For 3 days in September 1982, Israeli forces in collusion with the Lebanese Militias, slaughtered, raped and massacred thousands of unarmed civilians, inside the sealed Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut, while Israeli forces surounded the camp.
To this day , amidst many attempts to seek justice, no one has been held accountable for this genocidal act.
The slaughter occured just days after the P.L.O had withdrew its fighters from Beirut after receiving guarantees from U.S led Multi National Forces that Palestinian civiliansin the camps would be safe.
The incident is considered perhaps the worst of the entire Middle Eastern conflict.
Hopefully justice will one day come, and may it not happen again, to anyone , anywhere.
Sabra and Shatila Massacre - A film by Robert Fisk
The following is a poem by the Morrocan poet Tahar Ben Jelloun on the incident
They came in through the roof
They closed the doors and windows
They stuffed a fistful of sand into her mouth and nostrils, Fatima
Their hands ripped her stomach
blood pooled
they urinated on her face
Fatima took the statue's hand
and walked lightly between the trees and the
sleeping children.
She reached the sea
her body rised above death.
Poem reprinted from :-
' Rising of the Ashes - Tahar Ben Jelloun (2010)
Translated by Cullen Goldblett
