ADC Remembers The Sabra and Shatila Massacre

posted on: Sep 16, 2013

Today marks 31 years since the Sabra and Shatila massacre — one of the bloodiest and most brutal atrocities of our time. On September 16, 1982, shortly after Israeli troops seized control of west Beirut, the right-wing Lebanese militia forces operating under the direction of Israeli forces massacred over one thousand defenseless men, women and children in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps.

ADC President Warren David said “I was in Lebanon in 1981 and visited Sabra and Shatila as part of a delegation. I have vivid memories of the men, women, and children living in the camps as refugees. It was devastating to hear of the massacre a year later. We at ADC will never forget the tragedy that befell the innocent and defenseless. Thirty one years later no one has yet been held responsible for this massacre and millions of Palestinian refugees are still without a just settlement.”

Palestinians who survived are still haunted by the memories of the massacre. The untreated wounds are still open, and questions of why no one has been punished are still unanswered. <a href=”http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/09/2012915163152213255.html”>Click here</a> to read the accounts of three women who lived through the 1982 massacre at Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

During the massacre, Israeli troops were in full control of the area in which the Sabra and Shatila camps are located. They allowed the militias into the camps, prevented refugees from fleeing for their lives, and lit the night sky with a continuous series of flares as the killing raged for almost 3 days. The Israeli government‘s own commission of inquiry into the affair, the Kahan Commission, found that Israel was responsible for the massacre. Senior Israeli officials who were found responsible for the massacre continued to hold high governmental and political posts in Israel. Ariel Sharon, who directed the 1982 Israeli attack on Lebanon, was forced to resign after the Commission concluded that he bore personal responsibility for the massacre, and should never hold public office again; in 2001 Ariel Sharon became a prime minister. General Amos Yaron, commander of the Israeli occupying forces in the Lebanese capital of Beirut during the massacre, became a director-general of the Israeli Defense Ministry.