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Mohsin Ibrahim (Arabic: محسن إبراهيم Muḥsin ‘Ibrāhīm), kunya Abu Khaled (Arabic: أبو خالد; 1935 – June 3, 2020), was a Lebanese politician. He was a prominent personality of the Lebanese and Arab left. Initially a Nasserist nationalist, he later turned to Marxism and became the leader of the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (OACL). As the head of OACL, he played key roles in the building of alliances during the Lebanese Civil War.

Youth

Muhsin Ibrahim was born to a Shia Muslim family in Ansar in southern Lebanon in 1935. Ibrahim worked as a school teacher in southern Lebanon. He joined the Arab Nationalist Movement in the 1950s, being a fierce supporter of the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. He took part in the first conference of the Arab Nationalist Movement in Amman on December 25, 1956, and was elected to the leadership of the organization. In 1964, Ibrahim took part in meeting with Nasser, as the Arab Nationalist Movement tried to convince him to support the Dhofar Rebellion. In early 1966, Ibrahim travelled to Taiz along with George Habbash and Hani al-Hindi, as an delegation of the Arab Nationalist Movement seeking to convince the Yemeni National Liberation Front to merge with the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen.

Split in the Arab Nationalist Movement

During 1962–1965 a factional conflict surged within the Arab Nationalist Movement. Ibrahim was part of a tendency a within the Arab Nationalist Movement, including Nayef Hawatmeh, Mohammed Kishli, Bilal al-Hasan and Abdel Fattah Ismail, that became increasing inspired by the Cuban, Chinese and Vietnamese revolutions and began to gear towards Marxism. The radical group, to which Ibrahim belonged, stressed that national and social struggles should not be separated from each other. In 1966 the group around Ibrahim began publishing articles in Al-Hurriya, the organ of the Arab Nationalist Movement, that were critical of the government of the United Arab Republic. Ibrahim was the editor of Al-Hurriya. However, until 1967 the tendency of Ibrahim remained committed to Nasserism. The defeat of Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day War aggravated the divisions within the Arab Nationalist Movement, with the tendency of Ibrahim, Hawatmeh and Ismail moving from nationalism to Marxism-Leninism. In 1968 Ibrahim founded the Organization of Lebanese Socialists, which in 1970 merged with the group Socialist Lebanon to form the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (OACL). In 1975 Ibrahim was named general secretary of OACL (hitherto the organization had a collective leadership), a post he was to occupy until his death.

Civil War and Resistance

With the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, Ibrahim emerged as a key leader of the Lebanese National Movement (a coalition of leftist and nationalist movements, aligned with the Palestinian forces) along with Kamal Jumblatt and George Hawi. In 1977 Ibrahim was named Executive Secretary of the Lebanese National Movement, after the killing of the incumbent secretary Kamal Jumblatt. Ibrahim had been a close associate of Jumblatt.

In September 1982 Ibrahim and the Lebanese Communist Party leader George Hawi founded the Lebanese National Resistance Front, to confront the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Later years

After the 1989 Taif Agreement, Ibrahim largely withdrew from Lebanese political life, largely due to his opposition to the role of the Syrian government (then in conflict with Yasser Arafat, to whom Ibrahim remained closely aligned) in Lebanon. Ibrahim was part of the Tunis-based negotiation team of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the process leading up to the Oslo Accords. He maintained close relations with the Palestinian leadership, especially with Yasser Arafat. Following the killing of George Hawi, at the fortieth-day observation of Hawi's death, Ibrahim broke his silence in Lebanese politics and issued a strong self-criticism on the role of the Lebanese left during the civil war (having allowed the Palestinian movement to set its agenda and for having attempted to confront the sectarian system in Lebanon without understanding its underlying causes).

Recognitions

Ibrahim was awarded the Medal of the October 14 Revolution of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. On February 23, 2017, Ibrahim was awarded the Gold Order of Merit and Distinction by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas 'for his defense of the rights of the Palestinian people'.

