camille Chamon. The United States and the United Kingdom participated in the formulation of the Baghdad Treaty, including the Iraqi Hashemite, Turkey, and Pakistan. Pan-Arabists regarded it as an imperialist alliance and strongly opposed the influential Nasser movement. In the 1956 Suez War, he supported Egypt against Israeli, French, and British attacks, while some Maronite Christian elites in Shamon and Lebanon acquiesced to the invasion. The two sides began to prepare for a fierce conflict.
In 1957, Jumblatt lost the parliamentary election for the first time and complained about election manipulation and election fraud by the authorities. A year later, he became the main leader of a major political uprising against the Camille Montmartre government, which quickly took to the streets. Although it reflects some political and sectarian conflicts, the uprising has a pan-Arab ideology and has received strong support from the newly established United Arab Republic throughout Syria. The Chamon government dispatched the US Marine Corps to occupy Beirut. A political agreement to appoint Jumblatt’s candidate Fuad Chahab as the new President of the Republic.
Kamal Jumblatt worked as a lawyer in Lebanon from 1941 to 1942 and was appointed as the official prosecutor of the Lebanese government. In 1943, after the accidental death of the 26-year-old Hickmat Jublatt, he became the head of the Jublatt family. Although he played an influential role in politics, he competed with Majid Arslan for political leadership over Druze in Lebanon throughout his career. Lebanese politics: In September 1943, Kamal Jumblatt was elected to the national assembly of the mountain Lebanon for the first time, joined the national bloc led by Emil Edde, and thus opposed the constitutional bloc government led by the then-president, Bechara El-Khoury. However, on November 8, 1943, he signed the constitutional reform required by the Constitution Group, and on December 14, 1946, he signed the Riad Al Solh cabinet’s economic combination for the first time. His term of office lasted from December 14, 1946, to June 7, 1947, succeeding Saadi Al Munla. Suleiman Naufal succeeded Jumblatt as Minister of Finance.
In 1947, despite his election as the second member of Parliament, he considered leaving the government. He began to believe that the political system in Lebanon was changed after the opposition groups tried to force him to leave, and he decided to do so rather than stay in office
On 16 March 1977, Kamal Jumblatt was gunned down in his car near the village of Baakline in the Chouf mountains by unidentified gunmen. His bodyguard and driver also died in the attack.
His son Walid Jumblatt immediately succeeded him as the main Druze leader of Lebanon and as head of the PSP. He was elected leader of the PSP on 1 May 1977. In 2015, Walid Jumblatt accused two Syrian officers, Ibrahim al-Hiwaija and Mohammed al-Khauli, of being responsible for killing his father.
References:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4283235
https://www.washingtonpost.com
https://biography.yourdictionary.com
Done By: Alaa Saasouh