The Sabra and Shatila Massacres

[Larry]

What really happened? Why did Sharon resign his Defense Ministry position immediately afterwards? Why does the Western media ignore the details of the thousands of non-combatant men, women and children who were killed in these massacres?

 

[Larry]

It will be interesting to see the different slants put on this story.

 

[Jonathan David]

Here is the Israeli Government's report (http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0ign0) about the incident. Although (unsurprisingly) they do not hold Sharon criminally responsible, even they knew that he bore responsibility and had acted irresponsibly.

But in our view, even without such warning, it is impossible to justify the Minister of Defense's disregard of the danger of a massacre. We will not repeat here what we have already said above about the widespread knowledge regarding the Phalangists' combat ethics, their feelings of hatred toward the Palestinians, and their leaders' plans for the future of the Palestinians when said leaders would assume power. Besides this general knowledge, the Defense Minister also had special reports from his not inconsiderable [number of] meetings with the Phalangist heads before Bashir's assassination.

Giving the Phalangists the possibility of entering the refugee camps without taking measures for continuous and concrete supervision of their actions there could have created a grave danger for the civilian population in the camps even if they had been given such a possibility before Bashir's assassination; thus this danger was certainly to have been anticipated - and it was imperative to have foreseen it - after Bashir's assassination.

In the circumstances that prevailed after Bashir's assassination, no prophetic powers were required to know that concrete danger of acts of slaughter existed when the Phalangists were moved into the camps without the I.D.F.'s being with them in that operation and without the I.D.F. being able to maintain effective and ongoing supervision of their actions there. The sense of such a danger should have been in the consciousness of every knowledgeable person who was close to this subject, and certainly in the consciousness of the Defense Minister, who took an active part in everything relating to the war. His involvement in the war was deep, and the connection with the Phalangists was under his constant care. If in fact the Defense Minister, when he decided that the Phalangists would enter the camps without the I.D.F. taking part in the operation, did not think that that decision could bring about the very disaster that in fact occurred, the only possible explanation for this is that he disregarded any apprehensions about what was to be expected because the advantages - which we have already noted - to be gained from the Phalangists' entry into the camps distracted him from the proper consideration in this instance.

It is our view that responsibility is to be imputed to the Minister of Defense for having disregarded the danger of acts of vengeance and bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee camps, and 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 danger of massacre as a condition for the Phalangists' entry into the camps. These blunders constitute the non-fulfillment of a duty with which the Defense Minister was charged.

I will wait a bit before I post more.

Peace.

JD

 

[Larry]

The International Commitee of the Red Cross and the UN have a few things to say about it too.

 

[Jonathan David]

Okay, I lied. Here is the testimony of one of the survivors (http://www.indictsharon.net/T25.shtml). I acknowledge that the webiste from which I found this is built specifically to indict Sharon... a cause that I fully support... more so today than ever before. I do not believe that this fact automatically negates the oral testimony of a survivor. There are many other testimonies as well (http://www.indictsharon.net/massacres.shtml).

On Thursday 15 September, after sunset, the Israeli air force carried out some raids against us. We lived in the western part of the camp, and when the shelling started drawing nearer, we – my husband, my children and I – went to my parents’ home at the entrance of the camp, to see where they wanted to go. But we all stayed at my parents’ house until 7 pm, at which time, seeing as the shelling kept intensifying, my sister went to see what was happening outside. They immediately shot at her. She shouted, “Daddy!” and didn’t come back. Hearing her cry, my father went out. He saw her and said, “Our little girl is dead.” Then they shot at him, and he fell. The whole camp was lit up by light flares, and none of us could go outside. We stayed locked in like that until 2 am. Then we understood that there had been a massacre.

The noise of the killing and the screams haunted us until dawn. At five in the morning, they came down trough the roof, and suddenly we saw them on the stairs in front of the door of the bedroom where we were. About fifteen armed men positioned themselves at the window, and four of them came in. The children screamed and cried, and we women screamed, too. They put the men against the wall -- my husband, my paternal cousin and my brother – and they pumped them full of bullets in front of us. They made us come out and lined us up in our turn against the wall, wanting to pump bullets into us as well, but then they started arguing about who would be the first to shoot. Then they took us to the Sports Centre and took us into a room full of men, women and children. While guarding that room, they were also sharpening their axes and preparing their guns. It was Friday, at about five am. At midday, they brought back the young men and the women from the rest house, as well as some people from the Kuwaiti embassy. In the middle of the Sports Centre there were mines which had been there since the beginning of the Israeli invasion. One of the mines exploded. People fled, and we were among them. What can I say? When we were at the Sports Centre, the Israelis were securing the protection of the Phalangists, and Israeli tanks were stationed there. Also, it was the Israelis who shouted into the loudspeakers, “Give yourselves up and your lives will be spared.”

Peace.

JD

 

[Larry]

bump

 

[Larry]

bump

 

[applepowerpc]

It's amazing how little-publicized the Lavon Affair is as well. If Americans knew that piece of history, I wonder if Iraq war support would have fallen flat.

 

[Larry]

It's amazing how little-publicized the Lavon Affair is as well. If Americans knew that piece of history, I wonder if Iraq war support would have fallen flat.

Let's stay on topic, shall we?

Feel free to start another thread on the Lavon Affair.

 

[applepowerpc]

If I started another thread, someone else would be saying we're trying to spam the history forum with anti-Israel stuff. Either way...