The steadfastness and braveness of Sabra and Shatila are in all of our hearts. At this time, we commemorate the merciless injustice inflicted on the Palestinians within the bloodbath of 1982, understanding that that is simply one of many steady assaults on Palestinians since 1948. We resolve to proceed to be with you all in your tough journey in solidarity, hope and love, understanding that in the future, the liberty and peace stolen from the Palestinian folks for all these years might be received again by means of your battle. We commemorate with tears, however pledge our dedication to this battle with all our power and lives. We all know that the day will come when our kids’s laughter would be the reward of years of sacrifice and endurance.
In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. It bombed Lebanon by land, air and sea, and laid siege to Beirut. Israel killed and wounded 1000’s of harmless folks and made at the very least 100,000 homeless inside just a few weeks. Beirut metropolis was denied electrical energy, medication, meals and water.
I resigned from my job at a hospital in London to assist the victims in Lebanon. At the moment, my sympathies had been with Israel, and I had not identified that Palestinians existed. However I may not stand by and watch the wounding and killings of ladies, youngsters and unarmed civilians – or watch them being made homeless because the bombs repeatedly fell on Lebanon.
I arrived in Beirut in August 1982, and was seconded to Gaza Hospital in Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut. It was one in every of 9 hospitals and 13 clinics of the Palestine Purple Crescent Society and the one one which was not flattened by the bombs.
The folks of Sabra and Shatila instructed me about their struggling ever since they had been pushed out of Palestine to change into refugees in 1948. Lots of the residents of Sabra and Shatila had been third and fourth-time refugees being pushed from camp to camp when their households had been killed and houses destroyed by Israeli planes. That was the primary time I heard about their horrible struggling. That was additionally the primary time I met Palestinians.
Sabra and Shatila survivors call on Zoom not to silence Palestinian voices
After resisting the continual bombardment for ten weeks, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) evacuated in trade for peace. The US promised that it will defend the 300,000 Palestinian refugees left behind in Lebanon. They had been inspired to return from the shelters to the refugee camps to rebuild their houses and lives. However this didn’t occur.
Three weeks later, on 15 September, 1982, Israeli tanks had been allowed to overrun Beirut. A big quantity surrounded and sealed Sabra and Shatila refugee camp in order that nobody may depart nor enter the camp.
Sniping began as soon as the camp was sealed. Initially, the wounded and lifeless introduced into the hospital had been primarily girls gathering water and meals for his or her households. By the afternoon of the following day, males, girls, youngsters and infants had been shot of their houses. Many had been introduced in lifeless and crammed the mortuary.
Greater than 2,000 frightened folks fled into our hospital with tales that the Haddads, Kataebs and Israelis had been killing defenceless households within the camp. They feared for his or her lives.
They might not escape, and nobody protected them.
The hospital ran out of blood, medicine and meals. Our medical and surgical staff labored continuous. I wished the nurses to provide the final packet of blood to a wounded mom, however she pleaded for it to be given to her youngster, and she or he died shortly afterwards.
At night time, the skies of Sabra and Shatila had been lit with Israeli army flares. We heard explosions and machine gun noises all through, and the wounded continued to be introduced into Gaza Hospital.
It was particularly painful to function on a bit boy who was shot together with 27 members of his household. Because the our bodies fell on him, he handed out and was mistaken for lifeless by the murderers. When he awoke, he was in nice ache. Years later, he instructed of how he heard girls being rounded up and raped. His bodily wounds might have healed, however his emotional scars are nonetheless with him right this moment. It took my American colleagues 4 years to get him out of residing in the home the place his household was murdered. He was not the one youngster who suffered on this manner.
At daybreak on 18 September, 1982, troopers with machine weapons compelled the complete worldwide medical volunteer staff out of the hospital.
After we had been marched into Rue Sabra, we noticed teams of outdated males, girls and kids rounded up by militia. A frightened, determined younger mom tried to provide me her child, however was compelled to take it again. She begged them to spare her child. They had been all subsequently executed, together with the mom and child.
There have been lifeless our bodies piled up within the camp alleys and bulldozers destroying camp houses. We had struggled for 72 hours continuous with out meals and sleep to save lots of dozens of lives. However inside the identical 72 hours, at the very least 3,000 had been killed.
I used to be 33 years outdated then. I grew up a Zionist Christian and by no means knew Palestinians existed till I stepped foot in Sabra and Shatila. I knew then that it was my human duty by no means to stroll away from this horrendous injustice. I additionally realised that I need to communicate up on behalf of the victims. The lifeless couldn’t communicate up, and the survivors needed my voice.
After testifying to 5 Commissions of Inquiry on Sabra and Shatila, together with travelling to Israel with Ellen Siegel to provide proof to the Israeli Kahan Fee of Inquiry into the conduct of the Israeli Military in Sabra and Shatila, I returned to the UK. The Palestinians in Lebanon continued to be destitute, homeless and hungry. Justice appeared to not be in sight. The state of affairs was dire for them, and certainly, they continued to undergo and change into extra determined. Kids had been born and grew up within the lengthy, darkish shadow of the bloodbath, and there was no hope of returning to Palestine. Might we make their lives just a bit bit simpler?
Fatah: Sabra and Shatila massacre a ‘war crime’
Medical Assist for Palestinians (MAP) was based within the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, beneath these circumstances. We wished to help the Palestinians in any small manner that we may. The founders of MAP fashioned the organisation in order that the horrors of the bloodbath might be became a bridge – a optimistic channel of friendship and solidarity between folks within the UK and the Palestinians – not solely in Lebanon, but additionally within the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and within the diaspora.
Since then, MAP has not solely labored with the Palestinians in Lebanon, but additionally in Gaza and the West Financial institution. The existence of MAP can also be our option to allow them to know we are going to by no means forsake or neglect them. What MAP is doing is minuscule, a drop within the ocean, however we’re a part of the tide shifting in direction of justice for the Palestinians.
As for me, I rely myself privileged and honoured to have the ability to journey alongside the Palestinians, to be accepted as their household. Whether or not in Shatila, in Gaza, onboard the Freedom Flotilla Al-Awda to Gaza, in Israeli jail or being deported, I need my life to be a suitable tribute to the Palestinians. They welcomed me into their damaged lives and houses and made me one in every of their very own, providing me Arabic espresso within the midst of the rubble they name house. For this, I’ll thank God each day of my life, till loss of life do us half.
The views expressed on this article belong to the writer and don’t essentially mirror the editorial coverage of Center East Monitor.
