Antoine Ghanem (; 10 August 1943 – 19 September 2007) was a Lebanese politician and an MP in the

Lebanese Parliament The Lebanese Parliament (, ) is the unicameral national parliament of the Lebanon, Republic of Lebanon. There are 128 members elected to a four-year term in Electoral district, multi-member constituencies, apportioned among Lebanon's divers ...

. He was also a member of the

Kataeb The Kataeb Party (), officially the Kataeb Party – Lebanese Social Democratic Party ( '), also known as the Phalangist Party, is a right-wing Christian political party in Lebanon founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936. The party and its parami ...

party and the

March 14 Coalition The March 14 Alliance (), named after the date of the Cedar Revolution, was a coalition of political party, political parties and independents in Lebanon formed in 2005 that were united by their anti-Ba'athist Syria, Assad stance and by their opp ...

. He was murdered on 19 September 2007 in a

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

explosion in the Sin el Fil suburb of

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

. He was the eighth anti-Syrian figure assassinated since the assassination of Rafik Hariri on 14 February 2005.

Early life and education

Ghanem was born in the Tohwita suburb of

on 10 August 1943. He attended the Collège Notre Dame in Furn el Chebek and the Collège du Sacré-Cœur in

Gemmayzeh Rue Gouraud () is a mixed residential and commercial street in Gemmayzeh, a neighborhood in the Rmeil district of Beirut in Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situate ...

, both private

Catholic schools Catholic schools are parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school system. In 201 ...

. After earning a degree in law from the

Université Saint-Joseph Saint Joseph University of Beirut (; French: ''Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth'', commonly known as USJ) is a private Catholic research university in Beirut, Lebanon, founded in 1875 by French Jesuit missionaries and subsidized by the Go ...

and the

University of Lyon The University of Lyon ( , or UdL) is a university system ( ''ComUE'') based in Lyon, France. It comprises 12 members and 9 associated institutions. The 3 main constituent universities in this center are: Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, which f ...

, he taught law for several years at the

Lebanese University The Lebanese University (LU; ) is the only state-funded public university in Lebanon. It was established in 1951. The university's main campus was originally located in Beirut, but a few satellite campuses were opened due to travel restriction ...

. He joined the

Kataeb Party The Kataeb Party (), officially the Kataeb Party – Lebanese Social Democratic Party ( '), also known as the Phalangist Party, is a right-wing Christian political party in Lebanon founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936. The party and its parami ...

in 1961 and later became head of its

Baabda District Baabda District (, transliteration: ''Qada' Baabda''), sometimes spelled ''B'abda'', is a district (''qadaa'') of Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, to the south and east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut. The region is also popularly known as "Sou ...

Political career

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, Ghanem was

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population ch ...

to the Lebanese Parliament for Baabda constituency, running on the list of

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

leader

Walid Jumblat Walid Kamal Jumblatt (; born 7 August 1949) is a Lebanese politician who was the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party from 1977 until 2023. A Druze and former militia commander, Jumblatt led the Lebanese National Resistance Front, allying ...

. A member of the block of the "democratic meeting"

Qornet Chehwan Gathering The Qornet Shehwan Gathering () is a Lebanese political organization, comprising politicians, intellectuals, and businesspeople, mostly Christian and ranging in ideology from the centre-right to the centre-left. The organization is not a politi ...

, he enjoyed nevertheless a certain autonomy considering his membership of the Kataeb Party. He supported

Amine Gemayel Amine Pierre Gemayel (, ; born 22 January 1942) is a Lebanese politician who served as the eighth president of Lebanon from 1982 to 1988. Gemayel was born in Bikfaya to Pierre Gemayel, the founder of the Christianity in Lebanon, Christian Kat ...

in the political struggle within the Kataeb Party, countered the pro-Syrian president of the party

Karim Pakradouni Karim Pakradouni ( ) (born 18 August 1944) is a Lebanese attorney and politician of Armenian origin. He was influential in Kataeb Party, heading it for some period. He was also influential in the Lebanese Forces in various critical phases of the ...

and posted himself as an important speaker within the reforming Movement of the Kataeb Party directed by Gemayel. In September 2004, he voted against the extension of President

Émile Lahoud Émile Jamil Lahoud (born 12 January 1936) is a Lebanese politician who served as the 11th president of Lebanon from 1998 to 2007. During his presidency, the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon, that had lasted since 1982, ended in May 2000. ...

