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发帖数: 844 | 3 Up until the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Beirut, thirty
days ago this weekend, I was an ardent supporter of Israel and the Zionist
experiment. However, in November 1982, I was taken to an art exhibit
in Seattle's Fremont District, of art done by Palestinian refugee children
who had been orphaned in those small holocausts.
Speaking to some of the Palestinian-Americans who were there, I made
lifelong friendships. I never thought the same way again about Israel
or the Palestinian people.
Here is a fact sheet on the massacres and their context in history, from the
Institute for Middle East Understanding:
Yesterday marked 30 years since Christian Lebanese militiamen allied to
Israel entered the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila and the adjacent
neighborhood of Sabra in Beirut under the watch of the Israeli army and
began a slaughter that caused outrage around the world. Over the next day
and a half, up to 3500 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, mostly women,
children, and the elderly, were murdered in one of the worst atrocities in
modern Middle Eastern history.
On this 30th anniversary, the New York Times has published an op-ed&#
160;containing new details of discussions held between Israeli and American
officials before and during the massacre. They reveal how Israeli officials,
led by then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, misled and bullied American
diplomats, rebuffing their concerns about the safety of the inhabitants of
Sabra and Shatila.
For journalists following this story, the IMEU offers the following fact
sheet on the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
The Sabra & Shatila Massacre: 30 Years Later
- Lead Up -
On June 6, 1982, Israel launched a massive invasion of Lebanon. It had been
long planned by Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, who wanted to destroy
or severely diminish the Palestine Liberation Organization, which was based
in Lebanon at the time. Sharon also planned to install a puppet government
headed by Israel's right-wing Lebanese Christian Maronite allies, the
Phalangist Party.
Israeli forces advanced all the way to the capital of Beirut, besieging and
bombarding the western part of city, where the PLO was headquartered and the
Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila and the adjacent neighborhood of Sabra
are located.
Israel's bloody weeklong assault on West Beirut in August prompted harsh
international criticism, including from the administration of US
President Ronald Reagan, who many accused of giving a "green light" to
Israel to launch the invasion. Under a US-brokered ceasefire agreement, PLO
leaders and more than 14,000 fighters were to be evacuated from the country,
with the US providing written assurances for the safety of hundreds of
thousands of Palestinian civilians left behind. US Marines were deployed as
part of a multinational force to oversee and provide security for the
evacuation.
On August 30, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat left Beirut along with
the remainder of the Palestinian fighters based in the city.
On September 10, the Marines left Beirut. Four days later, on September 14,
the leader of Israel's Phalangist allies, Bashir Gemayel, was assassinated.
Gemayel had just been elected president of Lebanon by the Lebanese
parliament, under the supervision of the occupying Israeli army. His death
was a severe blow to Israel's designs for the country. The following day,
Israeli forces violated the ceasefire agreement, moving into and occupying
West Beirut.
- The Massacre -
On Wednesday, September 15, the Israeli army surrounded the Palestinian
refugee camp of Shatila and the adjacent neighborhood of Sabra in West
Beirut. The next day, September 16, Israeli soldiers allowed about 150
Phalangist militiamen into Sabra and Shatila.
The Phalange, known for their brutality and a history of atrocities against
Palestinian civilians, were bitter enemies of the PLO and its leftist and
Muslim Lebanese allies during the preceding years of Lebanon's civil war.
The enraged Phalangist militiamen believed, erroneously, that Phalange
leader Gemayel had been assassinated by Palestinians. He was actually killed
by a Syrian agent.
Over the next day and a half, the Phalangists committed unspeakable
atrocities, raping, mutilating, and murdering as many as 3500 Palestinian
and Lebanese civilians, most of them women, children, and the elderly.
Sharon would later claim that he could have had no way of knowing that the
Phalange would harm civilians, however when US diplomats demanded to know
why Israel had broken the ceasefire and entered West Beirut, Israeli army
Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan justified the move saying it was "to
prevent a Phalangist frenzy of revenge." On September 15, the day before the
massacre began, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin toldUS envoy
Morris Draper that the Israelis had to occupy West Beirut, "Otherwise, there
could be pogroms."
Almost immediately after the killing started, Israeli soldiers surrounding
Sabra and Shatila became aware that civilians were being murdered, but did
nothing to stop it. Instead, Israeli forces fired flares into the night sky
to illuminate the darkness for the Phalangists, allowed reinforcements to
enter the area on the second day of the massacre, and provided bulldozers
that were used to dispose of the bodies of many of the victims.
