Sharon: Sabra and Shatila

FOR a terrorist, Ariel Sharon has led a charmed life -- at least up to now. Arik King of Israel, as his adoring admirers call him, may some day have to face trial in a Belgian court on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide arising from the 1982 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. The charges officially were filed on June 18 before investigating judge Sophie Huguet in Brussels and confirmed as admissible by the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office on June 29 2001. It ruled the suit should proceed.

If Sharon actually is brought to trial it would be a rare setback for the 73-year old Israeli in his long and documented career of waging terror against Palestinians. He started out as a young Haganah fighter causing havoc among Palestinians seeking to protect their land against Jewish attacks in 1947 and beyond. He became a legend in the army in the 1950s when he led the notorious Unit 101 in terror attacks against unarmed Palestinians, in one attack alone killing 66 civilians.[1] He fought as a tank commander in Israel's 1956,1967 and 1973 wars, his units accompanied by reports of brutality.

In 1971, Sharon formed a special assassination unit to combat unrest among Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip. Sharon's antagonistic biographer, Uzi Benziman, an Israeli newsman, wrote that Sharon conducted “a reign of terror” against Gazans:[2] “On his orders, every adult male in Gaza was stopped and subjected to a thorough search. Periodically, curfews were imposed on the refugee camps, and all residents were assembled for hours on end for purposes of identification. Paths through the refugee camps were widened [by razing homes and businesses] and the population thinned out, to make it harder for terrorists to find refuge:”[3] In seven months, between July and February 1972, Sharon reported the deaths of 104 and capture of 742 terrorists.[4]

Such violent feats qualified Sharon to become Israel's defense minister in 1981. Sharon came to his powerful post with an ambitious plan. It was to completely destroy the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon “in such a way that they will not be able to rebuild their military and political base,” as he told a group of Israeli officers.[5]

To accomplish his goals, Sharon in 1982 invaded Lebanon, tampered with Lebanon's politics to assure the election of pro-Israeli Maronite Christian Bashir Gemayel as president, and sought to evict the Syrian army from Lebanon.[6] He failed in all three objectives. The PLO remains a viable force, Gemayel was assassinated and the Syrians are still in Lebanon 19 years later. What is different is that thousands of Lebanese and hundreds of Israelis are dead.

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon began on June 6. Within a week Israeli troops reached Beirut and launched a merciless siege of the capital. Over the next nine weeks, Israeli planes, ships and guns, all of them made or financed by the United States, lobbed thousands of aerial bombs and 60,000 shells on the city of more than a half-million residents, indiscriminately killing and wounding thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians.7 Actress Jane Fonda proudly posed with the Israeli troops besieging Beirut while U.S. supporters of Israel defended the invasion. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger declared at the time that the invasion opens up extraordinary opportunities for a dynamic American diplomacy throughout the Middle “East....Lebanon can be another testing ground for proving that radical Arab regimes and Soviet backing offer no solution to any of the central issues of concern in the area.”[8]

The Israeli army control of the Beirut area included two teeming Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila. On Sept. 16, a company of 150 “special” Lebanese Christian Phalange fighters, who were working closely with Sharon and who hated the Palestinians, moved into the cramped and twisting streets of the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp. Darkness was falling and Israeli mortar units and airplanes dropped flares to aid the Phalangists' progress.[9] The Israelis knew the Phalangists were bloodthirsty. They were lusting for revenge because, only two days before, their leader, Israeli-backed President-elect Bashir Gemayel, had been assassinated.[10]

Now, on Sept. 16, as the massacres were about to begin, U.S. special envoy Morris Draper was told by Israeli Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan that “Lebanon is at a point of exploding into a frenzy of revenge. No one can stop them. They're [the Phalangists] obsessed with the idea of revenge.”[11]

Afterwards, Israeli leaders claimed they had no idea that violence was near.

Phalangists killed civilians indiscriminately in the camps. There were no PLO guerrillas, though Israel had claimed there were, so the women, children and old victims were defenseless. Whole families were gunned down or knifed to death. One infant was stomped to death by a man wearing spiked shoes. Another refugee was killed by live grenades draped around his neck.[12] Bulldozers were brought in, mass graves hastily dug and truck loads of bodies dumped in them. Throughout the night, the shooting and the screams did not stop.[13] The killing lasted until the morning of Sept. 18.

