Kamal Youssef Abu Latif was a Lebanese military officer, lawyer, and social activist. From the town of Aiha in the Rashaya District, he came from a Druze family. He studied law at the Syrian University and later at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, joining the Bar Association in 1964. He joined the Syrian Army and was appointed Director of Civil Defense in Latakia during the period of the Syrian-Egyptian Union. He was killed during an armed clash in his hometown.
His Biography
Kamal bin Youssef bin Muhammad Abu Latif was born in Aiha on August 13, 1930. He received his primary education at the village school, then moved to the Dawudiya School in Abey, followed by schools in Damascus. He studied law at the Syrian University and later at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. He joined the Bar Association in 1964 and completed his training at the office of Najib Issa El-Khoury, before establishing a private practice with his wife, the lawyer Amal Al-Rayyes.
Prior to that, he had joined the Military Academy in Homs, graduating as an officer in 1952. In 1958, he joined the revolution in Lebanon and was tasked with leading the Popular Resistance in the Rashaya Al-Wadi and Western Bekaa region. Later that same year, he was tasked with establishing the Civil Defense in Latakia and Tartus. After its establishment, he was appointed as its director until he resigned in 1963 to return to Lebanon and work in the field of law.
Mayor
He ran for parliamentary elections for the Druze seat in the Rashaya Al-Wadi and Western Bekaa region in three consecutive terms but was unsuccessful. In 1966, he was elected as the president of the first municipality in Aiha and remained in that position until his death in 1985.
In 1975, Kamal Jumblatt tasked him with establishing a security apparatus in the Aley region and appointed him as its head. When the Syrian Army entered Lebanon, he was appointed by the National Movement as a liaison officer between them and the relevant Syrian forces, where he resolved many outstanding issues. At one point, his name was linked with Kamal Kanj from Majdal Shams, as they exposed a plot to establish a Druze state.
On July 20, 1985, while he was with a group of regional dignitaries and sheikhs performing a reconciliation mission between conflicting parties in the town of Aiha, an armed clash broke out during which he sustained a fatal injury and became a victim.
