Has the world forgotten Sabra and Shatila massacre?
source: Aljazeera.com, 16-9-2005.
summary: Thousands of people, including Palestinians, Lebanese and Iranians, were killed in Beirut camps.
Few days ago was the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, but there's another September tragedy the worldwide media has ignored- the bloody massacre of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila camps in Lebanon.
In September 1982, Lebanese Maronite Christian Phalangist militias were sent by "Israel" to Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon, to find PLO members and kill Palestinian refugees.
Thousands of people, including Palestinians, Lebanese, Pakistanis, Iranians, Syrians and Algerians were killed in Beirut camps, which were externally surrounded by "Israeli" soldiers.
The Palestinians asserted at that time that between 3,000 and 3,500 were killed, and described the action as "genocide". But the "Israeli" intelligence and the Lebanese police said that the number of those killed range from 460 to 700-800.
The massacre was authorized by the "Israeli" IOF ("Israeli" Occupation Forces), under the command of Defense (War) Minister Ariel Sharon that held the territory around Beirut at that time as a result of the June 1982 "Israeli" invasion of Lebanon.
In the three-day slaughter, thousands of Palestinians were tortured, and raped; pregnant women had their stomachs torn open while militias took bets on the sex of the fetus.
The scale of the massacre became known with the publishing of appalling photographs showing the bodies in the refugee camps, and "Israel" was held directly responsible for the atrocity.
"Israel" strongly rejected to admit its responsibility in the massacre, but numerous evidence asserted that certain "Israelis", among them Ariel Sharon, were personally responsible. And on September 25, a massive demonstration of 300,000 "Israelis" was held in Tel Aviv calling on Prime Minister Menahem Begin and Sharon to resign.
The prominent British journalist, Robert Fisk, recollects the crimes graphically. "There were women lying in houses with their skirts torn up to their waists and their legs wide apart; children with their throats cut; rows of young men shot after being lined up at an execution wall; a pregnant woman with her stomach slit open sideways and then upwards, her eyes wide open, her dark face frozen in horror; babies tossed into rubbish heaps alongside discarded U.S. army ration tins; "Israeli" flare canisters lying around still attached to their tiny parachutes."
In February 1983, an "Israeli" commission appointed to investigate the crimes, headed by Supreme Court President Yitzhak Kahan, issued its report in which it laid the entire blame for the massacre on Christian Phalangists and found the "Israeli" occupation forces and Sharon only indirectly responsible for ignoring the danger of revenge and bloodshed by the Phalangists.
The Kahan Commission ignored the evidence that the Phalangist troops operated under "Israeli" command and with full "Israeli" assistance.
With regard to Sharon, the panel stated that he:
"... draw the appropriate personal conclusions arising out of the defects revealed with regard to the manner in which he discharged the duties of his office" - in other words, that he resign; or, if necessary, that the prime minister exercise his authority to remove a minister from office.
"In our view, the minister of defense (war) made a grave mistake when he ignored the danger of acts of revenge and bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population in the refugee camps ... It is our view that responsibility is to be imputed to the minister of defense for having disregarded the danger of acts of vengeance and bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee camps, and having failed to take this danger into account when he decided to move the Phalangists into the camps.
"In addition, responsibility is to be imputed to the Minister of Defense (War) for not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre as a condition for the Phalangists` entry into the camps. These blunders constitute the non-fulfillment of a duty with which the defense minister was charged.
The atrocity earned Sharon the nickname "Butcher of Beirut".
The atrocities followed in the wake of "Israel`s" occupation of South Lebanon in June 1982, with the aim of "cleansing" the Palestinian fighters who sought refuge in Lebanon.
After fierce battles that lasted for two months and claimed the lives of about 18,000 Palestinians, U.S. envoy Philip Habib mediated an agreement that stipulates that the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) fighters leave Lebanon under international escort, "Israel" refrain from occupying West Beirut after the departure of the fighters and the U.S. guarantee the security of the remaining Palestinian civilian population.
On September 1, the fighters left Lebanon, by Sept 3, "Israel" occupied Bir Hassan in the suburbs of Beirut; violating Habib's agreement, and between Sept 10 and 13, the American and international forces left Beirut, two weeks before its mandate expired.
On Sept 14, Bashir Gemayel, the Maronite Christian President was assassinated. Using Gemayel`s assassination as a pretext, Ariel Sharon, then "Israeli" Defense (War) Minister, ordered the occupation of West Beirut and the "Israeli" army, under the Fourth Geneva Convention and Protocol 1, became responsible for the security of the civilian population there.
But instead of protecting the Palestinian refugees in the camps, Sharon held meetings with "Israeli" ally Major Saad Haddad, leader of the South Lebanon
Army militia, and Phalangist militiamen and politicians Elie Hobeika, Fadie Frem, Zahi Bustami, Amin and Pierre Gemayel, the "Israeli" soldiers were ordered to seal off the camps, only allowing the Haddads and the Phalangists to enter and go on a murder spree.
Victims were buried in mass graves, and soldiers were ordered to turn back any refugee who tries to escape.
