Pierre Gemayel
Lebanese politician
Died when: 78 years 297 days (945 months)Star Sign: Scorpio
Pierre Amine Gemayel, also spelled Jmayyel, Jemayyel or al-Jumayyil (Arabic: بيار الجميّل; 6 November 1905 – 29 August 1984), was a Lebanese political leader.
A Maronite Catholic, he is remembered as the founder of the Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalangist Party), as a parliamentary powerbroker, and as the father of Bachir Gemayel and Amine Gemayel, both of whom were elected to the Presidency of the Republic in his lifetime.
He opposed the French Mandate over Lebanon in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and advocated an independent state, free from foreign control.
He was known for his deft political maneuvering, which led him to take positions which were seen by supporters as pragmatic, but by opponents as contradictory, or even hypocritical.
Although publicly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, he later changed his position due to Palestinian support of the Lebanese National Movement and its calls to end the National Pact and establish non-sectarian democracy.
Gemayel also had a career in football in the 1930s, captaining the Lebanon national team as a player.He also became the first Lebanese football referee to officiate matches internationally, and was the second president of the Lebanese Football Association, between 1935 and 1939.
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