Amine Gemayel

In 1960 he joined the Lebanese al-Kataeb Party and rose through its ranks.

Amine Gemayel was elected to the Lebanese Parliament in a bi-election in December of 1970 to represent the North Metn District

He became the Chairman of the Kataeb Emergency Council and continued to serve as a Member of Parliament until his election to the Presidency in 1982.

During the Lebanese War and the collapse of the governmental administration, Amine Gemayel created local communities in every town and village and established a network of developmental institutions for Lebanon called INMA, a non-profit organization recognized by the government as a public interest institution. INMA began a program of development for the entire country including professional, agricultural, and housing cooperatives.

Another in June 1979 left him with minor injuries to his face.

One of his first achievements was to rebuild the State’s institutions and to reorganize and resupply the Army in preparation for the struggle to recover sovereignty and provide security for Lebanon. The same efforts to liberate the country culminated in the security arrangements agreement of May 17, 1983, which was somewhat an affirmation of the Armistice Agreement of 1949. The agreement was widely praised, receiving the approval and blessing of Parliament and the wider Arab community along with the entire international community. The only exception was Syria, and Syria’s opposition to the agreement gave Israel the excuse it was looking for. So, the agreement was never concluded and it was as if it had never existed in the first place.

He survived a third assassination attempts in 1984. It was foiled just minutes before his plane took off on an official trip to Yemen.

The constitutional deadline for the presidential elections was drawing near and the Syrian intervention in this process and its opposition to the election of any legitimate candidate blocked the election of a new President. Amine Gemayel prevented a constitutional vacuum and secured a safe and legitimate transfer of power by appointing the Military Council as transitional government, this being stipulated by the Lebanese constitution.

Amine Gemayel did not seclude himself in his new home in Paris, nor did he take the time to just start writing his memoirs. Instead, he continued to work and move forward with the belief that his mission had not ended with his presidency, which he described as nothing more than “a stage among the many stages of [his] political and civic life.” To begin with, he intensified diplomatic contacts and embarked on a tour of the Lebanese emigrant communities in Europe, the Americas and Australia in order to keep the cause of Lebanon from being forgotten and speak on Lebanon’s behalf. He objected to the Taif Agreement of 1989, which had ratified many provisions which represented “many compromises” and which he had refused when he was in office.

The observations of Amine Gemayel and his alternative plan for rebuilding an independent and stable and modern Lebanon were noted in his reform program which he announced in 1992, in a book entitled “Rebuilding Lebanon’, published by the Center ofInternatinal Affairs (Harvard University).

Regardless of restrictions imposed by security services, Amine Gemayel returned to Lebanon in June 2000 and was welcomed by large crowds that filled the streets and squares of Bikfaya. On his return, Amine Gemayel began his activities within the framework of the “Kornet Shahwan Coalition”, and then through the “Bristol Meeting”, which formed a platform for the joint Christian-Muslim opposition. Eventually, all this led to the Independence Uprising in February 2005 and the March 14th movement.

He became the leader of the Kataeb Party.

He was eager to unite and reform the Kataeb Party and to retrieve its historical role. He accomplished this task with the strong effort of his son, Pierre Gemayel, in 2006.

At the meeting of the Executive Committee of the CDI, held in Rome on September 21^st, 2012, President Amine Gemayel was elected, unanimously, Vice President of CDI and head of the MENA branch (Middle East and North Africa). The latter was established following the meeting of the Executive Committee that took place in the headquarters of the Kataeb Party, during  January 2012.