's term. He actively participated in the

Cedar Revolution The Cedar Revolution (), also known as the Independence uprising (), was a chain of demonstrations in Lebanon (especially in the capital Beirut) triggered by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. The popular movemen ...

after the assassination of former Prime Minister

Rafiq Hariri Rafic Bahaa El Deen al-Hariri (; 1 November 1944 – 14 February 2005) was a Lebanese businessman and politician who served as prime minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 to 2004. Hariri headed five cabinets during his tenu ...

. He was re-elected in 2005 to his post of deputy and seat to the political council of the Kataeb Party, after the reunification of this party and the reconciliation between Gemayel and Pakradouni.

Personal life

Ghanem was married to Lolla Abdallah Neemeh. They had four children.

Assassination

Ghanem returned to Beirut from

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

on 16 September 2007, just two days before the assassination. Like many other anti-Syrian legislators, he used to travel abroad during the summer months due to safety concerns. According to reports, nearly forty 14 March MPs including him traveled abroad after the assassination of

Walid Eido Walid Eido (; 2 April 1942 – 13 June 2007) was a member of the Current for the Future, Future Movement, Lebanese List of political parties in Lebanon, political movement and a member of the Lebanese Parliament. He was also a member of the March ...

and returned to Lebanon two days before the assassination. Ghanem and the other MPs stayed at the Phoenicia InterContinental Hotel under heavy security after their return. The car-bomb that killed him along with at least six others, including his two bodyguards, one of whom is Antoine Daou, exploded at a junction of a main street filled with rush hour traffic in the densely populated and mostly Christian neighborhood of Horsh Tabet in

Sin el Fil Sin el Fil ( / ALA-LC: ''Sinn al-Fīl'') is a suburb east of Beirut in the Matn District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon. Etymology The name literally means 'ivory': "tooth" (''sinn'') of "the elephant" (''al-fīl''). Being geographic ...

. The bomb was reported to be booby-trapped. Ghanem was at the age of 64. According to source who looked into the assassination, it was linked to Unit 121 that was responsible of a large number of assassinations in Lebanon.

Perpetrators

Kuwaiti newspaper '' Al Seyassah'' reported that the Ghanem assassination was a direct result of Syria re-opening its bordersSyria reopens 2 border crossings with northern Lebanon
, ''

Ya Libnan Ya Libnan () ''Oh Lebanon'', is a Lebanese media outlet that delivers English-language news from Beirut to an international audience. ''Ya Libnan'' was founded by volunteers in Lebanon immediately after the assassination of Rafik Hariri on 14 F ...

'', 19 September 2007 with Lebanon on 17 September 2007, two days before the assassination.Syrian plot to kill Lebanon's MP Ghanem exposed
, ''

'', 27 September 2007 According to ''Al Seyassahs sources inside Syria, the assassination was performed by Syrian intelligence, who continuously monitored Ghanem's movements. The agents rented two apartments, one near the residence of Ghanem in Qlei'at and the other near the crime scene in

. The sources revealed that the killers left Lebanon immediately after the assassination, completely disguised as Syrian workers.

Burial

Ghanem's body was buried in the Beirut suburb of Tohwita.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghanem, Antoine 1943 births 2007 deaths Saint Joseph University alumni University of Lyon alumni Members of the Parliament of Lebanon Kataeb Party politicians Academic staff of Lebanese University Assassinated Lebanese politicians 20th-century Lebanese politicians 21st-century Lebanese politicians People murdered in Lebanon Deaths by car bomb in Lebanon Lebanese Maronites 20th-century Lebanese lawyers Asian politicians assassinated in the 2000s Politicians assassinated in 2007 Deaths by explosive device