(MintPress) – Thirty years have passed since the massacre of 3,500, mostly Palestinian, refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps outside Beirut, Lebanon. The killings punctuated an already violent, hyper-factionalized conflict resulting in more than 100,000 fatalities and 900,000 displaced because of the violence during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war 1975-1990.
Israeli forces colluded with Christian Phalangists in an attempt to eliminate elements of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). However, the exact details of the massacre, one of the worst during the war, remain contested, even as survivors and relatives of slain victims seek restitution for the killings.
Additionally, the lack of a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict has, in part, served to justify the squalid conditions of the camps and the second class status of Palestinians living in Lebanon today. Improving conditions and integrating Palestinians, some contend, is tantamount to abandoning the Palestinian right of return to homes families were expelled from in 1948.
The Lebanese civil war
The reasons for the outbreak of war are multifaceted, stemming in large part from Ottoman and later the French division of the small Mediterranean country into sects based upon religious and ethnic background. The composition of Parliament and the major political positions — president, speaker of parliament and prime minister — were designed to be divided among the various groups to form a representative, confessional political system.
However, from the onset, the system favored the Christian Lebanese population, over-representing the community based upon census figures taken in 1932. Some groups, particularly Lebanese Shiite communities feel the system, largely a construct of former colonial powers, was designed to systematically undermine their political status.
These confessional constructs provided the framework for armed militias representing their respective communities to wage a protracted war with a complicated network of shifting alliances among the 18 religious groups in a country with a population of just 4 million.
The creation of Israel in 1948 led to the expulsion of 500,000-700,000 Palestinians, a large number of whom fled to Lebanon. The Palestinian presence, and the subsequent Israeli incursions intended to rout the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Lebanon, contributed to the escalation of the war, as well.
Fighting the PLO: Israeli and Christian Phalangist coordination
The actual Sabra and Shatila massacres occurred in 1982, shortly after president elect Bashir Gemayel was assassinated in a bombing attack. Gemayel was a Christian and leader of a right-wing Phalangist militia during the war.
His assassination prompted a coordinated retaliation by the Israelis and Gemayel’s Phalangist militia. The bigger operation, however, was to rout the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Israel’s key adversary in the region. After securing a perimeter around the camps on Sept. 15, 1982, Christian Phalangist forces entrusted with “searching and mopping up the camps” entered the following day systematically killing residents for a full 48 hours.
According to a recent Al Jazeera report, “The Shatila killing spree went on for 48 hours and left piles of dead bodies rotting in the September sun. Many were buried in a mass grave at the edge of Shatila camp, now marked by a single tombstone on an unkempt, red-dirt lot. Survivors say women were routinely raped and some victims were buried alive or shot in front of their families. Truckloads of others were hauled away, never to be heard from again.”
The United Nations General Assembly condemned the attack December 1982. It was then that 123 countries voted in favor of a resolution declaring the killings to be an act of genocide. Twenty-two countries abstained from voting, including the United States, Israel and a number of European countries.
Additionally, an independent Israeli commission was formed to investigate the incident in 1983 after strong public demonstrations by the Israeli public. The Kahan Commission of Inquiry into the Events at the Refugee Camps in Beirut was formed to give comprehensive coverage of the events, with specific attention paid to the involvement of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the attack.
The commission concluded that Christian Phalangists held sole “direct responsibility” for carrying out the attacks. However, Israel was found “indirectly responsible,” having secured a perimeter around the camps with the understanding that the Phalangists would kill civilians.
Ariel Sharon, Defense Minister during the time of the attacks, was found responsible “for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge and not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed.” Authors of the report recommended Sharon resign from his post as Defense Minister. Sharon obliged, but only after popular demonstrations calling for his resignation.
Sharon later went on to serve as the 11th prime minister of Israel from 2001-2006. Although considered one of the more hawkish prime ministers, Sharon oversaw Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza strip in 2005. This decision many hoped would set of precedent for future disengagement from the West Bank, a prerequisite necessary for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. He slipped into a coma in 2006. Sharon remains in a vegetative state to this day.
Critics contend the Kahan Commission underplayed the Israeli role in the massacre while offering conservative estimates on the numbers killed. According to the commission, 800 were killed in the attacks. However, Israeli author Amnon Kapeliouk, the Red Cross and other sources place the figure much higher, around 3,500.
While the events continued to be studied and debated 30 years later, depictions of the Sabra and Shatila massacres continue to be released to popular acclaim, including the popular animated Israeli film titled, “Waltz With Bashir,” released in 2008.
Reconciliation
Today, the Shatila camp is home to more than 20,000 Palestinian refugees and impoverished Lebanese living in one square kilometer. The nearby Sabra camp houses thousands more, in similarly cramped quarters.
The Palestinian refugee population remains marginalized, as many within Lebanese society believe that the integration of the foreign population legitimizes the Israeli expulsion of native residents in 1948 and during subsequent wars.
Hezbollah, the armed Shiite resistance movement born out of the earlier Amal movement, continues to oppose Israel, claiming the Jewish state to be foreign occupier and an illegitimate country. Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon in 2000, an event heralded by the militant group as a success.
While vociferously advocating for the Palestinian right of return, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has shied away from calling for Palestinian integration into Lebanese society. Integration, Nasrallah has claimed, is tantamount to recognizing Israel as a permanent, legitimate state in the region.
Israel officially remains in a “state of war” with Lebanon.
On Sept. 15, 2012, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a leftist political movement, stated that “the Sabra and Shatila massacres, confirm that no countries or authorities can be entrusted with the lives of the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights, and that the only guarantee is steadfastness and unity in the struggle for national rights and economic, social and cultural rights within the occupied homeland, in refugee camps and in all areas of exile and diaspora.”
In 2003, 23 survivors from the attacks launched charges against Ariel Sharon, Amos Yaron and other Lebanese and Israelis responsible for the massacre. The action, filed in the Belgian Supreme Court has been stalled and is unlikely to advance considering Ariel Sharon, the main defendant in the case, remains in a coma.
Belgium previously adopted the U.N. Universal Jurisdiction Law, meaning cases involving war crimes and crimes against humanity can be adjudicated, similar to the Hague and other international tribunals.