The Sabra and Shatila massacre took place in the
Sabra and
Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in
Beirut,
Lebanon between September 16 and September 18, 1982, during the
Lebanese civil war.
Palestinian and
Lebanese civilians were
massacred in the camps by
Christian Lebanese Phalangists while the camp was surrounded by the
Israel Defense Force. In that period of time,
Israel was at war with the PLO in Lebanon. Israeli forces occupied Beirut, dominated the refugee camps of
Palestinians and controlled the entrance to the city. After the assassination of
Bachir Gemayel, leader and president-elect of the Lebanese
Kataeb Party, a
Maronite group, also called
Lebanese Forces militia group, entered the camp and murdered inhabitants during the
night. The exact number of victims is disputed, from 700–800 to 3,500
(depending on the source).
Israeli forces enabled the entrance of the angry Kataeb Party group to the refugee camps, by providing them transportation[
citation needed] from outside Beirut and firing illuminating flares over the camps.[
citation needed] The Phalangists were under the direct command of
Elie Hobeika, who later became a long-serving Member of the
Parliament of Lebanon and, in the 1990s, a Lebanese cabinet minister.
In 1982, an independent commission chaired by
Sean MacBride concluded that the Israeli authorities or forces were, directly or indirectly, responsible.
[2] The Israeli government established the
Kahan Commission to investigate, and in early 1983 it found that Israeli military
personnel were aware that a massacre was in progress without taking
serious steps to stop it. It therefore regarded Israel as bearing part
of the "indirect responsibility." The commission held
Ariel Sharon personally responsible for for having disregarded the prospect of acts
of bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee
camps and not preventing their entry
[3].
BackgroundFrom 1975 to 1990, groups in competing alliances with neighboring countries fought against each other in the
Lebanese Civil War.
Infighting and massacres between these groups claimed several thousands
of victims; notable massacres in this period included the Syrian-backed
Karantina Massacre (January 1976) by the
Phalangists against
Palestinian refugees,
Damour massacre (January 1976) by the PLO against
Maronites and the
Tel al-Zaatar Massacre (August 1976) by Phalangists against
Palestinian refugees. The total death toll in Lebanon for the whole civil war period was around 200,000–300,000 victims.[
clarification needed]
The Civil War saw many shifting alliances among the main players; the Lebanese Nationalists, led by the Christian
Phalangist party and militia, were allied initially with
Syria then with
Israel, which provided them with arms and training to fight against the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); other factions were allied with
Syria and other states of the region. In addition, Israel had been training,
arming, supplying and uniforming the Christian-dominated
South Lebanon Army (SLA), led by
Saad Haddad, since 1978.
Sabra is the name of a poor neighborhood in the southern outskirts of West Beirut, which is adjacent to the Shatila
UNRWA refugee camp set up for Palestinian refugees in 1949. Over the years the populations
of the two areas became ever more mingled, and the loose terminology
"Sabra and Shatila camps" has become usual. Their populations had been
swelled by Palestinians and Lebanese
Shiites from the south fleeing the wars.
The PLO had been attacking Israel from southern Lebanon, and Israel had been bombing PLO positions in southern Lebanon.
[4] The attempted assassination of Israeli Ambassador
Shlomo Argov in London on June 4, 1982 by
Abu Nidal's organization became a
casus belli for a full-scale Israeli invasion of Lebanon. On June 6, Israel
invaded Lebanon with 60,000 troops in an act condemned by the UN
Security Council. Two months later, under a U.S.-sponsored
cease-fire agreement signed in late August, the PLO agreed to leave Lebanon under
international supervision, and Israel agreed not to advance further into
Beirut.
On August 23, 1982,
Bachir Gemayel, who was very popular among
Maronites, was elected
President of Lebanon by the National Assembly. Israel had relied on Gemayel and his forces as a counterbalance to the
PLO, and ties between Israel and Maronite groups had grown stronger.
[5][6][7]On September 1, the expulsion of the PLO fighters from Beirut was
completed. Two days later, Israel deployed its armed forces around the
refugee camps.
