An Act of Genocide – Sabra and Shatila

Starting on September 16,1982, Palestinians refugees, along with Lebanese civilians, were attacked by a right-wing Lebanese militia, in coordination with the Israeli army.

They were in the refugee camp Shatila, Lebanon, and the adjacent neighborhood of Sabra; located southwest of Lebanon’s capital city Beirut.

How did they Palestinian refugees end up in Lebanon? Al-Jazeera staff, writing in “Sabra and Shatila massacre: What happened in Lebanon in 1982?” remind us that ‘the refugees were victims of the 1948 Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, fleeing the violent ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias as Israel was formed.’ About 100,000 Palestinians fled to Lebanon in 1948, permanently becoming refugees of war.

Al Jazeera, providing a brief background, says the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organization], an umbrella of Palestinian political parties created in 1964, moved its base of operations to Beirut after it was pushed out of Jordan in 1970. The PLO, Al-Jazeera says, was created “with the aim of liberating Palestine through armed struggle.” Non unlike Hamas, which was created with the to liberate Palestine through armed struggle during the First Intifada.

In 1969, Al-Jazeera, continues, as result of an Egyptian-brokered agreement between the PLO and the Lebanese army, the PLO’s Armed Struggle Command assumed control over the 16 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, enabling it to carry out operations on Israel from southern Lebanon.

Here, Al-Jazeera begins to get to the history that led to the massacres in Sabra and Shatila. Skipping the causes of what led to a civil war, the article continues that a Lebanese civil war broke out in 1975, mainly between the Lebanese Front (LF) – a coalition of right-wing Christian Maronite parties backed by Israel and the United States – and the Lebanese National Movement (LNM), a coalition of secular leftists, pan-Arab Sunni and Shia Muslims, and the PLO.”

In 1982 Israeli forces, led by then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, invaded Lebanon. Israeli forces “laid siege to Beirut and heavily bombarded the city.” The PLO was headquartered in Beirut. Here, the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) provides information missing from Al-Jazeera’s description of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The IMEU adds that “under a ceasefire deal negotiated by the administration of US President Ronald Reagan, the PLO evacuated Lebanon by early September with written assurances from the US that the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians they were leaving behind would be safe.” However, Al-Jazeera continues, “the multinational force that arrived after the PLO’s withdrawal from Beirut on September 1 was supposed to stay for 30 days. However, they pulled out early, on September 10.”

The IMEU continues, “On September 14, the leader of Israel’s proxy Lebanese militia, the Phalange, was assassinated after being elected president of Lebanon by parliament in a move orchestrated by Sharon and Israel’s occupying army. His death was a severe blow to Sharon’s plan to install a Christian puppet regime in Lebanon that would do Israel’s bidding. The next day, the Israeli military broke the ceasefire agreement and invaded West Beirut, surrounding Sabra camp and Shatila. Simply, as Al-Jazeera, puts it, “Israeli forces then allowed the Phalange, who blamed the PLO for Gemayel’s death, to enter Sabra and Shatila and carry out the massacre.”

What do we mean by massacre? In the 43 hours of killing between September 16 and September 18 the Lebanese Phalangists killed 2,000-3,500 people – mostly Palestinian, but also Lebanese women and children. Many were raped and mutilated, and buried in mass graves.

The IMEU provides the information that “Almost immediately after the killing began, Israeli soldiers surrounding Sabra and Shatila became aware that civilians were being murdered but did nothing to stop it. Instead, the Israeli military fired flares into the night sky to illuminate the darkness for the Phalangists, allowed more Phalangist fighters to enter the area on the second day, and supplied bulldozers that were used to dispose of the bodies of many of the victims.”

The United Nations passed a resolution declaring the massacre a genocide.

The IMEU and Al-Jazeera both confirm that no one was ever held accountable for the massacres. Al-Jazeera mentions that “In February 1983, the UN commission found that “Israeli authorities or forces were involved, directly or indirectly in the [Sabra and Shatila] massacres,” and the IMEU adds that “

In particular, Defense Minister Sharon bore responsibility for the massacre. He planned and initiated Israel’s unprovoked invasion of Lebanon, cultivated the Phalange as an Israeli proxy, and did nothing to stop the massacre when told about it until forced to by the Reagan administration.

While the Phalange carried out the massacre, they were an Israeli proxy, armed and funded by Israel. Israel’s occupying army was in full control of Sabra and Shatila and sent the Phalangist fighters into the camp knowing full well their hatred of the PLO and history of atrocities against Palestinian civilians.

Every years Palestinians worldwide remember the Saba and Shatila massacres. Writing on the thirty-eight anniversary of the massacre, the Arab-American Discrimination Committee (ADC) wrote “the Sabra and Shatila massacre remains one of the most symbolic events in the history of the Palestinian people and their plight. The massacre demonstrates the tragedy of the Palestinian refugees, who have been dispossessed from their homeland for over 70 years. This tragedy is an example of the need for a just settlement of the refugee issue based on the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, which affirms the right of return for Palestinian refugees.”

The ADC notes that the anniversary follows the recent anniversary of the Abraham Accords – the agreement to “normalize” relations between Israel and Arab countries. The Accords – pushed through under President Trump, and still supported by President Biden, who hopes to expand the Accords, “whitewash the occupation of Palestine and ignore the human rights violations of the Israeli apartheid regime. Human rights violations that include the very massacre that we are remembering today.”

The Palestinian BDS National Committee, writing today, echoes, the ADC’s words: “This massacre is a stark reminder of Israel’s ongoing violent massacres, displacement of Indigenous Palestinians, and its denial of our refugees’ right of return.” The BDS movement website has specific calls to actions to undo the ongoing genocide and attacks on Palestinians rights.

This is a brief summary of the massacre on Sabra and Shatila, Israel’s quest to control and/or subjugate Lebanon, and a denial of Palestinian rights. For a more complete version I suggest reading Noam Chomsky’s magnum opus, The Fateful Triangle..