The official Israeli commission of inquiry into the massacres concluded that 700 to 800 persons had been killed in the two camps.[14] Non-Israeli estimates were considerably higher. The Palestine Red Crescent put the number at over 2,000, while Lebanese authorities reported that 762 bodies were recovered and 1,200 death certificates issued.[15]

When a horrified world demanded an explanation of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who himself had committed indiscriminate terror in his youth, he said without a word of regret: “Goyim kill Goyim and they blame the Jew.”[16]

A prepared cabinet statement said: “A blood libel has been perpetrated against the Jewish people.”[17]

Despite Israel's denials of responsibility, New York Times correspondent Thomas L. Friedman declared without qualification: “The Israelis knew just what they were doing when they let the Phalangists into those camps.”[18]

Sharon and seven other Israeli officials, including Begin, were found guilty the next year by an Israeli commission of “indirect responsibility” for the massacres. Sharon was also found to have “personal responsibility,” and he was ordered to resign or be removed as defense minister.[19] Sharon resigned, protesting his innocence, but he was allowed to stay in the cabinet as a minister without portfolio. He remained near the center of Israeli politics in the ensuing years.

Israelis gave him the country's highest prize in 2000 by electing him their prime minister. Beyond losing his post as defense minister, Sharon never received any punishment for the massacres. In fact, in the years since he has publicly proclaimed his innocence, acting as though the bloodshed was an internal Lebanese affair. A listless world seemed to agree with him and appeared content to forget the massacres.

The Belgian suit against Sharon is the first serious legal attack against him -- or anyone else, including the Phalangist killers -- for the massacres. It was brought by 28 survivors of Sabra and Shatila under a 1993 Belgian law that allows prosecution of non-Belgian citizens regardless of where or when the atrocity occurred.[20]

The Belgian suit was followed June 23 by a major human rights group calling for a criminal investigation of Ariel Sharon's role in the massacres. Hanny Megally, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, said: “There is abundant evidence that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed on a wide scale in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, but to date, not a single individual has been brought to justice.” He added:

“'The Israeli government ...has a responsibility to conduct an investigation into the actions of its own high officials who knew ...that atrocities were likely to occur and did not act promptly to stop them once they knew the killing had started.”[21]
These actions come after a June 17 2001 showing by the BBC of a documentary on the massacres that examined the question of whether Sharon should be put on trial for war crimes. Several persons in the program suggested Sharon should be charged. One was then-U.S. envoy Draper, who flatly said Sharon should have anticipated the massacres, adding: “You'd have to be appallingly ignorant not to expect a bloodbath. I mean, I suppose if you came down from the moon that day, you might not predict it.”[22]

Israel's Foreign Ministry condemned the documentary as “distorted, unfair and intentionally hostile.” Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon, said: “There's anti-Semitism, there's deception, there's malice -- all put in one show with a sinister intent.”[23]

The Israeli condemnations of the BBC program almost sounded like Begin's old complaint that “Goyim kill Goyim and they blame the Jew.” The difference this time is that Ariel Sharon is officially charged in a court of law. If the Belgians do not buckle under Zionist pressure, he may finally some day have to account for his bloody actions in Sabra and Shatila.

FOOTNOTES:
1 Donald Neff, Warriors at Suez,* p. 49. 2 Uzi Benziman, Sharon, p. 118. 3 Ibid., pp. 115-16. 4 Ariel. Sharon, Warrior, p. 260. 5 Ze'ev Schiff & Ehud Ya'ari, Israel's Lebanon War,* p. 42. 6 lbid., p. 43. 7 George Ball, Error and Betrayal in Lebanon, p. 44. 8 Washington Post, 6/16/82. 9 "Final Report of the Israeli Commission of Inquiry into the Events at the Refugee Camps in Beirut," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. XII, No. 3, Spring 1983, pp. 93-94. 10 Schiff & Ya'ari, p. 259. 11 Ibid., pp. 259-60. 12 Ibid.,p. 264. 13 Time, 10/4/82, p. 22. 14 Journal of Palestine Studies, p. 105. 15 Ball, p. 57. the Lebanese government reported by Jack Redden of United Press International on 10/13/82. Also see Carol Collins, "Chronology of the Israeli War in Lebanon," Journal of Palestine Studies, No. 2, Winter 1983, p. 116. 16 Eric Silver, Begin, p. 236. 17 Ball, p. 58. 18 Friedman, Thomas, From Beirut to Jerusalem,* 164-65. 19 Excerpts in New York Times, 2/9/83, and in "Final Report of the Israeli Commission of Inquiry," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. XII, No. 3. Spring 1983, pp. 89-116. 20 Lee Hockstader, Washington Post, 6/25/2001. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid.

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Last updated 07/01/2006

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