Samir Kassir was a Lebanese-Palestinian journalist of An-Nahar and professor of history at Saint-Joseph University, who was an advocate of democracy and prominent opponent of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
17 Facts About Samir Kassir
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Samir Kassir was assassinated in 2005 as part of a series of assassinations of anti-Syria Lebanese political figures such as Rafic Hariri and George Hawi.
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Samir Kassir's father was a Palestinian-Lebanese and his mother Lebanese.
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Samir Kassir gained a DEA in philosophy and political philosophy from Pantheon-Sorbonne University in the same year.
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Samir Kassir obtained his PhD in modern and contemporary history from Paris-Sorbonne University in 1990, with a thesis on the Lebanese Civil War.
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Samir Kassir became widely known for his popular weekly column in which he wrote strong articles against the pro-Syrian government.
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Samir Kassir made frequent appearances on several television stations as a political analyst on news programmes.
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Samir Kassir was assassinated using a car bomb in Beirut on 2 June 2005, just a few days after the general elections.
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Samir Kassir was among the first victims in the growing list of political assassinations that occurred in Lebanon from 2004 to 2008.
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Samir Kassir was a keen advocate of secular democracy in the Middle East.
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Samir Kassir continuously spoke for the rights of the Palestinians.
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Samir Kassir recognised courage and determination in others and took under his wing leading young pro-democracy and human rights activists such as Wissam Tarif, with whom Kassir developed a warm and close friendship.
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Samir Kassir maintained a keen and sympathetic interest in Syria despite his criticism of its involvement in Lebanon, and was on close terms with many Syrian intellectuals, including those involved in the Damascus Spring.
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Samir Kassir was a founding member of the Democratic Left Movement, which won a seat in the Lebanese parliamentary elections of 2005.
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Samir Kassir co-authored a book about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Palestinian-French relations.
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Samir Kassir was married to Giselle Khoury, a former talk-show host on Al-Arabiya television, at the time of his death.
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The Samir Kassir Foundation erected a bronze statue of the journalist there on 2 June 2006, exactly a year after his assassination.