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 party and the March 14 Coalition. 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, both private Catholic schools. After earning a degree in law from the Université Saint-Joseph in

and the University of Lyon, he taught law for several years at the Lebanese University. He joined the Kataeb Party 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 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. A member of the block of the "democratic meeting" Qornet Chehwan Gathering, he enjoyed nevertheless a certain autonomy considering his membership of the Kataeb Party. He supported Amine Gemayel in the political struggle within the Kataeb Party, countered the pro-Syrian president of the party Karim Pakradouni 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'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. 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 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. 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'', 19 September 2007 with Lebanon on 17 September 2007, two days before the assassination.Syrian plot to kill Lebanon's MP Ghanem exposed
, '' Ya Libnan'', 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 Sin el Fil. 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