Hussein Al-Husseini: Farewell to a true Lebanese statesman

Lebanon was choked by Wednesday’s news of the passing of the former Parliament Speaker Hussein Al-Husseini. Al-Husseini was an exceptional statesman. As a family friend, I knew him very well. Other than the fact he was a living encyclopedia of Arab history, he was a legal reference too. He was the patron of the Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon’s civil war. Most importantly, he was a true statesman who put his country before himself. Throughout his career, he acted with dignity. This is something Lebanese politicians deeply lack. He did not work for himself or for his own confession, he worked for Lebanon.  

Others have written about him as the companion of Musa Al-Sadr and how he established the Mahrumin (deprived) movement — the movement of the disenfranchised people of the south — and the Amal Party. However, I knew him personally and used to visit him whenever I went to Beirut; he liked to talk about the true essence of the statesman and what Lebanon really meant to him.  

When I used to go and see him, he insisted that Lebanon was a final nation. This meant that everyone within the borders of Lebanon is bound to live together and should not look to change the shape of Lebanon or its character. He was an Arabist. Before Taif, the constitution had no clear reference to the Arab identity of Lebanon. It mentioned Lebanon having an ”Arab face,” but the Taif Agreement states in a clear, indisputable manner that Lebanon is fully Arab.  

Al-Husseini later had grievances about how Taif was hijacked by the corrupt Lebanese political class. They twisted the agreement, which was supposed to induce a mechanism to remove confessionalism. They instead made it a basis for enforcing confessionalism because it empowered them. He always believed that the solution for Lebanon was to execute Taif properly, because it was the gateway to the country’s salvation.  

He always believed that the solution for Lebanon was to execute Taif properly, because it was the gateway to the country’s salvation 

Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib

I never met anyone who believed in Lebanon as much as him. Despite his old age and poor health, you always saw him in his office wearing a suit and he always had a Lebanese flag pin on his jacket. He believed in freedom. He told me that the fact that Mount Lebanon was secluded meant it nurtured among the Lebanese the feeling of freedom. For him, the innate yearning for freedom that the Lebanese have in their genes is an important characteristic of Lebanon as a country. 

I used to go and visit him in his modest office in Verdun, which had worn-out couches and carpet. He had a lot of hope with the protests that erupted in 2019. He believed that change would happen and that Lebanon would embrace a better future. Every time I went and saw him, he reiterated his hope for a better Lebanon. Every time I saw him, he repeated that the only solution for Lebanon was the state being a real state. And that only through state institutions could we as Lebanese get over the toxic confessionalism. 

Al-Husseini leaves us and leaves Lebanon. Unlike other politicians, he did not amass wealth, but he built a good reputation among all Lebanese. There is no Lebanese who heard the news of his death and did not recognize that Lebanon has lost a real statesman and a national icon. Farewell Hussein Al-Husseini, may you rest in peace.  

• Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is president of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.