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Hard Hitting Report on SABRA / SHATILA at
LAWRENCE OF CYBERIA

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What happened must be set against the background of a Lebanon that had been invaded by the Israeli army only months earlier, supposedly in ‘retaliation’ for the attempted assassination of the Israeli Ambassador in London on 4 June 1982.

Israel attributed the attempt to Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) then resident in Beirut. In reality, it was a rival militant group headed by Abu Nidal.

Israel wanted to oust the PLO from Lebanon altogether and on 6 June 1982, Israel began its devastating assault on the Lebanese and Palestinian civilian population in the southern part of Lebanon. Lebanese government casualty figures numbered the dead at around 19,000 with some 30,000 wounded, but these numbers are hardly accurate because of the mass graves and other bodies lost in the rubble. [13]

By 1 September, a cease-fire had been mediated by United States envoy Philip Habib, and Arafat and his men surrendered their weapons and were evacuated from Beirut with guarantees by the US that the civilians left behind in the camps would be protected by a multinational peacekeeping force. That guarantee was not kept and the vacuum then created, paved the way for the atrocities that followed.

As soon as the peacekeeping force was withdrawn, the then Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon moved to root out some so-called “2,000 terrorists” he claimed were still hiding in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.

After totally surrounding the refugee camps with tanks and soldiers, Sharon ordered the shelling of the camps and the bombardment continued throughout the afternoon and into the evening of 15 September leaving the “mopping-up”
of the camps to the Lebanese right-wing Christian militia, known as the Phalangists.

THE NEXT DAY, THE PHALANGISTS - ARMED AND TRAINED BY THE ISRAELI ARMY - ENTERED THE CAMPS AND PROCEEDED TO MASSACRE THE UNARMED CIVILIANS WHILE SHARON AND HIS MEN WATCHED THE ENTIRE OPERATIONS. MORE GROTESQUELY, THE ISRAELI ARMY ENSURED THERE WAS NO LULL IN THE 36 HOURS OF KILLINGS AND ILLUMINATED THE AREA WITH FLARES AT NIGHT AND TIGHTENED THEIR CORDON AROUND THE CAMPS TO MAKE SURE THAT NO CIVILIAN COULD ESCAPE THE TERROR THAT HAD BEEN UNLEASHED.

Although Israel’s Kahan Commission of Inquiry did not find any Israeli directly responsible, it did find that Sharon bore “personal responsibility” for “not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre” before sending the Phalangists into the camps.

It, therefore, lamely recommended that the Israeli prime minister consider removing him from office. [14] Sharon resigned but remained as Minister without portfolio and joined two parliamentary commissions on defence and Lebanese affairs.

There is no doubt, as Chomsky points out “that the inquiry was not intended for people who have a prejudice in favour of truth and honesty”, but it certainly gained support for Israel in the US Congress and among the public. [15]

It took an International Commission of Inquiry headed by Sean MacBride to find that Israel was “directly responsible” because the camps were under its jurisdiction as an occupying power. [16] Yet, despite the UN describing the heinous operation as a “criminal massacre” and declaring it an act of genocide [17], no one was prosecuted.

It was not until 2001 that a law suit was filed in Belgium by the survivors of the massacre and relatives of the victims against Sharon alleging his personal responsibility. However, the court did not allow for “universal jurisdiction” - a principle which was intended to remove safe havens for war criminals and allow their prosecution across states. The case was won on appeal and the trial allowed to proceed, but without Sharon who by then was prime minister of Israel and had immunity.

US interference led to the Belgian Parliament gutting the universal jurisdiction law and by the time the International Criminal Court was established in The Hague the following year, the perpetrators of the Sabra and Shatila massacre could no longer be tried because its terms of reference did not allow it to hear cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide pre-dating 1 July 2002. Neither Sharon nor those who carried out the massacres have ever been punished for their horrendous crimes.

LIKE YOU - israel - WE WILL NEVER FORGET

LIKE YOU - israel - WE WILL PARADE OUR DEAD ON A CATWALK FOR THE WORLD TO SEE – as you love to accuse us of doing. How convenient that you forget your billion dollar museums.

UNLIKE YOU – israel – WE DO NOT MAKE PROFIT FROM OUR BLOOD

UNLIKE YOU - israel - WE DO NOT HAVE CORPORATE MUSEUMS

UNLIKE YOU – israel - WE DO NOT PROJECT A SINFUL NATURE ON TO OTHERS TO DISTORT FACTS AND REALITY

Lebanon and its neighbors will continually suffer as long as Palestine horrors - beyond any other worldly apartheid – goes unnoticed.

Rabbis from left, David Shlomo Feldman, Moshe Dov Beck and Yisroel Dovid Wiess, light candles at the Martyrs square of Sabra and Shatila Massacres in the Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday February 24, 2005.

Posted in

• abu nidal
• apostates
• human tragedy
• massacre
• phalangists
• sabra
• sharon
• shatila

Submitted by Rhiannon on Tue, 2007-10-09 00:47.

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