of the the documentary "The which demonstrated the direct responsibility of Isracli PM Ariel Sharon for the slaughter by Lebanese militia of several hundred Palestinians in and Shatilla refugee camps in September 1982, Tony Blair met Sharon Downing Street, and expressed his "admira. tion" at Israel's "restraint" in suppressing the P'alestinian Intifada.
The following day, a Belgian magistrate accepted the petition of 23 survivors HUSSACTC. opened a criminal investigation into Sharon.
inlikec contentious Hague indictment of Milosevic, this case is not an example of "victor's justice". It results from a petition of 23 survivors of the massacre, using a recent Beigian law which allows the prosecution in Belgium of any alleged war criminal, regardless the location of the events and the nationality of the Sabra and Shatilla are two Palestinian refugee camps in the south of Beirut. In September 1982, in the course or tae istach tvasiod of Lebanon, Israel's Phalange allies (named in honour of European fascists of the 1930s) carried out a savage massacre of several hundred Palestinian residents of the camps.
Several months later, an Israeli commission of enquiry found that then defence minister Sharon was "personally responsible" for the and he was forced to his post (though remained a government minister). cuted for the atrocity.
After the massacre, Sharon said of CO OR HOHICHS did we imagine that they would do what they did. They had received harsh and clear warings. Had we for one moment imagined that something like this would happen we would never have let them into the camp.
observers ( find According Alofs, a Dutch doctor working in Sabra at the time: "Everybody in Beirut knew what would happen if the Phalangists were allowed into the camps. In spite of this, Sharon gave green light" (Guardian, 13 July I visited Sabra and Shatilla just before the massacre, WOCKS where i wilnessca tne restaculs following election of Phalange leader Bashir Gemayel as assassination (apparently on Syrian orders), and of Sharon's decision to invade West Beirut and to send the Phalange into the camps, I knew and warned of the likely result. It 1s inconceivable that Sharon didn't what would occur, and it must be assumed that he intended chis outcome.
the subject of the Belgian investigation is Sharon's most notorious crime, his röle in enabling or the Beirut massacre, claims expected to be submitted to the magistrate.
Many of these relate to the invaconducted by Sharon, often behind the backs of prime minister Begin and other minisiers. in tre course or tats waty thousand civilians were killed, frequentiy Dy the use of weapons banned under international law.
These included cluster bombs, which scattered dozens of smaller bombs and mines, causing severe injury or death to anyone who went near them, and incendiary phosphorous bombs, designed as fares bur used with devastating effect against civilians.
In his account of that war, Pib the Nation, Robert Fisk notes the experience ( of Dr Amal Shamas the Barbir Hospital: " I had to cake the babies and put them in buckets of water to put our the flames', she said. "When I took them out halt an hour later, they were still burning. Even in the mortuary, they smouldered for hours'. Amal Shamaa took the tiny corpses To out of the mortuary tor bursal her horror, they again burst into flames". I was told of similar expeboenee acO BOSONEIN The war was also characterised by the systematic shelling, at close range, of hospitals. During my stay in Beirut, I did not visit one hospical which had not been damaged. Frequently, chels pierced the prominent red cross on All the evidence indicates that this was deliberate, not accidental, damase. As Fisk noics. to call the gunfire was understatement. It would also have been a lie.
ment of 4 August was, we realised later, discriminate. It targeted cvety civilian area, every institution, in west Beirut - hospitals, apartments, minister's office and the parks sDops, newspaper omices, tac panne "Incredibly, the Israeli shells also blew part of the roof off the city's synagogue Wadi Abu Jamil where the remnants of Beirut's tiny Jewish community (When I visited, I found that an Isracli shell had demolished the star of David on the synagoge's COOT)
describing Isracl's, and Sharon's, behaviour as a war crime, what must be remembered is that not only the conduct, but the very purpose of the war, was directed at civilians. It was quite explicitly a war of terrorism, designed to break the civilagainst the Palestinian presence, and to intimidate the Palestinians in the occupied territories, who had initiated a mini uprising in the spring of 1982. Sharon had planned the war from the moment he took office after the 1981 election. and for six months before the war began the Isracli press had been full of speculation and analysis about its goals and prospects Sharon's appointment as defence been controversial. had expressed that Sharon From the carly years of the state, Sharon had a reputation as a thug and a notacad, rcady to catty our the most brutal acts in suppressing the Palestinian struggle for liberation.
As head of the notorious Unit 101 of the Isracli army, Sharon conducted murderous MOSS•oore raids during the 1950s. In August 1953, he led a raid on Gaza's alBureij refugee camp, about 50 Palestinian refugees were muracrca wanc tacy siepy In October of that year, he led an village of Qibya, attack on tho where some 70 Palestinians were murdered when their home were • UN "Bullet-ridden bodies near the doorways and multiple bullet hits on the doors of the demolished houses indicated that the inhabitants had been forced to remain tristae WCIC blown up over them".
Sharon's career continued in the same vein, through establishing the Israeli paratroops, 'pacifying" the vaa stp in the carly years of the occupation, and sponsoring the settlers movement. Although he has come to symoousc tuc axstessive policies of the Isracli state, we must recognise that he is in fact in the mainstream of Israeli politics, not an isolated extremist. Brought up in the traditions of the Zionist agricultural movement, porter and first entered the Knesset he was originally a Labour sup as sole representative of a small "peace' party. He was a close friend, and adviser, former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. ft was his initiative which established the Likud as a fusion of various right wing and centre parties and Labour dissidents. Over the 53 years of Israel's existence, Sharon has emerged as the true representative of the Zionist state.
For, of course, is Sharon N the only war criminal in a position of power in Isracl. Forcign minister and former PM Shimon Peres was responsible. in April 1997, for the slaughter of over 100 Palestinian refugees sheltering at the U base in wana in soutacul Lebanon.
As director general of the defence ministry during the 1950s, he was responsible for the establishment of nuclear programme. In 1967, be stael sarmatens neso and was one of the team which ordered on spyship Liberty, killing 34 American scaAnd in 1986, he ordered the kidnapping Vanunu trom burope and tis scoree dais • • • • • • Subscribe now to • International rise! • English language magazine of the • Fourth international: • movement, recomposition of the • Follow the anti-globalisation • left and much more.
Eleven issues for E25, half • price for new subscribers, E30 • with subscription to Socialist Outlook before September 1. • Cheques payable to Outlook port back to israel to face trial for treason, after Vanunu revealed to Times the extent of Israel's nuclear arsenal.
related development, Danish Saren Sondergaard has called for the arrest of raci's new ambassador Denmark, Carmi Gillon. Gillon is a former head of the Casacal Security Service).
In his memoirs be admits orderthe torture Palestinian detainees, and in media he has justified this, portraying his actions, and torture in Israel generally, as a defence of an open and democratic society against a "sea of piranhas".
Such torture is a breach of the Geneva Convention, and Gillon is thus, by his own admission, a war criminal. The Isracli daily Ha'Aretz reports that, as a result of the controversy, it is now unlikely Gillon will take up his post These actions in Europe cannot, by themselves, bring about the liband MEOTE Palestinians. However, by making life more difficult for Isracli thugs and by focussing publicity on their crimes, they furher weaken the legitimacy of the Activists in Britain should supmoves while SI38EaS opposing the pretensions of institutions like the Hague tribunal.
Outlook People like Ricardo Petrella, Susan
president of Lebanon. When, back in London, I heard of Gemayel's
ian infrastructure of the PLO, to curn the population of Lebanon
minister, like his whole career, had Begin
vould "ring the prime minister's office with tanks" if not appointed
• Viewpoint - and beat • the autumn price