october 2004
Twenty-two years later, Sabra and Shatila Calls for Justice Endure
September 16, 2004 marks the 22nd anniversary of the killing of thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese residents of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut Lebanon. Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition joins Palestinians everywhere as we commemorate one of the bloodiest massacres in recent history.
On 6 June 1982, the Israeli army invaded Lebanon with the full backing and support of the United States of America. A few days later, the invading army besieged West Beirut for two-months before the US, France and Italy intervened with a plan to evacuate Palestinian resistance fighters from Lebanon. This occurred under the auspices of a multinational force on August 21 which was sent to oversee the departure, and to protect Palestinian refugees. However, in a sudden and inexplicable move, the multinational force withdrew by early September claiming its mission was accomplished.
On September 15, Israeli forces invaded West Beirut in a clear violation of the evacuation agreement agreed upon by the Palestinian resistance and the US. A day later, Ariel Sharon ordered entry of the Lebanese Forces (a right-wing, Phalangist militia with a long history of close relations with Israeli governments) and the South Lebanon Army (Israel's proxy militia in Southern Lebanon) into the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, which were completely sealed off by Israeli tanks. When the militiamen entered on the evening of September 16, the only resistance they were faced with was from lightly-armed young boys, the Ashbaal (lion cubs).
For the next 38 hours, aided by material support from Israel's army, including flares at night, Israel's proxy militiamen raped, tortured, mutilated and killed, in cold-blood, thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese residents of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Already on September 17, a day into the massacre, eye-witness reports of the killings were circulating.
Yet, the Israeli military allowed even more Phalange militiamen into the camp, an provided them with bulldozers to plough and bury the corpses. Israeli commanders, including General Amos Yaron, the Israeli commander in Beirut, were stationed on the rooftop of a seven-story building 200 meters from Shatila, with a clear view of the camps below. The Phalangist intelligence also had radio communication with militiamen on the ground. By the morning of September 17, evidence that a massacre was taking place was communicated to Israeli Chief of Staff, Raphael Eitan, who then approved a request that the Phalangists remain in the camps until 5:00 am Saturday.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, more than 2,750 Palestinian men, women and children were massacred in the Sabra and Shatila camps in Beirut while the city was occupied by the Israeli army. The main war criminal bearing legal responsibility for the massacre is then Israeli Minister of Defense, General Ariel Sharon. Israel's official Kahane Commission concluded that Ariel Sharon was "personally responsible" for the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
Although the massacre was classified by the United Nations as a war crime, Ariel Sharon has not yet been brought to trial for his horrific war crimes against the Palestinian and Lebanese people.
Sabra and Shatila will continue to haunt Palestinians and the international community alike until the perpetrators of the massacres are brought to justice, until the forced and continuing exile of millions of Palestinians is ended, and until Palestinian refugees achieve their right to return to their homes and lands of origin in Palestine and from which they were expelled.
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Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://www.al-awda.org
Fax: 1-802-609-9284