Conflict Incident Report

BEIRUT: Thousands gathered Sunday in the town of Mukhtara, the Progressive Socialist Party’s heartland, to mark 40 years since the assassination of the party’s founder, Kamal Jumblatt, and witness the confirmation of a new heir apparent.

During the gathering, MP Walid Jumblatt, in a move symbolizing the transfer of party leadership, took off his keffiyeh and handed it over to his son Taymour, telling him a saying of his grandfather: “Life is lived truly by those strong in their souls, not by those who are weak.”

The commemoration, held in Mount Lebanon’s Chouf district, drew hundreds of party members, supporters and Druze religious clerics. They waved PSP flags, and voiced their support to their leaders through chants and anthems.

Party leader Walid Jumblatt arrived at the ceremony wearing a keffiyeh similar to the scarf his late father was often depicted wearing.

Several dignitaries, including Prime Minister Saad Hariri, attended the ceremony. MPs Bahia Hariri, Ali Bazzi and George Adwan were also present at the memorial.

Lama al-Aridi, 27 and a member of the PSP’s youth cadres, makes her way to Kamal Jumblatt’s grave every year, despite the fact that he died well before she was born. “I go every year ... place flowers at his tomb and remember the teachings he bestowed on us,” she told The Daily Star.

The late Jumblatt was the head of the Lebanese National Movement at the time of his assassination. In addition to being a politician, Kamal Jumblatt was known for his intellectual pursuits. He wrote extensively about philosophy, society and spirituality.

In his testimony at a Special Tribunal for Lebanon hearing in The Hague in 2015, Walid Jumblatt told the court that he was convinced the Syrian regime was behind the March 16, 1977, assassination of his father.

Speaking during Sunday’s commemoration ceremony, Jumblatt called for the maintenance of national unity and reconciliation efforts, as he symbolically passed down the party leadership to his son, Taymour.

“In August 2001, in Mukhtara, we held the reconciliation ceremony with Maronite Patriarch [Nasrallah] Sfeir,” Jumblatt said. He also recounted the key milestones of the 1975-90 Lebanese Civil War and the end of Christian-Druze war-induced conflict.

The Jumblatts are a feudal family that has historically claimed to represent the interest of the Druze sect.

Lebanon was shattered by its 15-year-long internecine struggle. Villages and neighborhoods in which Muslims and Christians had lived side by side for centuries were transformed, as hundreds of thousands of people retreated into separate enclaves controlled by sectarian militias. The year 1983 marked a full-scale war between Christians and Druze inhabitants of the Chouf region. A number of families remained displaced many years after the Civil War’s end.

Reconciliation efforts eventually brought most of the families back to their homes, and saw a historic church in Mukhtara rebuilt last year as a symbol of coexistence.

Jumblatt thanked supporters for their “trust, love, loyalty and sacrifices.” In the background of the ceremony, a large banner depicting Kamal Jumblatt was raised. “He will remain within us and grant us victory,” it read.

In his address, the younger Jumblatt invoked the expression, “Bury your dead and rise.” He called on party loyalists to “march forward.”

Early in March, Taymour Jumblatt said he would act as his father’s political heir and put his name forward in future parliamentary elections as an MP for the Chouf.

“I expect him to be much calmer than his father ... at least that was the impression we got when we met with him,” Aridi said recounting her impression of Taymour during party consultations. “When we met we did sense that he is closer to the youth and wants to give them a greater role.”

At the end of the celebration, Walid Jumblatt and other politicians made their way to the tomb of the late leader and laid roses on it.