I don’t even know where to begin. It’s difficult writing about a man you love and respect. A man who meant so much to you. A man who… sigh… Gebran was my voice. Gebran made me be heard. Gebran protected me. Gebran took care of me.The past few days, several TV stations have been replaying old interviews with Gebran. I have watched all of them before (well except the one on LBC last night) and watching them now, hearing them now, is a lot different than how I used to hear it. Hearing Gebran talking about his past and his life with feelings of pride, with emotions, it is obvious he liked who he was, he liked his life, and did not regret living the way he did. He did not regret being a journalist. Hearing him talk about death was hard to grasp now but his views of death calmed me. He does not mind being dead. He does not mind being a martyr.

Gebran I promise I will try my best to keep your memory alive.
Gebran I promise our cause did not die with you.

Gebran, I know a lot of people forgot the oath they made on March 14th, but don’t be disappointed at them, be disappointed at their leaders. The people are just a bit confused now Gebran. They need a voice to guide them and unfortunately you are not here. Don’t worry though, you just rest. You spoke in our name for years and years and now it’s time for you to rest and spend time with your mother, brother, and sister.

Gebran, you know how much I miss you and how much I think of you.

The day they killed you was shocking for me Gebran.

I was in a meeting when my phone rang. It was my dad. I usually don’t answer personal calls during meetings but that day I did. Dad asked me if I heard the news. I said no what’ going on. He told me there was another explosion and he sounded like something terrible happened. I asked where and he told me Mansouriyeh. He still sounded hesitant and I thought of my brother in Lebanon but my brother isn’t close to Mansouriyeh, especially at such an hour. So I asked why Mkalles and he said they targetted Gebran. I asked if he is ok or what’s the update. Dad was silent for a few seconds and told me he died. “He died??!!!” I exclaimed and got everyone’s attention in the room. I shut the phone. I took a few deep breaths and told the others with me Gebran was killed. I couldn’t continue the meeting and I sensed they couldn’t either. I left the room and headed to my computer and checked the news. It was true he was killed. I cried and shook. I was angry. I continued my day at work terribly shaken. They took Gebran away from me.

It’s been a year Gebran, and oh what a year! Sometimes I am thankful that you are not around to witness what is going on in the country and sometimes I wish you were here so we can hear your comforting voice, so you can put some sense into people, so you can guide the youth.

Gebran, no matter what I say, I feel like it’s too little.

When you died, I got pulled back to politics.

My posts on the day of Gebran’s death and the following days can be found here.

I really pray that you rest in peace.

Gebran Tueni made himself a role model for the youth throughout the years and was the first one to defend their freedoms and the Anti-Syrian demonstrations, and the Open Letter he wrote to Bashar in 2000 was something no one dared doing back then.

“That it is time we talked openly, now more than ever, because we fear we might feel remorse one day, or the rising generations will hold us accountable for not having talked openly, because only by being frank can we hope to see mistakes rectified, sins atoned for and catastrophes kept away from us.”

He distinguished himself from other politicians and lead the fight against Syrians and the puppet government while other politicians were too scared to do so.

His courage and belief in the new generations was immense and he expressed it on several occasions, one of them was during the The International Maronite Congress 2002 that was taking place in LA in 2002.

I am convinced that we have among our new generations plenty of qualified people capable of laying the foundations for a new Lebanon. They must not rely on the old set of politicians, but they have to organize themselves and launch the drive, to define the future and determine Lebanon’s role in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. They have to dream, Yes, I insist, to DREAM of the nation they want,
and fight for the achievement of that dream.
They must never surrender to despair, because as Karl Jaspers once said: “Despair is an anticipated defeat!” Furthermore, isn’t it true that hope is one of the three theological virtues taught by our Christian religion?

I am optimistic about Lebanon’s future despite the suffocating economic and political crises it suffers, and despite the mass exodus of the youth. We still have enormous potential among qualified emerging generations.

Reading back his articles, i remember Sheikh Bashir speeches and how they are still applicable till today, and i am sure we will still have the problems Gebran pointed at for years to come.

