Ghazi Aridi, a Lebanese politician, writer, and former minister, held several ministerial positions, the last of which was Minister of Public Works and Transport from June 13, 2011, to December 2013.
Early Life
Aridi was born into a Druze family in Baysour on September 17, 1954.
He studied physics at the Lebanese University and worked as a physics teacher at a high school in Aley before entering the world of politics.
In 1972, he joined the Progressive Socialist Party led by Walid Jumblatt. In 1980, he began working as a special envoy for the Lebanese National Movement and became an assistant secretary of the Progressive Socialist Party in 1983.
Voice of the Mountain
In 1983, Aridi launched a radio station named "Voice of the Mountain" (Sawt al-Jabal), which served as the broadcasting station for the Progressive Socialist Party. He served as its director until it closed in 1994.
Parliament and Ministry
Aridi won the Druze seat for the Third District of Beirut, previously held by Akram Chehayeb, becoming a member of parliament in 2000.
Aridi was first appointed Minister of Information in the cabinet of the late Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in October 2000. Aridi remained in the position until April 2003. He then served as Minister of Culture in Hariri's fifth cabinet from April 17, 2003, to September 7, 2004.
Aridi, along with three other ministers—then-Minister of Economy Marwan Hamadeh, Minister of Environment Fares Boueiz, and Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Abdullah Farhat—resigned from their positions on September 7 in protest against the constitutional amendment that extended the term of then-President Émile Lahoud. They were among the members of the Lebanese Parliament who voted against extending Lahoud's term. Minister of State Karam Karam then replaced Aridi as interim Minister of Culture. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, Aridi ran on Jumblatt’s list and won a seat for the Third District of Beirut once again.
Later, Aridi served as Minister of Information in the government of Fouad Siniora until 2008. After that, he was appointed Minister of Public Works and Transport in Siniora’s government in July 2008.
Aridi won a seat for the Beirut III district in the 2009 general elections as part of the March 14 alliance list. He continued his work as Minister of Public Works and Transport in Saad Hariri's government from 2009 to 2011. In the cabinet, he was a member of the Democratic Gathering and the majority coalition.
Aridi was re-appointed to the same position on June 13, 2011, in the government of Najib Mikati. As a member of the Progressive Socialist Party, he was one of the three ministers appointed by Jumblatt to the government. Aridi was part of the National Struggle Front in the government. Aridi resigned from the position in December 2013.
Palestinian Citizenship
In May 2018, Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour announced that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had ordered the granting of Palestinian citizenship to Ghazi Aridi, in recognition of his positions consistently supporting the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people.
His Publications
Aridi has published several books, including: "Words of the Difficult Time" (1992), a collection of his political speeches and commentaries for the Voice of the Mountain radio station, and "Lebanon: The Big Price for the Small Role" (1999), a political analysis of the situation in Lebanon and the Middle East.
This is a complete list of his publications:
Managing Terror: The Devastating Catastrophic Effects of the Bush Administration in the World and the Middle East, Arab Scientific Publishers, 2009.
Lebanon: The Big Price for the Small Role, Beirut, 1999.
Arabs Between Change and Chaos: Articles, Arab Scientific Publishers, Beirut, 2014.
Words of the Difficult Time, Lebanon, 1992.
The Arab Collapse, Arab Scientific Publishers, Beirut, 2018.
Palestine: A Right That Will Not Die: Articles, Arab Scientific Publishers, 2012.
Israel to Al-Aqsa, Arab Scientific Publishers, Beirut, 2015.
Managing Ruin, Arab Scientific Publishers, 2016.
Arabs Without a Cause: Articles, Arab Scientific Publishers, 2013.
Globalization of Chaos, Arab Scientific Publishers, Beirut, 2016.
From Balfour to Trump, Arab Scientific Publishers, Beirut, 2017.
George Hawi in Dialogues About the Past, Present, and Future, Dar Al-Farabi (Foreword).
The National Liberation Front and Power: Algeria 1962-1992, Dar Al-Farabi, Beirut, 2001.
