Nasib Al Matni

Nasib Al Matni (1910–1958) was a Lebanese journalist who was assassinated on 8 May 1958. He established several publications and edited various newspapers. His assassination triggered the events which led to a political crisis in Lebanon. The murder of Al Matni is one of the unsolved cases in Lebanon.[1]

Nasib Al Matni
Born1910
Died8 May 1958 (aged 47–48)
Beirut
Cause of deathAssassination
NationalityLebanese
OccupationJournalist
Known for
  • Founder of various publications
  • His assassination in May 1958 which led to political crisis in Lebanon

Biography

Al Matni was born in 1910.[2] He descended from a Maronite family.[3][4]

Al Matni was the president of the Lebanese Press Federation.[5] During the presidency of Bechara El Khoury he was one of the leading dissidents in Lebanon.[1] In 1952 Al Matni was arrested and tried which was protested through a three-day strike.[1] He was also a critic of the President Camille Chamoun and held pro-Nasserist views.[3] Al Matni and the editor of the Communist newspaper Al Shaab were briefly arrested on 22 July 1957 following the general election.[6] They called for President Chamoun's impeachment if there were fraudulent practices in the electoral process.[6]

Assassination

Al Matni was assassinated in his office in West Beirut in the early hours on 8 May 1958.[3][4][6] During the incident he was the owner and editor-in-chief of The Telegraph[1][7] which was supported by the Sunni opposition in Lebanon.[3] The paper was a leftist and pan-Arabist daily publication[8] which criticized the policies of President Chamoun.[2] In the last editorial published in the paper Al Matni repeated his call for the resignation of President Chamoun and added:[9]

Lebanon's interests, Lebanon's eternal independence, and the interest of the people make it essential for the individual to sacrifice himself for the benefit of the whole.

The officials claimed that his killing was not due to a political reason, but the opposition figures argued that he was killed due to his anti-Chamoun stance.[3] Because following his assassination numerous threatening letters were found which asked him to stop his criticisms against President Chamoun.[2]

Aftermath

After his assassination Kamal Jumblatt and other opposition leaders asked the Lebanese people to organize a general strike[10] which led to large-scale protests in Beirut and Tripoli.[3] The libraries of the United States Information Agency were burned by the demonstrators in both cities on 10 May.[6] The protests took place on the day of Al Matni's funeral in Akkar, Miniyeh, Chouf, Biqa and Sidon.[7] These demonstrations soon expanded to other Lebanese cities.[11] Muslims, Druzes and those Christians who opposed to President Chamoun participated in these protests which lasted between 9 May and 14 October 1958.[11][12] During these events nearly 3,000 people died.[11]

Several media outlets blamed President Chamoun and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party for the murder of Al Matni.[2] Al Amal, official organ of the Kataeb Party, reported that Al Matni was the father of jihad and that the state should arrest the murderers.[2] Al Anbaa, media outlet of the Progressive Socialist Party, and An Nahar also demanded the arrest of the perpetrators.[2]

References
  1. Tammam Hanaydi (5 June 2015). "[Translated] The Press and Despotism on the Anniversary of Samir Kassir's Assassination". Terjama. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  2. Dylan Baun (2020). Winning Lebanon: Youth Politics, Populism, and the Production of Sectarian Violence, 1920–1958. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-1-108-49152-5.
  3. K. S. (September 1958). "The Lebanese Crisis in Perspective". The World Today. 14 (9): 369–380. JSTOR 40393919.
  4. Are Knudsen (2010). "Acquiescence to Assassinations in Post-Civil War Lebanon?". Mediterranean Politics. 15 (1): 3. doi:10.1080/13629391003644611. S2CID 154792218.
  5. Jens Hanssen; Hicham Safieddine (Spring 2016). "Lebanon's al-Akhbar and Radical Press Culture: Toward an Intellectual History of the Contemporary Arab Left". The Arab Studies Journal. 24 (1): 201. JSTOR 44746852.
  6. Caroline Camille Attie (1996). Lebanon in the 1950s: President Chamoun and Western policy in Lebanon (PhD thesis). University of Texas at Austin. pp. 141, 192–193. ISBN 9798691260339. ProQuest 304273708.
  7. Fawwaz Traboulsi (2012). A History of Modern Lebanon (2nd ed.). London: Pluto Press. p. 135. doi:10.2307/j.ctt183p4f5. ISBN 9780745332741. JSTOR j.ctt183p4f5.
  8. Karol R. Sorby (2000). "Lebanon: The Crisis of 1958". Asian and African Studies. 9 (1): 95.
  9. Maurice M. Labelle Jr. (2013). "A New Age of Empire? Arab 'Anti-Americanism', US Intervention, and the Lebanese Civil War of 1958". The International History Review. 35 (1): 49. doi:10.1080/07075332.2012.707134. S2CID 154926637.
  10. Carl C. Yonker (2021). The Rise and Fall of Greater Syria A Political History of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter. p. 247. doi:10.1515/9783110729092-005. ISBN 9783110729092. S2CID 242711638.
  11. Juan Romero (2012). "Discourse and Mediation in the Lebanese Crisis of 1958". Middle Eastern Studies. 48 (4): 570. doi:10.1080/00263206.2012.682300. S2CID 144184045.
  12. Syed Rifaat Hussain (Summer 1990). "The American Intervention in the Middle East: Case Study of Lebanon (1958)". Strategic Studies. 13 (4): 39–60. JSTOR 45182031.
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