Many Palestinians rely primarily on UNRWA for assistance and employment; many Israelis, on the other hand, view UNRWA as a nagging reminder that Palestinian refugees continue to exist and, worse yet, demand their rights. If UNRWA were to go away, in the view ofsome Israelis, those refugees’ rights would disappear with it.
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..
Aysenur Eygi’s killing in the West Bank by Israel on September 6, as she engaged in a nonviolent protest protecting Palestinian land from land theft and encroachment by illegal settlers caught the world’s attention. Even members of Congress responded, as well as Vice President – and nominee for president – Kamala Harris, who called the death “a horrific tragedy that never should have happened.”
Not all members responded, and some don’t seen to be concerned with the death of not only tens of thousands of Palestinians using weapons provided by the U.S. government, but also with the death of U.S. citizens – as long as the death comes by the hands of an ally.
Remembers to thank elected officials who call for accountability, and to call out the rest, and demand they represent us. You might right something like the following to your elected officials who haven’t taken action.
Dear Representative,
I’m writing to you as a constituent about the death of Aysenur Eygi.
Aysenur, a U.S. Citizen, and a recent graduate of University of Washington was fatally shot in the head by Israeli forces in the West Bank on September 6.
I’m asking that you join your colleagues in Washington – Senators Murray and Cantwell, Rep. Jayapal – and beyond in calling for a thorough, independent, investigation into Aysenur’s death. President Biden and the executive branch are waiting for an investigation by Israel, but Israel never conducts investigations; they perform cover-ups.
Israel never conducts investigations; they perform cover-ups.
Please work with your colleagues to determine whether Aysenur was killed with a weapon provided to Israel by the United States. Further, please work with the FBI to determine whether the Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act (18 U.S. Code § 2441) applies in this case. All domestic and foreign actors that contributed to the Aysenur’s death should be held accountable.
Aysenur’s death was not the only recent death of U.S. citizens, other foreign nationals, or Palestinians killed while peacefully protesting recently in the West Bank.
I ask that you call for an investigation and and push for accountability.
Thanks again for your representation.
Today I send the following message about Friday’s (July 19) ruling by the International Court of Justice on the “Legal Consequences Arising From The Policies And Practices Of Israel In The Occupied Palestinian Territory” to my Representative, Senators, and to President Biden.
Dear Representative,
As you know, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) confirmed on July 19 in it’s ruling that Israel must immediately end it’s occupation of Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. This includes ending the siege of Gaza, which our government must also immediately stop supporting.
The full ruling, summarized in Ha’aretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, says that:
- Israel’s ongoing presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is deemed illegal.
- Israel must end its presence in the occupied territories as soon as possible.
- Israel should immediately cease settlement expansion and evacuate all settlers from the occupied areas.
- Israel is required to make reparations for the damage caused to the local and lawful population in the Palestinian territories.
- The international community and organizations have a duty not to recognize the Israeli presence in the territories as legal and to avoid supporting its maintenance.
- The UN should consider what actions are necessary to end the Israeli presence in the territories as soon as possible.
As your constituent, I ask that you take action now to support the ICJ ruling, and work with your colleagues to enforce this sensible injunction from the Court. Ending the Israeli occupation will help move us toward the necessary peace in the Middle East, and help Israel flourish as a democracy.
___________________
There’s a lot missing – intentionally. The ICJ ruling is non-binding, but it’s directed at part at other UN bodies with a strong moral push behind it. These are the finding, and they can’t be avoided in the UN General Assembly or Security Council.
It’s important to keep message to representatives short, and ask them to take some action. Write to your Representatives.
It’s time to share another letter to my representative. It’s always important to be kind, and to ask for something – usually support or rejection of legislation. Right now I just want to know when is “enough is enough” for my Israel-supporting Representative. I asked for a response, which I don’t expect to receive.
Please remember to write to your Representatives and express your views. They’re supposed to at least make some effort to represent us. I try to send messages frequently, but I also want to know what they’re responding to and I always save the messages I send in a word document. …
Dear Representative _____,
I’m a concerned constituent writing to you ask where your “red line” is. Biden said his red line was if the Israeli forces attacked Rafah. Where do you draw you “red line”. When is the use of U.S weapons used to kill civilians too much for you?
Please speak out now to demand an end to genocide, before the U.S government becomes more complicit.
Thanks again for your representation,
I’ve had a month Horribilis, quiet unlike the Queen’s Annus Horribilis in 1992.
Ishould’ve seen this coming. A couple weeks ago my browser quit on me. It gave me warnings that the browser was no longer supported and out of date but I ignored it and I was complacent. I thought that everything would be OK.