[8]The Israeli Premier
Menachem Begin met Gemayel in
Nahariya and strongly urged him to sign a peace treaty with Israel. According to some sources,
[9] Begin also wanted the continuing presence of the SLA in southern Lebanon (
Haddad supported peaceful relations with Israel) in order to control attacks
and violence, and action from Gemayel to move on the PLO fighters which
Israel believed remained a hidden threat in Lebanon. However, the
Phalangists, who were previously united as reliable Israeli allies, were
now split because of developing alliances with Syria, which remained
militarily hostile to Israel. As such, Gemayel rejected signing a peace
treaty with Israel and did not authorize operations to root out the
remaining PLO militants.
[10]On September 11, 1982, the international forces that were
guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees left Beirut. Then on
September 14, Gemayel was assassinated in a massive explosion which
demolished his headquarters. Eventually, the culprit,
Habib Tanious Shartouni, who confessed to the crime turned out to be a member of the
Syrian Social Nationalist Party and an agent of Syrian intelligence. The Palestinian and
Muslim leaders denied any connection.
[11]Within hours of the assassination, Israeli Defense Minister
Ariel Sharon, supported by Begin, decided to occupy West Beirut, informing only then Foreign Minister
Yitzhak Shamir and not consulting the Israeli cabinet. The same night Sharon began preparations for entering the Sabra-Shatila refugee camps.
[12] Thus on September 15, the Israeli army reoccupied West Beirut. This
Israeli action breached its agreement with the United States not to
occupy West Beirut;
[13] the US had also given written guarantees that it would ensure the
protection of the Muslims of West Beirut. Israel's occupation also
violated its peace agreements with
Muslim forces in Beirut and with Syria.
EventsFollowing the assassination of Lebanese Christian President
Bashir Gemayel, tensions built as Phalangists called for revenge. By noon of September 15, the
Israeli Defence Force (IDF) had completely surrounded the Sabra-Shatila camps, and controlled
all entrances and exits by the means of checkpoints. The IDF also
occupied a number of multi-story buildings as observation posts. Amongst
those was the seven-story Kuwaiti embassy which, according to TIME
magazine, had "an unobstructed and panoramic view" of the camps. Hours
later, IDF tanks began shelling the camps.
[12]Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff
Rafael Eitan[14] met with the Lebanese Phalangist militia units, inviting them to enter
the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and telling them the PLO fighters
were responsible for the assassination of their leader Bashir Gemayel.
[15] Under the Israeli plan, Israeli soldiers would control the perimeters
of the refugee camps and provide logistical support while the
Phalangists would enter the camps, find the PLO fighters and hand them
over to Israeli forces.[
citation needed] The meetings concluded at 3:00 p.m. September 16.
[12]An hour later, 1,500 militiamen assembled at Beirut International Airport, then occupied by Israel. Under the command of
Elie Hobeika, they began moving towards the camps in IDF supplied
Jeeps, following Israeli guidance on how to enter the camps. The forces were mostly
Phalangist, though there were some men from
Saad Haddad's "Free Lebanon forces".
[12] According to
Ariel Sharon and Elie Hobeika's bodyguard, the Phalangists were given "harsh and clear" warnings about harming civilians.
[13][16]The first unit of 150 Phalangists entered the camps at 6:00 p.m. A
battle ensued that at times Palestinians claim involved lining up
Palestinians for execution.
[12] During the night the Israeli forces fired illuminating flares over the
camps. According to a Dutch nurse, the camp was as bright as "a sports
stadium during a football game".
[17]At 11:00 p.m. a report was sent to the IDF headquarters in East
Beirut, reporting the killings of 300 people, including civilians. The
report was forwarded to headquarters in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where it
was seen by more than 20 senior Israeli officers.
[12]Further reports of these killings followed through the night. Some of
these reports were forwarded to the Israeli government in Jerusalem and
were seen by a number of Israeli senior officials.
For the next 36 to 48 hours, the Phalangists massacred the
inhabitants of Sabra and Shatila, while Israeli troops guarded the exits
and allegedly continued to fire flares at night.
At one point, a militiaman's radioed question to his commander
Hobeika about what to do with the women and children in the refugee camp
was overheard by an Israeli officer, who heard Hobeika's reply: "This
is the last time you're going to ask me a question like that; you know
exactly what to do." Phalangist troops could be heard laughing in the
background.
[13] The Israeli officer reported this to his superior, Brig. Gen.
Amos Yaron, who warned Hobeika against hurting civilians but took no further action. Lt.
