Dory Chamoun

Who is Dory Chamoun?

Dory Chamoun is a Lebanese politician who leads the National Liberal Party, and is also a prominent member of the Qornet Shehwan Gathering, a coalition of politicians, academics, and businessmen who oppose the pro-Syrian March 8 Alliance and Syrian influence in Lebanon.

Dory Chamoun is the elder son of the late Camille Chamoun, who was President of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958. An industrialist by profession, he showed much less interest in politics than his younger brother, Dany Chamoun. Like his father, who had no sympathy for, and disliked, the Palestinians, Dory held similar views and in private referred to the Palestinians as a race of cowards whose refugee existence in Lebanon was deserved - "If it's necessary we will chuck the Palestinians into the sea. They will pollute it but that's too bad." After Dany was assassinated in 1990, in what is qualified as an "unfair trial" by several organizations such as Amnesty International, Samir Geagea, the Christian leader of the Lebanese Forces, was subsequently tried for the murder.