The Sabra and Shatila massacre and the dark corners of history

Stephen Gowans

September 16 marks the 24 anniversary of the massacre by Phalangist militias of between 700 and 3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese refuges at the Sabra and Shatila camps in west Beirut. The massacre, carried out while the Israeli army ringed and sealed off the camp, was condemned by the United Nations General Assembly as an act of genocide. Israel’s future prime minister, Ariel Sharon, then Minister of Defense, was found by an Israeli inquiry (widely consider to be a whitewash) to bear personal responsibility. Elie Hobeika, the Phalangist commander, was never tried, and later became a minister in the Lebanese government. I was asked why the world has apparently forgotten the massacre, and why the perpetrators have never been punished. There are a number of reasons why the massacre has been forgotten by those who weren’t directly touched, if, indeed, it was ever really ever paid much attention to in the first place by the unaffected. (Obviously those who were caught up in the events haven’t forgotten.)...

continua / continued