Avi Grabowsky was cited by the
Kahan Commission as having seen (on that Friday) the murder of five women and children,
and gave a hearsay report of a battalion commander saying of this, "We
know, it's not to our liking, and don't interfere." Israeli soldiers
surrounding the camps turned back Palestinians fleeing the camps, as
filmed by a
Visnews cameraman.
Later in the afternoon, a meeting was held between the Israeli Chief
of Staff and the Phalangist staff. On Friday morning, the Israelis
surrounding the camps ordered the Phalange to halt their operation,
concerned about reports of a massacre.
[13] According to the Kahan Commission's report (based on a Mossad agent's
report), the Chief of Staff concluded that the Phalange should "continue
action, mopping up the empty camps south of Fakahani until tomorrow at
5:00 a.m., at which time they must stop their action due to American
pressure." He stated that he had "no feeling that something irregular
had occurred or was about to occur in the camps." At this meeting, he
also agreed to provide the militia with a tractor, supposedly to
demolish buildings.
On Friday, September 17, while the camps still were sealed off, a few
independent observers managed to enter. Among them were a Norwegian
journalist and diplomat
Gunnar Flakstad, who observed Phalangists during their cleanup operations, removing dead bodies from destroyed houses in the Shatila camp.
[18]The Phalangists did not exit the camps at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday as
ordered. They forced the remaining survivors to march out of the camps,
to the stadium for interrogations; this went on for the entire day. The
militia finally left the camps at 8:00 a.m. on September 18. The first
foreign journalists allowed into the camps at 9:00 a.m. found hundreds
of bodies scattered about the camp. The first official news of the
massacre was broadcast around noon.
Many of the bodies found had been severely mutilated. Many boys had been
castrated, some were
scalped, and some had the
Christian cross carved into their bodies.
[19]Janet Lee Stevens, an American journalist, later wrote to her husband, Dr. Franklin Lamb,
[20]<blockquote>
I saw dead women in their houses with their skirts up to their waists
and their legs spread apart; dozens of young men shot after being lined
up against an alley wall; children with their throats slit, a
pregnant woman with her stomach chopped open, her eyes still wide open, her blackened face silently screaming in horror; countless
babies and toddlers who had been stabbed or ripped apart and who had been thrown into garbage piles.
Number of victimsThe exact number of victims of the massacre is disputed. It is estimated[
by whom?] that at least a quarter of the victims were Lebanese, the rest Palestinians[
citation needed]. Here follow the main estimates that have circulated, ordered by number of deaths:
- A letter from the head of the Red Cross delegation to the Lebanese Minister of Defense, cited in the Kahan Commission report as "exhibit 153", stated that Red Cross representatives had counted 328 bodies; but the Kahan Commission noted that "this figure, however, does not include all the bodies ..."
- The Kahan Commission said that, according to "a document which
reached us (exhibit 151), the total number of victims whose bodies were
found from 18.9.82 to 30.9.82 is 460", stating further that this figure
consists of "the dead counted by the Lebanese Red Cross, the
International Red Cross, the Lebanese Civil Defense, the medical corps
of the Lebanese army, and by relatives of the victims." Thirty-five
women and children were among the dead according to this account.
- Israeli figures, based on IDF intelligence, cite a figure of
700–800. In the Kahan Commission's view, "this may well be the number
most closely corresponding with reality."
- According to the BBC, "at least 800" Palestinians died.[21]
- Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout in her Sabra and Shatila: September 1982[22]
gives a minimum consisting of 1,300 named victims based on detailed
comparison of 17 victim lists and other supporting evidence, and
estimates an even higher total.
- Robert Fisk,
one of the first journalists to visit the scene, quotes (without
endorsing) unnamed Phalangist officers as saying "that 2,000
Palestinians – women as well as men – had been killed in Chatila." In a
2002 article in The Independent, Fisk speaks of "1700 civilians murdered." [23] The Palestinian Red Crescent put the number killed at over 2,000.[24]
- In his book published soon after the massacre,[25] the Israeli journalist Amnon Kapeliouk of Le Monde Diplomatique,
arrived at about 2,000 bodies disposed of after the massacre from
official and Red Cross sources and "very roughly" estimated 1,000 –
1,500 other victims disposed of by the Phalangists themselves to a total
of 3,000–3,500.
Memorial in Sabra, South Beirut
International reactionsThe attack was explicitly grieved and condemned[
citation needed] in
Muslim countries in and surrounding the
Arab Middle East. The attack was criticized[
citation needed] by members of Western countries as well.
