Lebanon’s main Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, on Sunday publicly confirmed his son Taymour as his political heir, extending the tradition of dynastic politics that plays a big part in the country’s sectarian government.
Jumblatt, the leading politician of the minority Druze community, took off his Palestinian koufieh scarf and placed it on the shoulders of his son at a televised rally in the town of Moukhtara in the Chouf mountains.
“Walk forward with your head held high, and carry the legacy of your grandfather,” Jumblatt told his son at the event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Walid Jumblatt’s father, Kamal Jumblatt.
Speaking to Reuters, Jumblatt said the scarf symbolized the issues he wanted his son to fight for and defend: Palestine, “Arab, progressive Lebanon” and reconciliation with Christians, whom the Druze fought in the 1975-90 civil war.
