Jumblat Lays Syria Rebel Flag on Father's Tomb, Urges Dialogue in Lebanon

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday saluted “the martyrs of the Arab Syrian revolution which will remain stronger than the tyrants,” on the 35th anniversary of the assassination of his father, Kamal Jumblat.

During a ceremony to commemorate his slain father in Baaqlin, Jumblat stressed the need for “democratic dialogue, no matter how sharp the political debate is in Lebanon,” noting that political quarreling “will get sharper.”

“Thirty-five years ago, nature raged and cried for Kamal Jumblat and for the hundreds who were assassinated as result of ignorance, malice and bigotry on that day, and today nature cries and rages again,” Jumblat said, referring to the stormy weather in Lebanon on Friday and to the vengeance killings against Christian residents of Mount Lebanon in the wake of Kamal Jumblat’s assassination.

“We closed up the wound with (former) Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir” in 2001, Jumblat added, in reference to the reconciliation achieved that year.

Jumblat also announced the end of his dispute with MP Marwan Hamadeh, saying “we closed up the wound.”

Speaking at the same ceremony in Baaqlin, his hometown, Hamadeh said “the bullets of the spiteful Syrian regime killed Kamal Jumblat.”

“The Druze of Syria are the heroes of the historic unity and the Druze had confronted the dictatorships in Syria,” he stressed.

“The Druze of Syria are confronting the conspiracy of detaching them from their environment,” Hamadeh said, calling on the Druze community in Syria not to “fall into the trap of the regime.”

“The Syrian people will not accept the repetition of another Deir Yassin massacre at the hands of Bashar al-Assad,” Hamadeh added.

Earlier on Friday, Jumblat placed the Syrian rebels’ flag on the grave of his father in al-Mukhtara.

"After 35 years, this is the day to tell the truth, to myself and to others ... Long live free Syria!" he said after placing the flag.

According to the National News Agency, a number of ministers and MPs were present during the commemoration.

Jumblat has become one of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s fiercest critics in Lebanon by continuously slamming the Syrian regime’s deadly crackdown on dissent.

The PSP had noted in a statement that the 35th assassination anniversary of its founder Kamal Jumblat would not be commemorated with a popular rally.

“The party will only head to the grave to place flowers,” the statement said.

Jumblat, who officially founded the PSP in 1949, was assassinated on March 16, 1977.