Sabra and Shatilla
Saturday, September 20, 2003
“We know, it is not to our liking, and don’t interfere.”
A message from an Israeli army commander to his men, when he learned that Palestinians were being massacred in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla on 17 September 1982.
Twenty-one years have passed since the Sabra and Shatilla massacres and the world has moved on. Or has it? The Palestinian struggle for national identity and a patch of ground to call Palestine endures. Even the key players remain unchanged – in 1982 Arafat and Sharon called the shots and still they call the shots today. Only the place names have changed. Instead of the Israeli army tearing Beirut apart, it is the towns and refugee camps of the West Bank and Gaza that are now in the firing line.
Two thousand Palestinian refugees lost their lives in those infamous massacres and this afternoon, on the anniversary of the slaughter, a small group of people, carrying posters, placards and leaflets, assembled in Trafalgar Square in London. We were there to remind members of the public just what did happen in Lebanon all those years ago and to demonstrate that the suffering of Palestinians continues. An ‘Israeli checkpoint’ was set up on the terrace in front of the National Gallery and typical scenes of oppression and humiliation were enacted. Genteel interest was shown in the theatrical proceedings and although the questions and comments were disappointingly mild and low key, I am glad I was there. But the ghosts of those who died at Sabra and Shatilla and who were surely watching from the sidelines must have shed a few tears at the spectacle. On the anniversary of so much terror, suffering and grief how could there be no echo of outrage, anger, or horror and so little understanding of the issues involved.
Leaving aside the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland between 1948 and 1956, and the brutality of the apartheid system that has been such a feature in recent times of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel’s brief, but violent history is studded with acts of extraordinary savagery. The massacre of the inhabitants of Deir Yassin on 9 April 1948 was an early indication of what lay in store for Palestinians. Between one hundred and fifty and two hundred and fifty of the villagers were murdered – many first having been paraded through the Jewish areas of Jerusalem. A more recent example of Israeli disregard for Palestinian lives is the assaults on Jenin and Nablus in the spring of 2002. Approximately two hundred Palestinians were killed and many more wounded in these quite exceptionally violent attacks. Displaying a total disregard for the civilian populations, Merkava tanks, Apache helicopters and F16 jets shelled, strafed and bombed the centres of both towns for days on end.
Deir Yassin, Nablus and Jenin stand out as particularly horrific episodes in the disgraceful annals of the expansion of the state of Israel beyond the borders designated by the UN in 1947 – events for which future generations of Israelis will hang their heads in shame. But dreadful though these atrocities were – and perhaps because of the sheer scale – the massacres, which occurred between 16 and 18 September 1982 in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla in Beirut, hold an especially unenviable position in the Israeli lexicon of horror.
The massacres took place against the backdrop of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and Israel’s vision of installing in that country a Christian dominated government loyal to Israel. The Phalange, a brutal Lebanese Christian militia, was Israel’s collaborator on the ground. It was the Phalange, who did the dirty work in Sabra and Shatilla.
While Israeli soldiers positioned in neighbouring tower blocks watched through high-powered binoculars, Phalange militiamen were permitted entry into the camps. At night Israeli aircraft, passing overhead, dropped flares to assist them as they ranged through the narrow streets and alleyways raping, mutilating and murdering; no-one was spared the butchery – not children, not babies. Clubs, knives, guns, grenades, all were employed in the mayhem and families were herded into homes, which were then set on fire; all this under the watchful eyes of Israeli troops, who did nothing to stop the killing.
In 1983 the Kahan Commission concluded that the Israeli Minister of Defence, Ariel Sharon, “bore personal responsibility” for what happened in Sabra and Shatilla and Sharon was forced to resign - the same Ariel Sharon, who only a short while ago dined at number 10 Downing Street. And why would he not dine with the British Prime Minister? Israel has always been welcomed in Downing Street and nothing has changed - Israel continues to terrorise, assassinate, and imprison the indigenous population of Palestine, the United States continues to provide Israel with succour and support, and the British government continues to support the United States.