Death

Ibrahim died on June 3, 2020, at the age of 85. His funeral took place in Ansar on June 5, 2020. Attendees at the funeral included Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt, former parliamentarian and PSP leader Ghazi Aridi, Lebanese Communist Party general secretary Hanna Gharib and the parliamentarians Osama Saad, Yassine Jaber and Ali Osseiran, the representative of PLO and Fatah in Lebanon Fathi Abu Al-Ardat and the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabour.

After Ibrahim's death, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas ordered flags across Palestine to be lowered in tribute to Ibrahim and announced one day of mourning. In his obituary over Ibrahim, the Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt described him as 'the best friend and ally of Kamal Jumblatt'. Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora described Ibrahim as one of the foremost leaders of the armed resistance against the Israeli occupation. Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri described Ibrahim as 'a personality of the Arab and national struggle' who had 'dedicated his life to the Palestinian cause'. The Speaker of the Lebanese National Assembly, Nabih Berri, presented his condolences to Ibrahim's son.

References

1. ^ Al-Akhbar. محسن إبراهيم
2. ^ Al-Jazeera. لبنان.. وفاة محسن إبراهيم أحد قادة اليسار التاريخيين
3. ^ L'Orient Le Jour. Décès de Mohsen Ibrahim, l’un des dirigeants historiques de la gauche libanaise
4. ^ Al-Modon. منظمة العمل الشيوعي تنعي قائدها محسن ابراهيم
5. ^ L'Orient Le Jour. Mohsen Ibrahim, l’une des dernières figures historiques de la gauche libanaise, n’est plus
6. Ghada Hashem Talhami (September 9, 2007). Palestine in the Egyptian Press: From al-Ahram to al-Ahali. Lexington Books. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-7391-5863-0.
7. ^ Al-Arabi al-Jadid. أخلف محسن إبراهيم وعده لي
8. ^ Abdel Razzaq Takriti (August 15, 2013). Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965–1976. OUP Oxford. pp. 66, 92. ISBN 978-0-19-165619-4.
9. Ḥusayn ʻAbd Allāh ʻAmrī; Helen Lackner; University of Durham. Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (1985). P.D.R. Yemen: outpost of socialist development in Arabia. Ithaca Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-86372-032-1.
10. ^ Dishon (October 1973). Middle East Record. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 407–408. ISBN 978-0-470-21611-8.
11. Tareq Y. Ismael (1976). The Arab Left. Syracuse University Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-8156-0124-1.
12. ^ Fadi A. Bardawil (April 10, 2020). Revolution and Disenchantment: Arab Marxism and the Binds of Emancipation. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-1-4780-0758-6.
13. ^ Fawwaz Traboulsi (January 20, 2007). A History of Modern Lebanon. Pluto Press. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-7453-2437-1.
14. ^ Institute of Palestine Studies. محسن إبراهيم: 1935 - 2020
15. Laura Feliu; Ferran Izquierdo Brichs (May 17, 2019). Communist Parties in the Middle East: 100 Years of History. Taylor & Francis. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-429-63253-2.
16. ^ Ash-Sharq al-Awsat. توفيق سلطان: محسن إبراهيم رفض ارتهان حزبه للخارج بعد الحرب
17. ^ Dunia al-Wattan. منظمة العمل الشيوعي في لبنان تودع أمينها العام محسن إبراهيم
18. National News Agency. BERRI REÇOIT LA DÉPUTÉE HARIRI À AÏN EL-TINEH

External links

• Alghad TV report on the funeral of Mohsen Ibrahim
• Al-Anbaa' report on the funeral of Mohsen Ibrahim

• 1935 births
• 2020 deaths
• Arab Nationalist Movement
• Lebanese communists
• 20th-century Lebanese politicians
• People of the Lebanese Civil War
• People from Nabatieh District
• Nasserists