Here is my response, and the FACTS:
(4) 1982: Sabra and Shatila Massacres
MY POINT:As discussed on the Palestine Facts topic page on Sabra and Shatila, on September 16, 1982 the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia entered the Beruit refugee camps looking for PLO fighters. The Phalangist forces, allies of Israel and in an area controlled by the IDF, carried out a 62-hour rampage of rape and murder that left hundreds dead.
In 1983, an Israeli government commission of inquiry, known as the Kahane Commission, determined that Defense Minister Sharon was negligent and should have foreseen that permitting the Phalangist forces to enter the camps carried a potential for catastrophe. They charged that Sharon should have taken precautions against such a massacre. But the commission rejected the idea that Minister Sharon was directly responsible for the crime, an idea that was also rejected by the federal court in New York that heard Sharon's 1985 libel suit against Time magazine who repeated unfounded allegations about Sharon's role. Nonetheless, due to Israeli discomfort with the event, Sharon was forced to resign and face widespread public opprobrium that nearly ended his political career. The matter was therefore lawfully settled in Israeli and US courts with a reasonable conclusion and outcome.
For years, Mr. Sharon's political opponents, in Israel and abroad, along with a host of Arab leaders, have exploited Sabra and Shatila to score moral points against Israel -- even as Syria made an ally of Elie Hobeika, the Phalangist personally responsible for carrying out the massacres. They continue to accuse Sharon of crimes for which he has already been cleared.MORE FACTS ABOUT SHATILA HERE .
No comments:
Post a Comment