I dont know how many Gebrans we have to lose for our people to learn from their mistakes.

According to Failasoof, Gebran Tueni’s memorial has been allocated.

It will be held at Mar Mitr Church in Achrafieh at 5:00pm tomorrow.

I don’t care which church they hold it in as long as they pray for him.

The editor-in-chief of the Yemen Times Nadia Al-Saqqaf was on Sunday awarded the 2006 Gebran Tueni prize on the occasion of the first anniversary of An Nahar General Manger’s assassination.

Al-Saqqaf, who is the first woman ever to be appointed an editor in Yemen, received the award Sunday during the opening ceremony of the “Press Under Siege” conference at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center (BIEL).

Read more

I wanted to post about Gebran for a while now, but honestly i could not find words to describe what he meant to me and others, unlike Gebran who always knew how to express our thoughts and concerns in words, he had a gift for reaching out to the people’s hearts and minds and most specifically the youth.

So many politicians and leaders and even religious men praised unity among the Lebanese, speeched about it, yet few were capable of reaching out to the people , of convincing the people how crucial this unity is, and among those very few was Gebran Tueni.

Gebran Tueni was one of those few good men this country had, an incorruptible honest charismatic and patriotic person by all means. His presence was always distinguished and his speeches were highly respected even by his fiercest ennemies.

I used to wait for his interventions during conferences held at the university or during the parliament sessions or on TV shows, i used to wait for his editorials on a weekly basis.

What made him so different?

He believed in one religion: The Lebanese one.

He belonged to one party: The party of Lebanon.

He was in my opinion the only one eligible to speech on the 14th of March 2005, since he represented the Lebanese people’s voice, from all parties and sects, he was the true voice of the Cedars Revolution that belonged to the people as he repeatedly said and not to the politicians.

I personally looked up to Gebran because he was that young, educated, fearless patriotic and succesfull person who strongly believe in his principles and knew perfectly how to defend them, he knew his cause is a right one.

I still remember the day i heard he was killed, i felt so sad i kept silent the whole day, and during his funeral, they were repeating his oath as he was being carried to the Church and every time the oath was repeated, it felt heavier and touching, yet i dont want people to remember him for his oath, neither for his 14th of march speech, but for his continuous struggle and strong character and amazing courage and his pure and deep commitment and love to Lebanon.

It is amazing how one can feel his time has come, he was addressing the criminals while in France after May Chidiac’s attempted assasination, daring them to kill him and he also repeated on another occasion:

“even if they kill me i will not give them credit or let them win, i will look them in the eye with the gun pointed at me head, and tell me i will die now coz God said its my time to die and not coz u are killing me”

I might be wrong, but i sense he felt his destiny was to be a martyr of that great revolution, he felt he accomplished what he has been defending and praising for years ..

Finally, one can never express himself well in such posts, and nothing can bring back Gebran but let us revive his memory in the best way possible.

R.I.P Gebran.

I have been watching it since 10 am, Gebran Tueni’s Award ceremony held at Biel organized by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) in partnership
with An-Nahar newspaper.
Title : Press Under Siege Conference

The place is crowded and presence is distinguished. After an impressive video remembering Gebran, Nayla Tueni held a nice speech, remembered her dad and then blasted those who are opposing the international tribunal and those who want to destroy the Cedars Revolution Gebran died for. I will sum it up later on once the show is over.

Then Thomas Friedman showed up on a giant screen and talked about Gebran and how much he admired his person and his courage and compared the Tueni Award to the Pulitzer prize assuring it will gain the same importance very quickly.

Other testimonies followed, then the shadow government was announced and its members introducted themselves to the crowd.

Ghassan Tueni just speeched and as usual a very distinguished speech.

Sanioura will be showing on the big screen as well.

I will keep you updated.

According to BloggingBeirut on Tuesday 12th December, at 11am there will be a gathering at the site of Gebran Tueni’s assassination. In rememberance of his assassination, a memorial will be revealed near the site of his assassination.

Reminder, a memorial mass will be held on the same day at 5pm, at St. Gergios Church, in downtown Beirut.