1. Farajallah Estephan el-Helou or Farjallah Helou was a Lebanese communist militant, a popular Lebanese political figure and head of the Lebanese Communist Party.
16 Facts About Farajallah el-Helou
1. 2.
Farajallah el-Helou was born to Estephane el-Helou in Hosrayel, Mount Lebanon in a conservative Maronite family.
3.
Farajallah el-Helou later traveled to Syria where he was a teacher in Arabic language and literature the National Evangelical College in Homs and continued his studies in literature in Syria where he got exposed to Marxist ideology.
4.
Farajallah el-Helou married Virginie el-Helou, a communist party sympathizer and had three daughters, Bushra, Najwa and Nada.
5.
In 1934, el-Helou travelled to the USSR including a tour of the Asian Soviet Socialist Republics and wrote the book A New Humanity Building a New World.
6.
Farajallah el-Helou was arrested briefly in Syria and deported to Lebanon.
7.
Farajallah el-Helou unsuccessfully led an electoral campaign to be elected as a member of the Lebanese Parliament from Mount Lebanon.
8.
Farajallah el-Helou supervised the publication of the Lebanese Communist organ Voice of the People.
9.
Farajallah el-Helou spent 22 months in prison alongside party leader Nicolas al-Shawi before release in 1941.
10.
Farajallah el-Helou headed the party in 1946 as Secretary General, a post that was hastily transferred to Nicolas el-Shawi as he traveled to Paris and London to study Marxism.
11.
Farajallah el-Helou was further alienated from the party after his criticism of the USSR for approving the 1947 resolutions in United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine that led to the establishment of Israel in 1948.
12.
The Syrian communists drafted a plan of action and Farajallah El-Helou was, upon the insistence of Bakdash, sent to Syria to take care of situation of the Syrian communists.
13.
Farajallah el-Helou was repeatedly investigated by the Deuxieme Bureau for naming other Syrian communists and sympathizers opposed to the union which he vehemently refused.
14.
Farajallah el-Helou was reportedly killed under torture the same day or the following one or two days.
15.
Farajallah el-Helou's body was first buried in a secret location, and fearing exposure of the crime, later his body was reportedly burned in a pool of sulfuric acid and his remains disposed of in the Barada river.
16.
Farajallah el-Helou is widely considered as one of the martyrs of Arab communism.