On the second day, Friday, September 17, an Israeli journalist in Lebanon
called Defense Minister Sharon to inform him of reports that a massacre was
taking place in Sabra and Shatila. The journalist, Ron Ben-Yishai, later&#
160;recalled:
'I found [Sharon] at home sleeping. He woke up and I told him "Listen, there
are stories about killings and massacres in the camps. A lot of our
officers know about it and tell me about it, and if they know it, the whole
world will know about it. You can still stop it." I didn't know that the
massacre actually started 24 hours earlier. I thought it started only then
and I said to him "Look, we still have time to stop it. Do something about
it." He didn't react."'
On Friday afternoon, almost 24 hours after the killing began, Eitan met with
Phalangist representatives. According to notes taken by an
Israeli intelligence officer present: "[Eitan] expressed his positive
impression received from the statement by the Phalangist forces and their
behavior in the field," telling them to continue "mopping up the empty camps
south of Fakahani until tomorrow at 5:00 a.m., at which time they must stop
their action due to American pressure."
On Saturday, American Envoy Morris Draper, sent a furious message to
Sharonstating:
'You must stop the massacres. They are obscene. I have an officer in the
camp counting the bodies. You ought to be ashamed. The situation is rotten
and terrible. They are killing children. You are in absolute control of the
area, and therefore responsible for the area.'
The Phalangists finally left the area at around 8 o'clock Saturday morning,
taking many of the surviving men with them for interrogation at a soccer
stadium. The interrogations were carried out with Israeli intelligence
agents, who handed many of the captives back to the Phalange. Some
of the men returned to the Phalange were later found executed.
About an hour after the Phalangists departed Sabra and Shatila, the first
journalists arrived on the scene and the first reports of what transpired
began to reach the outside world.
- Casualty Figures -
Thirty years later, there is still no accurate total for the number of
people killed in the massacre. Many of the victims were buried in mass
graves by the Phalange and there has been no political will on the part of
Lebanese authorities to investigate.
An official Israeli investigation, the Kahan Commission, concluded that
between 700 and 800 people were killed, based on the assessment of Israeli
military intelligence.
An investigation by Beirut-based British journalist Robert Fisk, who was one
of the first people on the scene after the massacre ended, concluded that&#
160;1700 peopledied.
The Palestinian Red Crescent put the number of dead at more than
2000.
In his book, Sabra & Shatila: Inquiry into a Massacre, Israeli
journalist Amnon Kapeliouk reached a maximum figure of 3000 to 3500.
- Aftermath -
Israel
Following international outrage, the Israeli government established a
committee of inquiry, the Kahan Commission. Its investigation found&#
160;that Defense Minister Sharon bore "personal responsibility" for the
massacre, and recommended that he be removed from office. Although Prime
Minister Begin removed him from his post as defense minister, Sharon
remained in cabinet as a minister without portfolio. He would go on to hold
numerous other cabinet positions in subsequent Israeli governments,
including foreign minister during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first
term in office. Nearly 20 years later, in March 2001, Sharon was elected
prime minister of Israel.
In June 2001, lawyers for 23 survivors of the massacre initiated legal
proceedings against Sharon in a Belgian court, under a law allowing people
to be prosecuted for war crimes committed anywhere in the world.
In January 2002, Phalangist leader and chief liaison to Israel during the
1982 invasion, Elie Hobeika, was killed by a car bomb in Beirut.
Hobeika led the Phalangist militiamen responsible for the massacre, and had
announced that he was prepared to testify against Sharon, who was then prime
minister of Israel, at a possible war crimes trial in Belgium. Hobeika's
killers were never found.
In June 2002, a panel of Belgian judges dismissed war crimes
charges against Sharon because he wasn't present in the country to stand
trial.
In January 2006, Sharon suffered a massive stroke. He remains in a coma on
life support.
The United States
For the United States, which had guaranteed the safety of civilians left
behind after the PLO departed, the massacre was a deep embarrassment,
causing immense damage to its reputation in the region. The fact that US
Secretary of State Alexander Haig was believed by many to have given Israel
a "green light" to invade Lebanon compounded the damage.
In the wake of the massacre, President Reagan sent the Marines back to
Lebanon. Just over a year later, 241 American servicemen would be killed
when two massive truck bombs destroyed their barracks in Beirut, leading
Reagan to withdraw US forces for good.
The Palestinians
For Palestinians, the Sabra and Shatila massacre was and remains a traumatic
event, commemorated annually. Many survivors continue to live in Sabra and
Shatila, struggling to eke out a living and haunted by their memories of the
slaughter. To this day, no one has faced justice for the crimes that took
place.
For Palestinians, the Sabra and Shatila massacre serves as a powerful and
tragic reminder of the vulnerable situation of millions of stateless
Palestinians, and the dangers that they continue to face across the region,
and around |
