Sabra & Shatila, 1982 – never again

The world watched in horror as the story of the inhuman massacres in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon first emerged in September, 1982 | An entire generation of the Palestinian people has grown up in their shadow | The general at the centre of this butchery is today the prime minister of Israel – Ariel Sharon | The scale of the infamy has changed, but not the methods, the perpetrators or their allies | The past is always present

Sabra and Chatila – two undefended refugee camps in Beirut where hundreds of unarmed Palestinian refugees, including babies, were massacred 16-18 September 1982. (Click to enlarge)

From the Dossier on Palestine (2002)

By PIERRE PÉAN*

TWENTY years have passed, but reread the accounts or speak to survivors in what remains of the Sabra and Shatila camps, and the words still drip red. Time has not washed away the blood. All through my investigation I was horrified as I listened to story after story about children with their throats slit, or pregnant women with their bellies slashed open, or heads and limbs hacked off. I felt physically sick.

A despicable legacy within an unworthy cause – The death of Ariel Sharon

By NATHAN J FREEMAN

AFTER spending eight years in a coma, Israeli general and former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon died on January 11, 2014. The very large numbers of people who suffered greatly under his aegis recall his brutal legacy with continued demands for justice. Meanwhile the world of darkest reaction has invented the term “warrior-statesman” to praise the man who will, in fact, go down in history as the murderer he was. Besides other crimes, Sharon is best known to the world’s people as the Butcher of Beirut for his role in enabling the slaughter of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp during September 16 to 18, 1982.