People's Democracy

Remembering the Sabra and Shatila Massacres

 

Yohannan Chemarapally

 

THE 30th anniversary of the massacre in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut went largely unnoticed in the media. The US and Israel have succeeded in turning the world’s attention to Syria and Iran. It serves a purpose as it helps Israel continue with its aggrandisement of Palestinian territory and trample on the rights of ordinary Palestinians. At least 3000 non-combatants, most of them women, the elderly and children were massacred in an orgy of killing that lasted well over three days in September 1982. Most of those killed were impoverished Palestinian refugees. The actual killings were carried out by a rightwing Lebanese Phalangist militia, aligned with Israel. Israel had invaded Lebanon in June 1982 to drive out the Palestinian resistance forces from the country and instal a puppet regime in Beirut.

 

ZIONISTS, US

RESPONSIBLE

What happened at that time was that Israeli troops had surrounded the camps as the Phalangists — a Christian rightwing group armed and trained by Israel — went on systematically executing the residents. Many of the bodies were found in badly mutilated conditions. Eyewitnesses have reported of women being subjected to multiple rapes and then killed, and of children being literally torn apart. Israeli troops had surrounded the camps and subjected the hapless inhabitants to heavy shelling. There are also eyewitness reports that some Israeli troops too participated in the killings. Then the Phalangists were let in, with the Israeli army lighting flares in the night to facilitate the massacre. An Israeli investigative commission had concluded soon after that their government was “indirectly responsible” for the killings and that Ariel Sharon, who was the defence minister and the architect of the 1982 invasion “bore personal responsibility” for failing to prevent the killings.

 

It is another matter that no action was taken against Sharon who went on to become the prime minister and played a key role in the undermining the Oslo peace accords and the continuation of Israeli occupation. As Noam Chomsky has noted, the official Israeli inquiry was “not intended for people who have a prejudice in favour of truth and honesty.” An international commission of enquiry, led by Sean McBride, concluded that Israel was “directly responsible” as the camps were under its direct jurisdiction as an “occupying power.” Despite the UN describing the massacres of Sabra and Shatila as “a criminal massacre” and declaring it as an act of genocide, Israel went unscathed.

 

Now further evidence has come to light that the United States government was aware of the activities of the Israeli forces and their local allies on the fateful days from September 16-18, when the massacre was going on. The New York Times, in a long report published on September 17, said that government of Israel “duped” Washington into believing that thousands of “terrorists” were holed up in the two camps and that military action was being taken to neutralise them. Seth Anziska, a doctoral student at Colombia University, who is the author of the article, cites official documents to show that the Israeli authorities deliberately misled the Americans into believing the spurious claims that thousands of Palestinian fighters — “terrorists” in Israeli lingo — were holed up in the ramshackle refugee settlements of Sabra and Shatila. Anziska based his research on recently declassified Israeli documents which he accessed in government archive. “Most troubling, when the US was in a position to exert strong diplomatic pressure on Israel that could have ended the atrocities, it failed to do so,” the New York Times article added.

 

US IGNORANT OF

GAME PLAN (!?)

The killings took place after the Palestinian fighters had evacuated from West Beirut following American guarantees that civilians would be protected. The United States had deployed its marines as part of a multinational force in Lebanon in the wake of the departure of the forces of Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from Lebanon. West Beirut had been under the control of the PLO forces for many years. But within ten days of the departure of the PLO forces, the US marines who were supposed to help in keeping the peace, also left Beirut. The field was left open for Israeli army and their rightwing Christian allies.

 

The Israeli prime minister at the time, Menachem Begin, had told the special US envoy to the region, Morris Draper, on September 15 that Israeli troops were moving into West Beirut to prevent a “pogrom.” Only the previous day, the pro-Israeli president of Lebanon, Basher Gemayel, then newly installed in office, had been assassinated. By September 16, the first day of the massacre, the Israeli army was fully in control of West Beirut, which included the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. Washington by then was most probably in the know of the Israelis’ game plan.

Lawrence Eagleburger, the US under-secretary of state, told the Israeli ambassador, Moshe Arens, that “we appear to some as a victim of a deliberate deception by Israel.” Eagleburger demanded that Israeli forces immediately withdraw from West Beirut. But Israel refused to budge. Their defence minister, Ariel Sharon, told Draper that there were “2000-3000 terrorists who remained” in Sabra and Shatila. The New York Times article describes Draper as “horrified” when he was told that Sharon was planning to send the bloodthirsty Phalangist militia into the area. The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Rafael Eitan, told the Americans that he feared “a relentless slaughter” once the Phalangists were let into West Beirut.

 

As predicted, the massacre started under the noses of the Israeli forces, with the Americans reduced to playing the role of bystanders. The New York Times report quoting from documents said that the US officials were not told that the killings had started during a high level meeting Draper had with the Israeli foreign minister, Yitzhak Shamir, Sharon and Israeli intelligence chiefs on September 17. When Draper demanded that the Israeli forces vacate West Beirut immediately, he was browbeaten into submission by Sharon, according to the newly unearthed transcripts. Sharon angrily told Draper, “I just don’t understand what are you are looking for. Do you want the terrorists to stay? Are you afraid that somebody will think that you are in collusion with us? Deny it. We denied it.”

 

Draper’s insistence on Israeli withdrawal was met with further stonewalling by Sharon, who was by then well aware that the massacre in Sabra and Shatila had begun. Sharon assured Draper that nothing drastically untoward would happen. “Nothing will happen. Maybe a few more terrorists will be killed. That will be to the benefit of us all,” Sharon told the American envoy. As history has shown, the Americans let Sharon and the Israeli government have the last word. The Phalangists and the Israeli army were allowed to go on with the mayhem in Sabra and Shatila unimpeded, for three days and nights.

 

ZIONISTS ON TOP

IN US POLITICS

President Ronald Reagan waited till September 18 to issue a statement expressing “revulsion and outrage over the murders” in Sabra and Shatila. He said that the US had opposed the Israeli occupation of West Beirut “believing that it was wrong in principle and for fear that it would provoke further fighting.” His secretary of state, George P Schultz, said that the US had “partial responsibility” for the killings “because we took the Israelis and the Lebanese at their word.” American administrations since then have been even more gullible when it comes to commitments and promises made by Israel.

 

Since it was let to go scot-free in 2002, Israel has committed many more atrocities. The last major action was during the Gaza invasion, in which over 1400 people were killed. Now the Obama administration is being arm-twisted by the powerful Jewish lobby in the US to declare war on Iran on behalf of Israel. Washington recently announced that negotiations with Teheran have “failed” and will not be resumed. Many observers and analysts feel that this is a prelude to war. Israel seems to have once again succeeded in steering American foreign policy to its benefit. A war with Iran would plunge the entire region into further chaos and bloodshed.  

 

Very few western media outlets bothered to even remember the 30th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila. If the Palestinians had killed more than 3000 Israelis thirty years ago, western governments and the embedded media would have had banner headlines commemorating the event.