Munif al-Razzaz (; 19 December 1919 – 16 September 1984) was a Jordanian-Syrian physician and politician who was the second, and last, Secretary General of the (unifed) National Command of the
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, having been elected to the post at the 8th National Congress held in April 1965.
Munif relocated to Iraq in 1977 and became a leading member of the
Iraqi Ba'ath. Munif was among dozens of dissidents accused of plotting against then new Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
in the
1979 Ba'ath Party Purge. King
Hussein had advocated for Munif's release so he can return safely to Jordan, but President Saddam Hussein adamantly refused. Munif died in 1984 during his house arrest in Baghdad. His wife and doctor claimed that he was poisoned after his medication for high blood pressure medicine was replaced. He was buried in Amman according to his only will.
Biography
Early years
Razzaz was born in
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, Syria on 19 December 1919, but he was raised in Jordan. His family moved to Jordan in 1925 after his father, a veterinarian, was accused by the French colonial authorities in Syria of collaborating with the rebels during the
Great Syrian Revolt
The Great Syrian Revolt (), also known as the Revolt of 1925, was a general uprising across the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria and Greater Lebanon during the period of 1925 to 1927. The leading rebel forces initially comprised figh ...
by treating their injured horses.
In 1937 Razzaz was given scholarship at the
American University in Beirut after having spent a brief period studying in Cairo. He became a member of the
Jordanian Regional Branch of the
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 1950. Razzaz was one of the co-founders of the Ba'athist Regional Branch in Jordan, and he promoted the
Ba'athist ideology through his writings in
national newspapers. From 1955 to 1957, the Jordanian Ba'athists were loud critics of
King Hussein
Hussein bin Talal (14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hussein was traditionally considered a 40th-generati ...
. Razzaz criticized the King Hussein's support of the
Baghdad Pact, and his stance towards
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 a ...
, the
President of Egypt
The president of the Arab Republic of Egypt () is the executive head of state of Egypt and the de facto appointer of the official head of government under the Egyptian Constitution of 2014. Under the various iterations of the History of the Egypt ...
. Because of his anti-monarchy activities Razzaz was imprisoned in 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960.
In the aftermath of the
Ramadan Revolution which brought the
Iraqi Ba'ath Branch to power in Iraq, Razzaz along with fellow Ba'athist
Abdallah Abd al-Da'im, was given the task of formulating a political program which was supposed to be broadcast to the Iraqi people.
National Command
Razzaz was elected Secretary General of the National Command at the 8th National Congress in April 1965, and succeeded
Michel Aflaq
Michel Aflaq (, ; 9 January 1910 – 23 June 1989) was a Syrian philosopher, sociology, sociologist and Arab nationalism, Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Ba'athism and its political movement; he ...
in office. However, Razzaz was not rooted enough in Syrian affairs to find a solution to the crisis which was taking hold in Syria. In November 1965, the National Command passed a resolution which forbade the Syrian Regional Command to appoint or relieve officers. The Military Committee led by
Salah Jadid responded immediately by rebelling. Razzaz then convened an emergency session of the National Command which decreed the dissolution of
Yusuf Zu'ayyin's government and the Syrian Regional Command, while they decreed the establishment of a new leadership for Syria; al-Bittar became Prime Minister,
Muhammad Umran became
Minister of Defense,
Amin al-Hafiz
Amin may refer to:
People
* Amin (name), a masculine given name and also a surname
* Al-Amin, sixth Abbasid caliph, who ruled from 809 to 813
* Amin (Qing dynasty), Imperial Prince of the Qing Dynasty
* Idi Amin (c. 1925–2003), military ruler ...
became Chairman of a new
Presidential Council, and
Mansur al-Atrash became Chairman of the National Revolutionary Council. Jadid and his supporters replied by carrying out the
1966 Syrian coup d'état which led to the downfall of the National Command and the moderate faction within the Ba'ath Party.
Later years
Following the downfall of Aflaq,
Salah al-Din al-Bitar
Salah al-Din al-Bitar (; 1 January 1912 – 21 July 1980) was a Syrian politician who co-founded the Ba'ath Party, Baʿath Party with Michel Aflaq in the early 1940s. As students in Paris in the early 1930s, the two formulated a doctrine t ...
and the moderates in general in the 1966 coup, Razzaz went underground. He became the only member of the old National Command to put up any resistance against Jadid's neo-Ba'athist government. On his ascension to office, Razzaz relationship with Aflaq deteriorated even if it was the Military Committee, and not Razzaz, who forced him from office.
