He was born in Beirut but his hometown was Bikfaya in the Matn District east of Beirut, the youngest of his six siblings, he was the son of Pierre Gemayel, founder of the influential Lebanese Kataeb Party, also known as the Phalangist party, a right-wing nationalist organization that, although officially secular, was supported mostly by Maronite Christians.

Education

Gemayel attended La Sagesse secondary school and the Lebanese Modern Institute (Institut Moderne du Liban in Fanar). He completed his formal university education at St. Joseph University (Universite St. Joseph - U.S.J.) in Beirut. After teaching for three years at the Lebanese Modern Institute, he graduated in 1971 with a degree in Law and another in Political Sciences in 1973.

In 1971 he also took another law qualification from the American and International Law Academy in Dallas, Texas. Qualifying in 1972 he joined the bar association and opened an office in what was known as West Beirut.

Political and military career

In 1962, he joined the Kataeb party.

In 1970 he was briefly kidnapped by Palestinian militants.

In 1971, he was appointed inspector in the para-military branch of the Kataeb party, the Kataeb Regulatory Forces.

In 1976, upon the death of William Hawi, he became president of the Kataeb Military Council and the head of the unified command of the Lebanese forces, a coalition of the Christian militias of the Kataeb Party (created and organized by William Hawi), National Liberal Party, the Tanzim and the Guardians of the Cedars. He also took over the "P.G." squad (which stood for "Pierre Gemayel" initially and later became the "B.G." in latin an acronyme for "Bachir Gemayel" since in the Arabic language both "P" and "B" are translated using the same Arabic letter), to face PLO aggression against Lebanese Christians. In 1978 he successfully led the "Hundred Days War" against Syrian forces to liberate Christian areas from the presence of Syrian troops. Gemayel became a member of the Lebanese Front in 1980 and in 1981 he led the unified Christian Lebanese militias in the Battle of Zahleh.

Israeli forces invaded Lebanon in 1982. Although Gemayel did not cooperate with the Israelis publicly, his long history of alleged tactical collaboration with Israel counted against him in the eyes of many Lebanese, especially Muslims. Although the only announced candidate for the presidency of the republic, the National Assembly elected him by the second narrowest margin in Lebanese history (57 votes out of 92) on August 23, 1982; most Muslim members of the Assembly boycotted the vote.

Assassination

Nine days before he was due to take office, Gemayel was assassinated along with 25 others in an explosion at the Kataeb headquarters in Achrafieh on September 14, 1982.

After his death, as the Israeli army reoccupied West Beirut, Maronite militias then carried out the Sabra and Shatila massacres.

Bachir Gemayel's older brother Amine Gemayel became president in Bachir's place, serving from 1982 to 1988. Rather different in temperament, Amine Gemayel was widely regarded as lacking the charisma and decisiveness of his brother, and many of the latter's followers were dissatisfied.

Habib Tanious Shartouni, a member of the pro-Damascus Syrian Social Nationalist Party, confessed to the crime, was apprehended and handed over to Amine Gemayel. He escaped but was captured again a few hours later, and handed over to Lebanon's justice system. He was imprisoned in the Roumieh prison. He was released from Roumieh in October 1990 by the Syrian army, in what many consider an illegal action.

Bachir Gemayel remains a divisive figure in Lebanese politics. Many Christians remember him nostalgically as a hero, seeing him as the embodiment of what Lebanon could and should have been.

Family

His widow, Solange Gemayel, works to keep his legacy alive through the Bachir Gemayel Foundation, a political and informational organization.

His first daughter Maya was murdered by a car bomb intended for Gemayel himself in 1980, when Maya was 18 months old. He has two surviving children: a daughter, Youmna, who received her degree in political science in Paris, and is now working towards her Masters in Management at ESA (École supérieure des affaires) in Beirut, and a son, Nadim, a law student and political activist.