[edit] U.N. condemnationOn December 16, 1982, the
United Nations General Assembly condemned the massacre and declared it to be an act of
genocide.
[26] The voting record
[27][28][29] on section D of Resolution 37/123, which "resolves that the massacre
was an act of genocide", was: yes: 123; no: 0; abstentions: 22;
non-voting: 12. The abstentions were: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany
(Federal Republic),
Iceland, Ireland, Italy,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom, U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Israel,
Ivory Coast,
Papua New Guinea,
Barbados and
Dominican Republic.
[edit] Disputes with U.N. verdictSome delegates disputed the claim that the massacre constituted
genocide.
The delegate for Canada stated: "The term genocide cannot, in our view, be applied to this particular inhuman act".
[29] The delegate of
Singapore – voting 'yes' – added: "My delegation regrets the use of the term 'an
act of genocide' ... [as] the term 'genocide' is used to mean acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnic, racial or religious group." Canada and Singapore also questioned
whether the General Assembly was competent determine an event to
constitute genocide.
[29]The United States commented that "While the criminality of the
massacre was beyond question, it was a serious and reckless misuse of
language to label this tragedy genocide as defined in the
1948 Convention ...".
[29]Such comments led
William Schabas, director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the
National University of Ireland,
[30] to state: "the term genocide ... had obviously been chosen to embarrass
Israel rather than out of any concern with legal precision".
[29]Israeli roleMacBride commission reportIn 1982, an independent commission, the International Commission to
enquire into reported violations of International Law by Israel during
its invasion of the Lebanon, was formed. Chaired by former Irish foreign
minister
Sean MacBride, the commission included the following members:
- Professor Richard Falk, Vice Chairman, Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice, Princeton University,
- Dr Kader Asmal, Senior Lecturer in Law and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Trinity College, Dublin,
- Dr Brian Bercusson, Lecturer in Laws, Queen Mary College, University of London,
- Professor Géraud de la Pradelle, Professor of Private Law, University of Paris, and
- Professor Stefan Wild, Professor of Semitic Languages and Islamic Studies, University of Bonn.
The commission toured the area of fighting and examined witnesses in
Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Syria, UK, and Norway. The government of Israel
refused to cooperate. The commission's report, Israel in Lebanon,
concluded that the Israeli authorities or forces were directly or
indirectly responsible in the massacres and other killings that have
been reported to have been carried out by Lebanese militiamen in the
refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in the Beirut area between 16 and
September 18.
[2][edit] Kahan Commission reportSee also:
Kahan Commission300,000 demonstrating Israelis put pressure on their government to investigate on the massacre. The
Kahan Commission concluded in February 1983 that Israel bore part of the "indirect
responsibility" for the massacres, advised Minister of Defense
Ariel Sharon to be dismissed from his post and not to hold public office again.
[edit] Israeli population demands investigationIn its initial statements, the Israeli government declared that those
critics who regarded the IDF as having responsibility for the events at
Sabra and Shatila were guilty of "a
blood libel against the
Jewish state and its Government." However, as the news of the massacre spread around
the world, the controversy grew, and on September 25, 300,000
Israelis—roughly one-tenth of the country's population at the
time—demonstrated in a
Tel Aviv square demanding answers. The protest, known in Israel as the "400,000
protest" (the number of protesters was first exaggerated) was one of the
biggest in Israel's history.
[edit] Israel "indirect responsibility"On September 28, the Israeli Government resolved to establish a
Commission of Inquiry, which was led by former Supreme Court Justice
Yitzhak Kahan. The report included evidence from Israeli army personnel,
as well as political figures and Phalangist officers. In the report,
published in February 1983, the
Kahan Commission stated that there was no evidence that Israeli units took direct part
in the massacre and that it was the "direct responsibility of
Phalangists." However, the Commission recorded that Israeli military
personnel were aware that a massacre was in progress without taking
serious steps to stop it, and that reports of a massacre in progress
were made to senior Israeli officers and even to an Israeli cabinet
minister; it therefore regarded Israel as bearing part of the "indirect
responsibility."
[edit] Sharon "personal responsibility"The Kahan commission found that
Ariel Sharon "bears personal responsibility",
[3] recommended his dismissal from the post of Defense Minister and
concluded that Sharon should not hold public office again, stating that:
<blockquote>
It is our view that responsibility is to be imputed to the minister
of defense for having disregarded the prospect of acts of vengeance and
bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee camps
and for having failed to take this danger into account when he decided
to have the Phalangists enter the camps. In addition, responsibility is
to be imputed to the minister of defense for not ordering appropriate
measures for preventing or reducing the chances of a massacre as a
condition for the Phalangists' entry into the camps
</blockquote>
At first, Sharon refused to resign, and Begin refused to fire him. It was only after the death of
Emil Grunzweig after a grenade was tossed into the dispersing crowd of a
Peace Now protest march, which also injured ten others, that a compromise was
reached: Sharon would resign as Defense minister, but remain in the
Cabinet as a
minister without portfolio. Notwithstanding the dissuading conclusions of the Kahan report, Sharon would later become
Prime Minister of Israel.
[31][32]Other conclusionsThe Kahan commission also recommended the dismissal of Director of Military Intelligence
Yehoshua Saguy[33]'
[34], and the effective promotion freeze of Division Commander Brig. Gen.
Amos Yaron for at least three years
[34].
Additional viewsIn the
2005 Swiss-French-German-Lebanese co-produced documentary Massaker
[35] six former
Lebanese Forces phalangist soldiers who participated personally in the massacre stated
there was Israeli participation in two ways: one of them said that he
saw Israeli soldiers driving bulldozers into inhabited houses inside the
camp; another said that Israeli soldiers provided the
Lebanese Forces soldiers with material to dispose of the corpses lying around in the
streets. Several of the soldiers said that they had received training in
Israel. However, these claims are controversial.
Noam Chomsky and
Robert Fisk have said that Israel could have predicted that a massacre by Phalange
fighters who entered the camps might have taken place. In particular,
such commentators do not believe it is possible that there were "2000
PLO terrorists" remaining in the camps, because (1) the
Kahan Commission documents that the Israeli army allowed only 150 Phalangist fighters
into the camps and (2) the Phalangists suffered only two casualties; an
improbable outcome of a supposedly 36-hour battle of 150 militants
against 2000 experienced "PLO terrorists" [FT].
Opinions on Hobeika's responsibilityRobert Maroun Hatem,
Elie Hobeika's bodyguard, stated in his book From Israel to Damascus that Hobeika ordered the massacre of civilians in defiance of Israeli instructions to behave like a "dignified" army.
[16]Pierre Rehov,
[36] a documentary filmmaker who worked on the case with former Lebanese soldiers, while making his film Holy Land: Christians in Peril,
came to the conclusion that Hobeika was definitely responsible for the
massacre, despite the orders he had received from Ariel Sharon to behave
humanely.
Hobeika was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut on January 24, 2002.
Lebanese and Arab commentators blamed Israel for the murder of Hobeika,
with alleged Israeli motive that Hobeika would be ‘apparently poised to
testify before the Belgian court about Sharon’s role in the massacre
[37] (see section above). Prior to his assassination, Elie Hobeika had made it clear that he would testify against Sharon.
[38]Sharon sues Time for libelAriel Sharon sued
Time magazine for
libel in American and Israeli courts in a $50 million libel suit, after Time
published a story in its February 21, 1983, issue, implying that Sharon
had "reportedly discussed with the Gemayels the need for the
Phalangists to take revenge" for Bashir's assassination.
[39] The jury found the article false and defamatory, although Time
won the suit in the U.S. court because Sharon's defense failed to
establish that the magazine's editors and writers had "acted out of
malice," as required under the U.S. libel law.
[40][edit] Relatives of victims sue SharonAfter Sharon's 2001 election to the post of
Prime Minister of Israel, relatives of the victims of the massacre filed a lawsuit[
citation needed] in Belgium alleging Sharon's personal responsibility for the massacres. The
Belgian Supreme Court ruled on February 12, 2003, that Sharon (and others involved, such as
Israeli General Yaron) could be indicted under this accusation. Israel
maintained that the lawsuit was initiated for political reasons[
citation needed].
On September 24, 2003, Belgium's Supreme Court dismissed the war
crimes case against Ariel Sharon, since none of the plaintiffs had
Belgian nationality at the start of the case.
[41]When
Ariel Sharon had fallen seriously ill in January 2006, president
Ahmadinejad from
Iran reportedly referred to Sharon as "the criminal of Sabra and Shatila".
[42]</blockquote>
الخميس 15 سبتمبر - 17:52