This was on my 10 year old Mac computer, which I thought was supported by everything and everything looked fine. Using Firefox, I realized that Canva was no longer supported for my work and I tried to install the extension to Firefox. This destroyed my whole Firefox, because I didn’t have the operating system to support it (and, it turns out, not enough space to upgrade the operating system).
I trued to switch over to Google Chrome which is a terrible idea if I’ve ever seen one. I also lost the links and tabs and resources and passwords for life and work that I’d used over the last ten years.
In the end I got a new computer. I gave my ten year old Mac to a friend who says he works with friends to refurbish computers and go to Mexico to provide kids with computers. The other option was to send it to electronic recycling.
I thank Firefox – and Kaspersky for keeping my thirteen year old Windows 7 running – for being able to sync tabs and save the information websites I want saved.
I’m still trying to teach my word computer to accept the password for WordPress to edit the website for work, but at least I have a new computer that accepts the password, and I can use Firefox instead of the useless Google Chrome.
Things might be different if the media reported the news of Palestinians killed in the most recent Operation by Israel in Gaza the way the Ha’aretz reported the news of the deaths of two Israeli soldiers.
Beginning with the statement that the Israeli military announced the death of two soldiers, Yaniv Kubovich and Ofer Aderet of Ha’aretz, the new article specified that the soldiers died in combat in central Gaza. Before telling us that the soldiers had been killed in Gaza, we’re told the names of the dead Israeli soldiers – Ido Aviv and Kalkidan Merhari – and what cities they came from.
Aviv, Kuvovich and Aderet tell us, are survived by his parents. The names of his parents and his siblings are provided in the article. There’s a brief summary of Aviv’s life, culminating with his love for water sports. Merhari’s life as an immigrant from Ethiopia is described with similar summaries of his interests and his personality. The media – in this case Ha’aretz – briefly and kindly summarizes the lives of these two dead soldiers. They bring out, in journalistic prose, the humanity of the dead. They humanize the dead, and convey that they were human.
Merhari, who left Ethiopia on his on by himself on his own accord as a teenager, kept in touch with his mother Almaz and sent her money from Israel. Upon news of Merhari’s death, Almaz’ cry was “heard all the way to Jerusalem, and our hearts trembled” by account of Merhari’s niece.
Kubovich and Aderet never discuss why Israel has soldiers in central Gaza, and never mention how they died. Ha’aretz has covered the assault on Gaza extensively, and perhaps a long description of the presence of soldiers in Gaza doesn’t need to be mentioned. But it’s as though the article avoided talking about death or war, and instead tried to bring Aviv and Merhari back to life by humanize them.
Contrast this to more than 35,000 Palestinians killed by Israel over the last seven months. A few dozen were famous lawyers, journalists, doctors and others who had their stories told. Tens of thousands have been killed without mention by the media. It’s as though that if their stories were never told they don’t matter.
I recently returned from a twelve day vacation in Costa Rica. This post isn’t about Costa Rica, but about a how a vacation shouldn’t be a break from reality.
It seems unfair and wrong that I took a vacation, and planned that vacation, while Israel is destroying the Palestinians of Gaza. How is it that I’m allowed to not only have a roof over my head and an access to three meals a day, but to also leave the country and visit different places in completely safety?
Perhaps vacations are what we need to keep us sane. It’s hard to return with the same energy and passion, and it’s equally important that we use any break or vacation we take to recover the energy energy we need to dive back in with more passion.
A vacation should not be a break from reality. Done correctly, it’s a time to learn. It’s also a time to read, as any vacationer would tell you. To me, that means reading more about reality, or reading non-fiction
War in 140 Characters by David Patrikarakos, is a vignette of several people who used social media to influence war. Mainly about war and conflict in 2014, the book is about Russia’s gray war (neither war nor peace) that rose to prominence that year and about Israel’s war on Gaza (also known as Operation Protective Edge).
Besides the obvious message that Patrikarakos conveyed that social media is changing war as we know it, I noticed a pattern about Israel’s incessant attacks on Gaza.
To quote one passage from the book, to sway public opinion during the 2014 war Israel concluded that to win the war of narratives it must push “three narratives to push at all cost.”
First was the rocket threat that Israeli civilians were being subjected to; second was the tunnel threat, with Hamas burrowing deep underground and across the border into Israel, again to threaten civilian lives; third, and most important, was Hamas use of human shields as a military tactic.
These sound oddly familiar to Israel’s current attack on Gaza, and indeed the same message Israel has used successfully since at least 2014 to convince the global media – legacy media rather than social media – that Israel is under a constant threat of a ruthless enemy.
All of that sounds threatening – the rocket attacks, a network of tunnels that are now famous, and the use of human shields. Israel has convinced the policy makers of the world – wrongly! – that the occupied Palestinians have no right to defend themselves. The tunnels, now infamous, are not a threat to Israel. Before October Hamas had few, if any, “human shields” to use, except for families families of Hamas commanders Israel might target. It’s possible that at this point 70 hostages taken by Hamas in October have been killed by Israeli bombing and attacks.
One final point Patrikarakos makes is that Israel won the 2014 conflict militarily but lost the narrative war. People are able to access their news on social media and the propaganda spin Israel provides legacy media is no longer convincing people of Israel’s argument it’s always under threat of attack.
When hundreds of Israeli settlers rampaged through Huwara and surrounding Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank on February 26, leaving at least one Palestinian man dead and hundreds of others injured, it was billed as “revenge” after a Palestinian gunman killed two brothers who lived nearby.
— Read on amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/06/15/middleeast/huwara-west-bank-settler-attack-cmd-intl/index.html
The daily summary from Ha’aretz this morning said nothing surprising. It’s so unsurprising that it’s necessary to comment on what is not news, because it isn’t anything new. That’s not Ha’aretz’ fault, they’re just sharing updates that are so clear only dense people didn’t know them already.
Twenty weeks, about 140 days, and “four and half months” after what they refer to as the start of the Israel-Hamas war Jonathan Lis and Ben Samuels reported today that Prime Minister Netanyahy has presented “the day after” plan to his war cabinet for their approval. This is, they say, the first time that Netanyahu has presented a plan for Gaza since the “war” started. This contradicts what I said earlier, but the fact remains that what Netanyahu has proposed should surprise nobody.
Writing under the title “Netanyahu Unveils Israeli’s Plan for Post-War Gaza: Full Demilitarization and Closing UNRWA” Lis and Samuels say that Israel’s military goals haven’t changed, and then slip into the same paragraph about medium-term planning that ” the postwar plan adds that Israel will maintain security control over the West Bank.”
Netanyahu’s plans – which are really should be called Israel’s plans – for Gaza are both familiar and laughable. The plan for civil affairs and public order, also known as governance, ‘will be based on professionals with managerial experience. These local officials must not be identified with states or organizations that support terror and must not receive salaries from them.’ While this sounds like it makes a lot of sense, governance is, by long-standing practice of practically every place in the world, managed by officials that identify with states or organizations and receive salary from the state. Not only that, but the state generally carries out elections, and the elected people appoint people to help minister civil affairs and public order. The only difference is, that in Gaza, any elected officials according to Netanyahu’s plan, will be voted in from the outside.
Part of Netanyahu’s plan is to permanently end UNRWA. Defunding UNRWA has long been a goal of both Israel and many of Israel’s backers in the United States. UNRWA, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the Middle East was a temporary creation to deal with the 750,000 Palestinian refugees from Israel’s War of Independence, and has become the major support organization for Palestinians, rendering service from healthcare to education and beyond. Summarizing the recent and ongoing attempts to defund UNRWA, Moustafa Bayoumi wrote in The Guardian
Part of the plan of permanently dismantling UNRWA would be to make sure the Palestinians don’t exist or demand their rights.
Next, part of Netanyahu’s statement regarding his plan is that
rebuilding Gaza will only be possible once the Strip has been demilitarized and once a process of deradicalization has started. The rehabilitation plan will be carried out with funding from and under the leadership of countries of which Israel approves
I’ve mentioned before that part of Netanyahu’s grand plan, and a long-envisioned plan of Israel, is a demilitarized Palestine. It’s odd that Netanyahu sees the need to demilitarize Palestine, because he’s said several times – and current ministers in his government say the same thing – that there never be a Palestinian state. I’ve described before that in order for there to be peace both Israelis and Palestinians must disarm.
What exactly does Netanyahu means by the deradicalization of Gaza? Writing in November, 2023, professor Tom Mockaitis said the idea that more than two million Palestinians in Gaza need is deradicalization is patently absurd. What they actually needs is better economic conditions.
The second part of this point by Netanyahu is clear. ‘The rehabilitation plan will be carried out with funding from and under the leadership of countries of which Israel approves.’ The rebuilding of Gaza, to the extent it will be rebuilt someday, is only going to happen in the way Israel allows it to. The people of Gaza has no say in the development or redevelopment of Gaza.
Netanyahyu had one more point to convey to the war cabinet, or perhaps just to the world. ‘Israel utterly rejects international diktats over a final-status agreement with the Palestinians,’ and that a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state by the international community ‘would grant a huge prize to terrorism, the like of which we have not seen before, and would prevent any future peace agreement.’
This is doubtless a response to President Biden’s repeated and meaningless statements in recent weeks that a conclusion to this current attack on Gaza must result in a two-state solution. Netanyahyu and Israeli ministers disagree – there should be no Palestinian state. It would be wrong to say that recognizing Palestine as a state would be a unilateral act; three-quarters of the world‘s countries consider Palestine to be a state.
The summary that Ha’aretz provided today was both obvious and worth sharing. Netanyahu has plans for Gaza and the Palestinians aren’t included in planning “the day after.”
Our representative democracy operates on the premise that we elect people to represent our interests and values in a deliberative body thousands of miles away from where we live. Our task, and individuals being represented, is to stay in touch with our representatives to ensure that they know our needs and interests so that they can be properly represented.
What happens when we send messages to our representative and they respond with a message that doesn’t respond to the issue we present to them?
I’ve mentioned before that our government continues to support the bombing of Gaza, which has largely been referred to as a genocidal act, with our tax dollars and with weapons made in the United States,
Last week I wrote to both of my Senators from Washington State with the same message:
Dear Senator,
I’m very disappointed that you voted today, February 13, to provide more than $14Billion more military aid to foreign countries, including billions to Israel.
No more military aid should be provided to Israel as it continues to attack Palestinians in Gaza and beyond. What Israel is doing to Gaza is against international law, U.S. law, any sense of morality, and is an insult to me as a human and a Jew.
I ask that you join your colleagues in calling for conditioning aid to Israel and immediately work for a permanent ceasefire.
A week later I received a reply from Senator Maria Cantwell,
Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about the challenging and tragic situation in Israel and Gaza. I appreciate hearing from you about this important matter.
The shocking October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on innocent Israeli civilians were heinous and reprehensible and unleashed a terrible cycle of violence and recrimination. That’s why I continue to support President Biden’s vigorous efforts to facilitate the return of Israeli hostages and avoid a wider regional war.
The international community should also be doing everything it can to protect and get aid to innocent Palestinian civilians. The Biden Administration has already announced it will provide $121 million in additional humanitarian assistance to help the civilian Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank specifically in the context of the ongoing war. The Senate also recently passed a funding package that delivers vital support to our democratic allies Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, as well as desperately-needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza and Ukraine. This funding is critical to America’s immediate and long-term national security which is why I hope the House of Representatives will quickly consider and approve the Senate-approved package.
You may also be interested to know that, in response to Senate debate surrounding the funding package, the President issued a National Security Memorandum on February 8, 2024, that lays out the standards that any country receiving U.S. weapons must adhere to. These standards include abiding by international law, facilitating the delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance, and ensuring the weapons are not being used in a way that is not consistent with best practices for reducing civilian harm.
Despite the horrors of the ongoing war, I believe that Israelis and Palestinians must continue to strive for an enduring peace that recognizes and respects the rights and dignity of both peoples. That is why I support Senator Brian Schatz’s legislation that reaffirms that the policy of the United States, going back to the time of President Harry Truman three quarters of a century ago, is to support a two-state solution.
Finally, it is incumbent on all of us to try and prevent the hostilities in the Middle East from fueling hate here in the United States. In the face of the alarming increase and growing intensity of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, and anti-Semitic incidents, we must continue to reject and condemn violence and discrimination against any person because of their ethnicity or religious beliefs. Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts on this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Maria Cantwell
United States Senator
This form letter from my Senator is written so well it’s hard to disagree with any of it, and just as hard to agree with any of it. I know it’s a form letter because more than one friend has received the exact reply, although I’m not sure what message they sent.
None of the reply actually addresses what I asked of the Senator. I asked specifically for her to condition aid to Israel and to call for a permanent ceasefire. If she had replied “Sorry, I won’t condition aid to Israel or call for a ceasefire” I’d know where she stands. But she didn’t indicate whether she would or wouldn’t do either or these, although it’s quite clear that she no interest in conditioning aid to Israel – much less ending the bombing of Gaza – or a permanent ceasefire.
Today I was listening to Dr. James Zogby‘s weekly “Coffee and Chat”. There’s great conversation every week about democracy and politics. One of the questions he responded to was what we should do when representatives respond with form letters that don’t address our needs. His answer was continue to message them.
It can be depressing to send messages to representatives and get no response, and just as aggravating when then respond with useless jargon that ensures they won’t take any action. But they’ll never take any action unless they continue to hear from us.
The Dole Blog 