{{Short description|Lebanese politician}} '''Abd al-Majid al-Rafei''' (in [[Arabic language|Arabic]] عبد المجيد الرافعي‎; 11 April 1927 – 12 July 2017), born in Tripoli, Lebanon, was a Lebanese politician and member of the [[Lebanese Parliament]]. He was at one time the head of the [[Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction)|Iraqi faction]] of the historical [[Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party]] and its Iraqi wing. Later, until his death in July 2017, he was the head of the [[Socialist Arab Lebanon Vanguard Party]].
==Biography== He was born '''Abdel Majid Mohamed Tayeb Rafei''' on 11 April 1927 in a family in [[Tripoli, Lebanon]] which was pre-occupied by Arab nationalist ideas.{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}} During the [[French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French Mandate of Lebanon]], in May 1941, Al-Rafei demonstrated in support of the Iraqi nationalist officers uprising against the [[Mandatory Iraq|British Mandate in Iraq]].{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}} In 1943, he also demonstrated in Tripoli in support of [[Lebanese Independence Day|Lebanese independence]] from French rule with one of his closest friends being killed in the demonstrations and another friend, Amin Hajar being injured by French bullets.{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}}
After Lebanese Independence, he studied [[medicine]] in [[University of Lausanne]], [[Switzerland]] and practiced medicine in the 1950s in Tripoli.{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}} In 1957 he attended a general Baath gathering and became an official member and one of the highest figures in the unified Baath Arab Socialist Party in Lebanon.{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}} With the split of the party between the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath branch and the [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Lebanon Region|pro-Syrian Ba'ath branch]], both factions initially became part of the National Front against the rule of President of the Republic [[Camille Chamoun]] in the [[1958 Lebanon crisis|1958 Civil War]].{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}}
With tensions increasing between the two factions, the two Baathist parties of Lebanon were on a war footing.<ref>{{cite book | author = Rabinovich, Itamar | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=2PbLcYdLUgsC&pg=PA79 79] | title = The war for Lebanon, 1970–1985 | publisher = [[Cornell University Press]] | year = 1985 | isbn = 978-0-8014-9313-3}}</ref> The party was active in 1960s demonstrations,<ref>{{cite book | author = El-Khazen, Farid | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=TQdheeeXQCgC&pg=PA143 143] | title = The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon, 1967–1976 | publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] | year = 2000 | isbn = 978-0-674-08105-5}}</ref> and al-Rafei was detained by Lebanese authorities for his political activities<ref>{{cite book | author = El-Khazen, Farid | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=TQdheeeXQCgC&pg=PA144 144] | title = The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon, 1967–1976 | publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] | year = 2000 | isbn = 978-0-674-08105-5}}</ref> during the rule of President [[Fuad Chehab]].
In 1968, he was a candidate for [[Lebanese general election, 1968 in Tripoli City|Tripoli election district in the 1968 general election]].<ref>{{cite book | author = Zumiyya, Jamal | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=NZo3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA106 106] | title = The parliamentary election of Lebanon 1968 | publisher = [[Brill Publishers|BRILL Archive]] | year = 1972 | volume = 2 }}</ref> The party expanded during the first half of the 1970s,<ref>{{cite book | author = El-Khazen, Farid | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=TQdheeeXQCgC&pg=PA74 74] | title = The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon, 1967–1976 | publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] | year = 2000 | isbn = 978-0-674-08105-5}}</ref> and in the [[1972 Lebanese general election|1972 general election]] was elected to the Lebanese parliament from Tripoli,<ref>{{cite book|title = Political parties of the Middle East and North Africa | publisher = [[Greenwood Press]] | author = Tachau, Frank | year = 1994 | isbn = 978-0-313-26649-2 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=OEOLAAAAMAAJ&q=%22al-Rafi%22 307] }}</ref> bringing in 543 higher votes than the career politician and Lebanese Prime Minister for several times [[Rashid Karami]]. With continuous extensions of the Lebanese Parliament because of impossibility of conducting Parliamentary elections because of the [[Lebanese Civil War]] and its repercussions, he retained his seat until 1989 with the [[Taif Agreement]] and the ensuing general elections in the country.{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}}
During the Syrian hegemony of Lebanon, the Iraqi branch of the Baath party headed by Abd al-Majid al-Rafei came under increasing pressure by the Syrian rulers and its activities greatly curtailed.{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}} In 1983, after the ouster of [[Yasser Arafat]] and his supporters from Tripoli, in a campaign organized by the Syrian government and pro-Syrian political groupings in Lebanon and pro-Syrian Palestinian factions, al-Rafei, one of the biggest anti-Syrian figureheads in Tripoli and the General Secretary of the pro-Iraqi Baathist Party - Lebanon went into voluntary exile to Iraq.{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}}
After the Iraqi government of [[Saddam Hussein]] was toppled in 2003 by the [[Multi-National Force – Iraq|Western Coalition forces]], al-Rafei returned to Lebanon with tacit agreement of the Syrian government and pro-Syrian political parties on certain political restrictions of no plans for relaunching of the Iraqi faction in Lebanon.{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}}
After the assassination of former prime minister [[Rafic Hariri]] and the ensuing [[Cedar Revolution]] and the withdrawal of the Syrian forces, the Iraqi faction has been reorganized as Hizb Al-Taliyeh Lubnan Al-'Arabi Al-Ishtiraki (in [[Arabic language|Arabic]] حزب طليعة لبنان العربي الاشتراكي known in English as [[Socialist Arab Lebanon Vanguard Party]]).{{Citation needed|date= May 2018}}
Al-Rafei died on 12 July 2017.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rafei, Abd al Majid al-}} [[Category:Politicians from Tripoli, Lebanon]] [[Category:1927 births]] [[Category:2017 deaths]] [[Category:Members of the Parliament of Lebanon]] [[Category:Lebanese Sunni politicians]] [[Category:People of the Lebanese Civil War]] [[Category:University of Lausanne alumni]]