Reactions to the genocide in the Sabra and Chaltila camps (June 21, 2009)
For three nights and two days the genocide went on in the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Chaltila on the outskirts of Beirut. It started at 5 p.m. of September 16 to Saturday, September 18, 1982 at 10 a.m. Of the 20 thousands refugees more than 4,000 have been declared missing and dead; a third of these victims were Lebanese citizens living in the camps. Less than 1,500 dead have been identified by relatives; the remaining ones had been decomposing for two days and over two thousands have been taken in trucks, never to reappear.
Saturday, September 18, 1982; Israel’s New Year
By 11 a.m., the outside world of the cordoned off camps by the Israeli army is starting to witness the magnitude of human disaster. The terrorized Palestinian refugees are ambulating among the cadavers to recognize the lost ones. By noon, the international press, radio and television reporters are flooding toward the camps. The Washington Post published “Houses were bulldozed over entire families. Cadavers are piled up as dead dolls. Perforated walls account for lining up killing. A baby in diaper had his skull crushed. Each alley tells its own story of savage massacre. A woman is dead by a bullet shot at her bosom.”
The ambassador to France Paul-Marc Henri is on location. During the invasion of Lebanon by Israel in 1982 the UNICEF accounted that for every fallen resistance fighter 10 babies were dead; but in the two camps the terrorist militias targeted specifically the babies and kids. Among the piles of cadavers the militias inserted grenades ready to explode as survivors search for their relatives. Members of body could be distinguished showing out of quickly and freshly dug mass graves. Journalists start counting the victims, everyone for himself; one journalist counted 80 and then vomited; another counted 150 in just one pack of houses. Many victims have been dead since Thursday, September 16; refugees have been clamoring even then that the militias were cutting throats and slaughtering everyone they find on their way.
On the walls you can read the militias graffiti “Tony passed by here”; “God, Homeland, and Family (the slogan of the Kataeb)”; “The forces of Baabdat (a town in the Metn district)”; and “They are all fucked up”. A mother was saying “Only those who could run fast were saved”. The journalists are shown the nearby headquarters of the Israeli army. The Israeli soldiers are not answering questions of reporters; they received orders to say “We had no idea”. A Phalangist militia is pretty proud of his actions and replies to an American reporter “For years we were waiting for the opportunity of entering the Palestinian camps in West Beirut. The Israeli army selected us because we are far better in house to house operations.”
General Amir Drori orders the Israeli soldiers not to enter the camps for any pretext for fear of confirming the strong suspicion that they indeed had participated in the genocide. The Jews in the USA are feeling sick and ashamed. President Reagan announced “Israel has justified entering West Beirut to avoid blood shedding and these kinds of tragedies” An Israeli journalist retorted that “those tragedies took place because the USA gave us the green light to invade Lebanon and progress toward Beirut”.
The Lebanese officials have many times expressed their concerns to special envoy Philip Habib and his Deputy Morris Draper of the consequences of leaving the Palestinians unarmed within their camps. An American diplomat in Tel Aviv proclaimed to the daily Haaretz “The Palestinian Organization and the State of Lebanon had confidence in the USA engagements; but the US displaced Lebanon’s confidence to Israel. We realized our grave error to late”
In the mean time, the Israeli army is resuming its search and destroys activities in West Beirut and rounding up thousand of Lebanese civilians for questioning and investigation in a location close to the Sport City.
Sunday, September 19, 1982; “Goys kill goys; then they accuse the Jews” said Begin.
The stench of pestiferous odors is polluting vast areas extending to four hundred yards around the limits of the two camps. Many of the decomposing bodies have been in the torrid sun since Thursday. The Lebanese army is depositing cadavers at the entrance of Chatila camp by a large ditch. Red Cross’ ambulances are bringing a new load of victims. A pregnant woman is searching among the bodies for her husband or any member of her family. Frequently, horrible screams disturb this climate of dazed zombies: someone has recognized a dead relative. Then, the identified victim is bagged in a sac of nylon to be buried decently by the remaining family members (around 1,200 victims) or simply taken to a specific ditch. Most of the time, entire families of over 10 members are survived by a single survivor who is left flapping in complete uncertainty for a tomorrow.
By night the remaining refugees prefer to sleep far from camps: they are under shock, terrorized, and need a place with odors different of what they have smelled for days. Coordination among o the 11 disparate organizations are non existent. The task of searching for survivors amid the 200 demolished houses is slow and hopeless.
The agency France-Press estimated on September 23 the number of vanished individuals at more than 2,000: they were taken out by truck loads during the genocide. The Israeli government never divulged the status of the disappeared Palestinians who were supposed to be taken prisoners and handed over to the Israeli army. An Israeli correspondent to the daily Maariv wrote “I have never witnessed such silence of our soldiers during the entire war”.
