They say 9/11 changed the world. What about September 16, 1982
when another over 3000 innocent people were brutally murdered?
BADIL Resource Center
for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights - Sept 16, 2004
September 16
commemorates the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, the day almost
a quarter of a century ago, when up to 3,500 civilians, mainly
Palestinian refugees, died in Beirut, Lebanon refugee camps.
In 1982, Ariel Sharon was Defense Minister of Israel. An Israeli
commission of inquiry found that he and other Israelis were
responsible for the massacre. Now Ariel Sharon is Prime Minister
of Israel.
Under the Universal Jurisdiction Law of Belgium, Ariel Sharon
was charged in relation to the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The
case failed when Belgium was forced to abandon its law through
U.S. and other pressure. The law simply put Belgian law into
agreement with the Geneva Conventions something expected from
every state that is a signatory to the Conventions. The Geneva
Conventions call for prosecution or extradition of anyone guilty
of crimes against humanity. Among others, Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch have supported the concept of universal
jurisdiction.
Others who had a role in the massacre remain in positions of
power both in Israel and Lebanon.
Things havent changed much for the Palestinians. Inquiries into
the massacre were not released. Most massacre perpetrators
remain at large. Nothing has been done to compensate the victims.
The killing with impunity continues, especially for Palestinians.
In the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip more than 3,100
Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military and Israel
settlers in the past four years. In the same period almost 1,000
Israeli civilians and members of the Israeli security forces
have been killed by Palestinians.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon remain unable to own land and
are barred from more than 70 types of work. The Palestinians of
West Bank and Gaza remain locked in a land which is growing
smaller by the day with illegal takeovers of land and the
building of the wall by Israel.
All Palestinians who lost their homes in 1948 and through the
years because of Israeli actions have been denied the right of
return.
Some say the world changed on September 11, 2001 but on 16
September, 22 years after the Sabra and Shatila massacre, not
much has changed for the Palestinians.
BADIL Resource Center
aims to provide a resource pool of alternative, critical and
progressive information on the question of Palestinian refugees
in our quest to achieve a just and lasting soluton for exiled
Palestinians based on their right of return.
PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine; Email:
info@badil.org; Website:
www.badil.org;
Telephone/Fax: 02-2747346 From outside of Palestine:
972-2-2747346
The Sabra and Shatila massacres - why do we ignore them?
by: Chris Tolworthy
March 2002
[The following is part of a series of articles from Chris
Tolworthy reposted here with kind permission. The articles
together ask many questions about the September 11 atrocity and
its aftermath, as well as looking into it from numerous angles.
The articles are split into a number of pages on this site (which
you can follow using the links at the bottom of the linked page).]
The massacres at Sabra and Shatila provide an interesting
comparison to the September 11th tragedy. Both killed around
2800 innocent people (although the exact count at Sabra and
Shatila may be much higher). Both were probably guided by men
with a history of terrorism. However, while Sepember 11th is
remembered in the west, Sabra and Shatila are largely ignored.
In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon and killed between 2000 and 3500
innocent civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. The
striking thing is that the west almost ignores it. Try a web
search for "Sabra and Shatila" and look for western sources. For
example, the Time Magazine web site just headlines the invasion
as "Israel Strikes at The PLO" and barely mentions the massacre.
Yet everyone agrees that it took place.
"In 1983, an Israeli state inquiry found Mr Sharon, then defense
minister, indirectly responsible for the killing of hundreds of
men, women and children at Sabra and Shatila camps during
Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon." ."
On December 16, 1982 the United Nations General Assembly
condemned the massacre and declared it to be an act of genocide.
Sharon resigned as defense minister, but later became Israeli
Prime Minister.
The massacre was recently investigated by the BBC and the
conclusions were damning. The BBC team reported on their
investigation, and included this interesting comment:
"In Beirut we confronted the man accused of leading the
slaughter. There was in Lebanon a sense of surprise that we
would wish to revisit such an event. As one former militia
leader said, 'For God's sake if you prosecuted for war crimes
here we'd all be in jail.'"
A British parliamentary motion requested:
"That this House congratulates the BBC for Panorama's recent
in-depth analysis of the massacres in Sabra and Shatilla during
the war in Lebanon in 1982; notes that following the massacres
an internal Israeli commission of inquiry forced the resignation
of the then Israeli Defence Minister, Ariel Sharon; believes
there is sufficient prima facie evidence to indicate that Ariel
Sharon, now the Israeli Prime Minister, should be tried for war
crimes; and calls upon the international community to ensure
that he is duly charged at the earliest possible opportunity.'
The motion added "that 400,000 people in Israel demonstrated
their horror and disgust at such a crime against humanity"
How does this compare with the World Trade Center bombings - in
numbers and in how it happened?
"The precise number of victims of the massacre may never be
exactly determined. The International Committee of the Red Cross
counted 1,500 at the time but by September 22 this count had
risen to 2,400. On the following day 350 bodies were uncovered
so that the total then ascertained had reached 2,750. Kapeliouk
points out that to the number of bodies found after the massacre
one should add three categories of victims:
* (a) Those buried in mass graves whose number cannot be
ascertained because the Lebanese authorities forbade their
opening;
* (b) Those who were buried under the ruins of houses; and
* (c) Those who were taken alive to an unknown destination but
never returned.
The bodies of some of them were found by the side of the roads
leading to the south. Kapeliouk asserts that the number of
victims may be 3,000 to 3,500, one-quarter of whom were Lebanese,
while the remainder were Palestinians."
At time of writing (late January 2002) these issues are finally
coming before a court in Belgium.
Will Sharon and others be tried for war crimes? Possibly.
Will they be found guilty? Probably not.
Since the trial was announced, key witnesses have been tracked
down and assassinated:
"A potential key witness in the Belgian war crimes case against
the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was blown up outside
his house in Beirut yesterday [January 25th], together with
three bodyguards. Elie Hobeika, a Lebanese warlord involved in
the massacre of more than 1,000 Palestinians in the Sabra and
Chatila refugee camps in 1982, died only a few days after saying
he would give evidence in Belgium."
"The secrets of the Sabra and Chatila Palestinian camp massacres
in 1982 have gone to the grave with yet another former
Phalangist militiaman, the third Lebanese to die mysteriously in
little more than two months. Michael Nassar, who was a former
associate of Elie Hobeika - the Phalangist leader murdered in a
car bombing in Beirut in January - was shot dead in Brazil by a
man firing a pistol equipped with a silencer. His young wife,
Marie, was shot down beside him...
"The first former right-wing Christian to be struck down was one
of Hobeika's old colleagues, Jean Ghanem, who drove his car into
a tree on New Year's Day...
"A Belgian court has postponed a decision over whether to indict
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, for his role in the
massacres - he was held 'personally responsible' by an Israeli
commission of inquiry - while lawyers for the survivors produce
more evidence. But the vital evidence that may lie in the
memories of those involved with the killers, who were allied to
Israel at the time, is disappearing almost by the week as the
death list grows."
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