What was the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon ?
The Sabra and Shatila massacre involved the massacre of around 3,500 Palestinian refugees by Israel's proxy militia, the Phalange, during Israel's invasion into Lebanon in 1982. The gruesome slaughter incited global anger and condemnation, leading the United Nations General Assembly to denounce it as “an act of genocide.”
Zionist militias and the nascent Israeli army perpetrated numerous massacres against Palestinians before, during, and after the establishment of Israel in 1948; however, the events at Sabra and Shatila represented an unprecedented escalation of brutality in Israel's prolonged conflict with the Palestinian populace and the Palestinian national liberation movement.
The absence of accountability for those culpable, particularly Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, who later ascended to the position of prime minister, fostered a perception of impunity among Israeli leaders. This exacerbated extreme Israeli oppression of Palestinians over subsequent decades and precipitated a cycle of escalating violence in the region.
The Sabra and Shatila massacre is an awful tragedy for Palestinians. It is commemorated annually as a powerful reminder of the vulnerability of millions of stateless Palestinians and the perils they continue to encounter under Israel's apartheid system and in exile throughout the region.
In June 1982, Israel initiated a massive invasion of Lebanon, led by Defense Minister Sharon. The infamous hardliner Sharon aimed to dismantle the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the globally acknowledged representative of the Palestinian people, which was based in Lebanon at the time.
The Israeli force advanced to the capital of Beirut, besieging and intensively shelling the western sector of the city, which housed the PLO headquarters, the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila, and the neighborhood of Sabra. The administration of US President Ronald Reagan brokered a ceasefire agreement, and by early September, the PLO withdrew from Lebanon, receiving formal guarantees from the US on the safety of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people they were leaving behind.
On September 14, the leader of Israel's proxy Lebanese militia, the Phalange, was assassinated following his election as president of Lebanon by parliament in a move engineered by Sharon and Israel's occupying forces. His death constituted a significant setback to Sharon's strategy of establishing a Christian puppet regime in Lebanon that would serve Israel's interests. The following day, Israeli troops violated the ceasefire agreement and entered West Beirut, encircling the Sabra and Shatila camps.
On September 16, the Israeli army sent approximately 150 Phalangist fighters into Sabra and Shatila, ostensibly to drive out any remaining PLO fighters. Throughout the Lebanese civil war, the Phalange, known for their savagery and record of atrocities against Palestinian civilians, were fierce opponents of the PLO and its Lebanese allies. The Phalangists mistakenly assumed that a Palestinian had assassinated their leader.
Within the subsequent day and a half, the Phalangists slaughtered about 3,500 people, predominantly Palestinians, along with some Lebanese, most of them women, children, and the elderly. Rape and mutilation befell many of the victims.
Israeli forces encircling Sabra and Shatila knew about the slaughter of people shortly after it began, but they did not intervene. The Israeli military even illuminated the night sky with flares for the Phalangists, permitted additional Phalangist militants to reach the area on the second day, and provided bulldozers to remove the bodies of many of the victims.
The Phalangists left Sabra and Shatila on the morning of September 18, taking many surviving men with them for interrogation at a soccer stadium. Israeli intelligence agents conducted the interrogations and returned numerous hostages to the Phalange. Several men who were returned to the Phalange were subsequently discovered to have been executed.
The Phalange buried many of the victims in mass graves, and the Lebanese government has shown a lack of political will to conduct an investigation, leaving the precise number of victims unknown.
In her book, Sabra and Shatila: September 1982, Palestinian journalist and historian Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout recorded at least 1,300 named victims and estimated a total of 3,500 people killed.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, over 2,000 people were killed.
Israeli journalist Amnon Kapeliouk concluded in his book Sabra & Shatila: Inquiry into a Massacre that a maximum of 3,000 to 3,500 people were massacred.
The Phalange executed the massacre as an Israeli proxy, receiving arms and financial support from Israel. The Israeli occupying forces maintained complete control over Sabra and Shatila, deliberately sending Phalangist fighters into the camp, well aware of their hatred for the PLO and their history of committing crimes against Palestinian civilians.
Defense Minister Sharon was specifically responsible for the massacre. He orchestrated and commenced Israel's unprovoked invasion into Lebanon, fostered the Phalange as an Israeli proxy, and did nothing to stop the massacre upon being informed about it, until forced to do so by the Reagan administration.
On September 17, an Israeli journalist in Lebanon contacted Sharon to tell him about reports that a slaughter was occurring in Sabra and Shatila. The journalist subsequently remembered:
“I found [Sharon] at home sleeping. He woke up and I told him ‘Listen, there are stories about killings and massacres in the camps. A lot of our officers know about it and tell me about it, and if they know it, the whole world will know about it. You can still stop it.’ I didn't know that the massacre actually started 24 hours earlier. I thought it started only then and I said to him ‘Look, we still have time to stop it. Do something about it.’ He didn't react."
“You must stop the massacres. They are obscene. I have an officer in the camp counting the bodies. You ought to be ashamed. The situation is rotten and terrible. They are killing children. You are in absolute control of the area, and therefore responsible for the area.”
Sharon later claimed that he could not have known the Phalange would inflict harm on Palestinian civilians; however, the day prior to the massacre, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin informed a US envoy that Israel needed to violate the ceasefire agreement and occupy West Beirut, "Otherwise, there could be pogroms [by the Phalange against Palestinian civilians].” Israeli Army Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan informed US officials that it was "to prevent a Phalangist frenzy of revenge."
In response to global condemnation, the Israeli government instituted an investigative body known as the Kahan Commission. It determined that Sharon held "personal responsibility" for the massacre.
The Kahan Commission determined that Sharon bore personal responsibility, but merely suggested his removal from the position of defense minister. Despite his dismissal as defense minister, Sharon maintained his position in the cabinet as a minister without a portfolio. He went on to hold several cabinet roles in subsequent administrations, including that of foreign minister (1998-99) during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first term. He was elected Prime Minister in 2001.
In 2001, attorneys representing 23 survivors of the massacre commenced legal action against Sharon in a Belgian court under a law permitting the prosecution of individuals for war crimes committed anywhere in the world. Under pressure from US President George W. Bush's administration, the Belgian parliament amended and later repealed the law, resulting in the dismissal of charges against Sharon. In 2006, Sharon experienced a stroke and was in a coma until his death in 2014.
In January 2002, Elie Hobeika, the Phalangist leader and primary liaison to Israel during the 1982 invasion, was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut. Hobeika led the Phalangist troops responsible for the slaughter and declared his willingness to testify against Sharon, the then-prime minister, at a potential war crimes trial in Belgium. The perpetrators of Hobeika's murder were never held accountable; nonetheless, Lebanese officials believed that they suspected Israel's involvement, noting that Israel and Sharon had a longstanding practice of employing car bombs for assassinations in Lebanon.