In the meantime, the Israeli army is resuming its search and destroys activities in West Beirut. Thousands more of Lebanese are taken to questioning and investigation.
In the evening, around one thousand militants and intellectuals of “Peace Now” are demonstrating in Jerusalem in front of the residence of Began PM chanting slogans “Begin terrorist”, “Begin assassin”, “Beirut=Deir Yassine of 1982″, “Down with Sharon, the butcher of Kibya (a village in Jordan)”. Another demonstration of Israelis in Tel Aviv is brutally dispersed by the police; a tract is distributed stating “Begin, Sharon, and Eytan are totally responsible for the massacre of thousands of babies, women, and elderly Palestinian civilians”
At 10 p.m. The Israeli cabinet met in extraordinary session: the main topic is NOT what happened in Sabra and Chatila. Begin dispatched the entire affair as “Goys kill goys; then they accuse the Jews”. Minister Itzhak Berman demands the constitution of a commission to investigate the massacre. Begin replies “Such a commission would be considered by world community as confession of Israel’s responsibility”. Begin orders that a full page be published in both the New York Times and the Washington Post blaming only the Phalangists of the massacre; this ad announcement is to cost $54,000.
Television news all around the world are diffusing scenes of the carnage. The American journalist George Weil associate this massacre to what happened in Baby-Yar during Nazi occupation of Ukraine when Nazi allowed local Ukrainians to massacre thousands of Jews.
Monday, September 20; (War crime in Beirut)
Units of the Lebanese army (1,500 soldiers) cordoned off the two camps. At the entrance of Chatila more than 100 corps are decomposing by two ditches. The bodies are descended and then covered by lime. A young Palestinian tells a journalist “we will no longer put our confidence in the promises of others. We will secure by arms our own destiny.” Once, a truck carrying Lebanese army soldiers sent people fleeing north in horror and screaming “The militias of Saad Haddad are coming back”.
Israel resumed arresting 1,500 Lebanese citizens; they are emptying the rich library of the PLO and its center for research that was created in 1964; they carried away very old collection of dailies published during the British mandate.
West Beirut has not been receiving any food supply for 5 days and the electricity is still cut off and there is no potable water. Even the American Hospital is short on private utility because there is no mazout.
The main title of the daily Haaretz is “War Crime in Beirut”; it demands that Sharon and Eytan be destituted if Israel is to raise its head and look straight at people. The editorial of the daily Davar stated: “It very difficult to be Israelite. We have no recourse to wash our hands of this infamy. The perpetrators of Deir Yassine (Begin PM) and of Kibya (Sharon) compromise again the people. The government has led the State to moral bankruptcy.” Israel Zamir pronounced “Pogrom is no longer exclusive to Jews. Begin and Sharon have extended it to other ethnic groups”. Amos Kennan writes: “Mr. Begin, you have sold without any benefice millions of Jewish babies who died in Auschwitz”. Joseph Bourg writes: “Begin and Sharon let in hungry lions in the arena. Lions ate the people. Lions are the culprit! They are the ones who killed and maimed, aren’t they?!” A poll taken in Israel demonstrates that 60% of Israelis assign the responsibility to their government; 80% consider that the war in Lebanon damaged Israel’s standing”
Shimon Peres talks in the Knesset: “Sharon, when the Syrian were bombarding Zahle on May 1981 you declared that the Christians are suffering the same massacres as the Jews in 1940″. Sharon replies to Shimon Peres: “When you were Defense Minister you sent Israeli officers to orchestrate the sacking of the Palestinian camp of Tel Zaatar (in the Christian district)”.
On September 25, 400,000 demonstrated in Tel Aviv demanding a commission of investigation; Begin bowed down to that demand on September 28. The Kahana commission reported a toned down version for the public; the army high officers and Sharon were obliged to step down. The Israeli army withdrew from Beirut by September 29; Multinational Forces will take positions by the camps; they were there before Israel entered Beirut and they vacated their positions for the genocide plan to be executed.
Note: The same kind of genocide took place in the camp of Jenine in the West bank in 2002 and by Sharon also; he was then Prime Minister. The US pressured the UN not to investigate. The US feared that the world community will realize that Sabra and Chatila camps genocide were not isolated cases but a patter of the tandem Begin-Sharon. Over one thousand billions dollars were lavished on the State of Israel since 1948 in order to perpetrate the kinds of State horrors that Zionists erect Holocaust monuments so that humanity “never forgets”. If I want to believe in Hell it is simply because it is fair for those terrorists who were never been brought to court of justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment