Remembering Sabra and Shatila

(taken from an e-newsletter i receive from American Muslims for Jerusalem - and for those who don't know me who may have stumbled across my blog, no, I am not Muslim. the aim of this group is just as relevant to any other justice-seeking American out there)

"This week, the Bush Administration vetoed a Security Council resolution calling on Israel not to expel or kill President Arafat - the latest in a long line of vetoes that leave Palestinians with no protection from Israel's persecution and land theft. Over the past three decades, our government has used its veto power over forty times to shield Israel from international criticism of its illegal occupation and to block enforcement of resolutions calling on Israel to end the military occupation of Palestinian land.

"Palestinians have pleaded with the United Nations to provide on-site monitoring of the situation in the occupied territories, but the Bush Administration has vetoed even this request. As a result, Israel continues to severely violate Palestinian rights and force Palestinians into ghettos throughout the West Bank and Gaza with impunity.

"This latest veto by the Bush Administration is particularly dangerous. It can embolden Israel to kill a democratically-elected Palestinian leader, as many in Israel openly advocate.

"The veto of the UN Security Council resolution calling on Israel not to expel or kill Arafat fell on a tragic anniversary - the 21st anniversary of the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila refugees in Lebanon by an Israeli-allied militia from
September 16-18, 1982.

"While the Israeli military watched and supervised, the Israeli-allied militia slaughtered the refugees of Sabra and Shatila from 6:00 at night on 16 September 1982 until 8:00 in the morning on 18 September 1982. The victims during the 62-hour massacre included infants, children, women (including pregnant women) and the elderly, some of whom were mutilated before or after they were killed.

"The Israeli military, which was in full control of the area where the refugee camps were located, let a deadly Israeli-allied militia enter the refugee camps, decided to help the militia kill the refugees by lighting up the sky with flares so that innocent men, women and children could be found and killed, and forced refugees who were trying to escape go back to be killed.

"US journalist Thomas Friedman of the New York Times said after the massacre: "Mostly, I saw groups of young men in their twenties and thirties who had been lined up against walls, tied by their hands and feet, and then mowed down gangland-style with fusillades of machine-gun fire." While the world watched and did nothing, anywhere between hundreds to several thousand Palestinian and Lebanese refugees were massacred under direct Israeli supervision and assistance.

"Even an Israeli government inquiry found that Israel, and specifically Ariel Sharon, were responsible for the massacre. Sharon was forced to resign as Defense Minister and the Commission recommended that he never again hold senior office in Israel. He is now Prime Minister of Israel, threatening to kill or expel the democratically-elected leader of the Palestinian people."