Shortly after the 1966 coup, Colonel
Salim Hatum began planning a conspiracy which would topple the Jadid government. Hatum forged an alliance with Razzaz, encouraged by messages from comrades from the old National Command, began recruiting military officers to his cause. He managed to form a Military Committee led by
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 ...
officer Major General
Fahd al-Sha'ir. The coup was uncovered by the authorities in August 1966, and Razzaz and fellow conspirators were forced either into hiding or into
Lebanon
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
. Razzaz was highly critical of the Syrian regime of Hafez al Assad, writing an exposure book, Al Tajribah al Murrah ''The Bitter Experience'', published in 1966. He became a member of the Palestinian Iraqi-aligned Ba'athist organization
Arab Liberation Front
Arab Liberation Front (ALF; ''Jabhet Al-Tahrir Al-'Arabiyah'') is a minor Palestinian political party, previously controlled by the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which it founded in 1969 as its Palestinian military wing. It was based out of Iraq and tr ...
in 1966, and through it, rose through the Iraqi-dominated Ba'athist structure.
In 1977, Munif relocated to Iraq and became a leading member of the
Iraqi Ba'ath. He was among dozens of dissidents accused of plotting against then new Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
in the
1979 Ba'ath Party Purge.
King Hussein
Hussein bin Talal (14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hussein was traditionally considered a 40th-generati ...
had advocated for Munif's release so he can return safely to Jordan, but President Saddam Hussein adamantly refused. Munif died in 1984. His wife and doctor claimed that he was poisoned after the medication he was taking for high blood pressure was replaced with poison. He puked blood in front of his wife and daughter.
Thought
In the article "Ba'ath Socialism" in the Iraqi newspaper ''
Iraq Today'' Razzaz stated that Ba'athist socialism was
scientific socialism
Scientific socialism in Marxism is the application of historical materialism to the development of socialism, as not just a practical and achievable outcome of historical processes, but the only possible outcome. It contrasts with utopian social ...
, and that it "was the natural and inevitable response to the contradictions between the Arab nation and home land, with
colonialism
Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...
,
imperialism
Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...
and backwardness, both inherited and recent. It is a natural response to natural struggle blended with
class struggle
In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...
." Razzaz laid emphasis on the fact that Ba'athist socialism was both scientific and moral, and that Ba'athist socialism was a form of Third World Socialism and not the form of socialism of the
First,
Second
The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
,
Third
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system
Places
* 3rd Street (di ...
or
Fourth Internationals. These forms of socialism derived "their character from pure class contradictions inside imperialist industrialized societies. It is a socialism which draws its basic properties from the contradictions of the
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...
with imperialism on the one hand, and backwardness on the other". Ba'athist socialism, in his mind, opposed full state ownership of the economy, but supported state ownership over the heights of the economy. In his influential 1957 article "Why Socialism Now?" Razzaz states; "Socialism is a way of life, not just an economic order. It extends to all aspects of life – economics, politics, training, education, social life, health, morals, literature, science, history, and others both great and small. Socialism, freedom and unity are not different names for different things … but different facets of one basic law from which they spring." Together with Aflaq and
Jamal al-Atassi, Razzaz wrote ''Articles on Socialism'' in 1974.
In a paper entitled "Arab nationalism" Razzaz asserts that
Arab nationalist ideology is "the driving force behind the Arabs in their struggle to create a progressive nation that can hold on its own with the nations of the world." Razzaz believed that the Arabs had a sense of belonging to an Arab identity which could be traced back to pre-Islamic days. He believed that the Arab world was first confronted by Western colonialism at the beginning of the 16th century in the Persian Gulf and the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...
. The
1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...
"which brought the humiliating defeat of the Arabs by a handful of Jews, was the last straw that destroyed any remnants of confidence between the ruling classes on one side and the masses on the other." Resentments towards the Western powers for creating
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
could never be forgotten Razzaz believed, and the creation of Israel led to the popular demand of an end to all Western tutelage in the Arab world. Razzaz claimed that Arab nationalism was the conflict between two forces; the reactionary classes and the masses. The reactionary classes were inefficient vassals of Western capitalist imperialism who had betrayed the nation, while the masses were "anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and anti-Zionist, and in favor of unity, freedom, socialism and neutralism."
Personal life
In 1949, he married Lam'a Bseisso, who was born in
Hama
Hama ( ', ) is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 996,000 (2023 census), Hama is one o ...
, Syria in 1923, with whom he had two sons and one daughter.
His son
Omar Razzaz was the
Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
of Jordan from 2018 to 2020.
References
Citations
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Razzaz, Munif al
1919 births
1984 deaths
Iraqi Arab nationalists
Members of the Jordanian Regional Branch of the Ba'ath Party
Members of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party
Members of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction)
Amman Arab University alumni
Syrian Arab nationalists
20th-century Syrian politicians
Jordanian people of Syrian descent