Political Activities
He joined the Lebanese Communist Party in 1971, and was a prominent member in the Lebanese National Movement that included George Hawi, Kamal Jumblatt and other Lebanese leftist politicians and intellectuals. In 1982, he took part in the resistance against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
His fierce criticism against the Lebanese Communist Party's policies, especially its positive attitude towards the Syrian occupation of Lebanon and his rejection of the communist ideology, led him in 2004 to form, with a group of Lebanese intellectuals including Samir Kassir, The Democratic Left Movement.In which, he was elected as its chairperson in 17 October 2004 and was reelected in April, 2007.
After the Syrian army withdrew from Lebanon, he was elected as the representative of the Maronite seat in Tripoli, during the 2005 Lebanese parliamentary elections. In which, he became the first MP to represent a leftist secular political party in the Lebanese parliament.
Read more about this topic: Elias Atallah
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or activities:
“... whatever men do or know or experience can make sense only to the extent that it can be spoken about. There may be truths beyond speech, and they may be of great relevance to man in the singular, that is, to man in so far as he is not a political being, whatever else he may be. Men in the plural, that is, men in so far as they live and move and act in this world, can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and to themselves.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“That is the real pivot of all bourgeois consciousness in all countries: fear and hate of the instinctive, intuitional, procreative body in man or woman. But of course this fear and hate had to take on a righteous appearance, so it became moral, said that the instincts, intuitions and all the activities of the procreative body were evil, and promised a reward for their suppression. That is the great clue to bourgeois psychology: the reward business.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)