On this date – Sept 18 – in history 32 years ago, the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon entered its third and final day. The Christian Lebanese militia had slaughtered approximately 700-800 Palestinians in a three-day orgy from Sept 16 to 18.
(The estimates vary and the maximum puts the number of Palestinian dead at 3,000 – see Encyclopedia Britannica.)
A Phalangist Christian militia unit acting on its own had carried out the killings, according to a report by the Commission of Inquiry headed by president of the Israel Supreme Court, Judge Yitzhak Kahan.
Christian militants taking revenge
The Phalangists were members of the Phalange party comprised of Moronite Christians and headed by Bashir Gemayel. On 14 Sept 1982, Gemayel – who was also Lebanon president elect – had been killed along with dozens of others when a bomb blew up the Phalange party headquarters.
Two days following the assassination of Gemayel, the Christian militants took their revenge in Sabra and Shatila, according to the Kahan Commission.
The Kahan Commission report (left) released on 8 Feb 1983 found Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin to bear indirect responsibility for the massacre because the area was under the control of the Israeli army and Israel knew that the Phalangists had entered the camps.
“Ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge”
Israel Defence Minister Ariel Sharon had approved the entry of the Phalangists who were allies of the Israeli occupation force in West Beirut, said the Kahan report.
The Commission found Sharon responsible for “ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge” as well as not taking appropriate measures to prevent the killings, and recommended that he resign as minister.
The Commission also criticized Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir for not taking action after being alerted by Communications Minister Mordechai Zippori.
Chief of Staff Raful Eitan was censured by the Commission for his breach of duty in failing to “give the appropriate orders to prevent the massacre”. Lastly, the Commission recommended Director of Military Intelligence major-general Yehoshua Saguy, division commander brigadier-general Amos Yaron and other senior officers be sacked.
According to the Kahan report:
“… in June 1982, the Phalangist force included a nucleus of approximately 2,000 full-time recruited soldiers. In addition, the Phalangists had a reserve armed force – that is, men who served part-time in their free hours or when they were called up for special service. When fully mobilized, the number of Phalangist soldiers reached 5,000.”
Lebanese civil war: Christians vs Muslims
The Kahan report said there are various estimates as to the number of Palestinian refugees who were living in Lebanon in 1982. According to the figures of UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency), they numbered approximately 270,000.
Palestinians were stateless persons who were without the legal rights enjoyed by the rest of the Lebanese population. They had fled to Lebanon after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the ‘Black September’ expulsion from Jordan in 1970, and included Yasser Arafat and his PLO guerrillas.
The presence of Palestinians in Lebanon made the existing Christian vs Muslim hostilities much worse.
BELOW: The NLP Tigers militia badge; Dany Chamoun wearing T-shirt with the Tigers logo
Christian warlord families
Chamoun & Gemayel
In 1975, the Lebanese civil war broke out and lasted till 1990. Maronite Christians predominated the Christian armed force that took part in the sectarian warfare. This force comprised several armed Christian organizations, the largest among them being the organizations under the leadership of the Chamoun and Gemayel families.
Pierre Gemayel was founder of the Phalangist Party. His son Bashir is described as “warlike” by Encyclopedia Britannica. Amin, Bashir’s older brother, was elected president of Lebanon a week after Bashir’s assassination.
Camille Chamoun was president of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958. His son Dany (pix above), who led the National Liberal Party Tigers militia, was assassinated in 1990.
BELOW: In terms of religious composition, the populations of Lebanon and Malaysia are most alike. Lebanon and Malaysia are two out of only three countries in the world to have a mixed population of 60-65 percent Muslims
Click 2x to enlarge
No peace-loving lah: Mana ada ‘meek and mild’?
A year-by-year account of the Lebanese civil war can be read at ‘Timeline of the Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990‘.
Today the population of Lebanon is around 60 percent Muslim and 34 percent Christian with a small presence of evangelicals (primarily the work of American missionaries).
In 1943 though when Lebanon gained independence from France, it was the Christians who held power. At that time, the population was officially estimated to be about 30 percent Maronite Christian, 21 percent Sunni and 19 percent Shiite.
Lebanon had practised the most interesting power-sharing formula whereby the president was Christian, the prime minister Sunni and the speaker of the House, Shiite. (NOTE: Everywhere in the world, the Speaker is a very powerful position.)
The Lebanese civil war was sparked in 1975 when the radical Christian Phalangists attacked and killed a bus full of Palestinians in downtown Beirut. Revenge killings followed, causing violence that began to spiral out of control – see ‘Beirut: The Civil War years‘ (Global Eye).
Complete breakdown in trust between Christians and Muslims
Fighting between the Christians and Muslims intensified leading to “a complete breakdown in trust between followers of the two religions”, said the Global Eye report.
In the war years, Lebanon’s capital city Beirut split into two separate halves divided by a literal Green Line – a green belt of grass and plants. Muslim groups controlled West Beirut while Christian groups controlled East Beirut. And they hated, attacked and killed each other.
In 1976, the Maronite Christian-led government invited Syria intervention and Lebanon’s bigger neighbour “sent in 20,000 troops to root out and quash radical Muslim groups”.
In 1982, Israel troops ringed and laid siege to Beirut to drive out the PLO. It was during this period that the Sabra and Shatila massacre occurred.
The Lebanese Christians allied themselves with the Israelis. That was why Israel’s occupying force in Beirut allowed its ally the Phalangist Christian militia to enter the Palestinian refugee camps on Sept 16-18, 1982 to exact their bloodthirsty revenge.
BELOW: Israel prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu thanks Christians for their support of his country
Christians United for Israel
Why, you might ask, do Christians – especially the American evangelicals – stand solidly behind the Zionists?
Netanyahu is personally very popular in Congress and across partisan lines. When he spoke before the House in May 2011, the Israel prime minister was given thunderous applause and 29 standing ovations! In comparison, American President Obama received only 25 standing ovations during his 2011 State of the Union address – see ABC News.
Besides their messianic fervour and millennial beliefs (the second coming of Jesus in Zion), Christians worldwide treat Muslims with tremendous suspicion. Who the Christians stand with is predicated on the George W Bush choice: Either you’re with us or you’re against us.
Over the Palestine issue, the evangelical Christians choose to be against the Muslims.
In Malaysia, in the churches and over the social media, the Christians – particularly evangelistas – clearly side the Israeli Jews.
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Updated: 5.37pm
Helen Ang 
Later on some of their goons will come in and accuse you of inciting the Malays to hate Christians.
You pun tahu. They are so predictable, yawn.
This is what u get when ‘Those We Don’t Speak Of’ became the Speaker.
Helen one question want straight answer: are you in fervour or not the Sedition Act as it is now or antiquated bygone
As I See it the moderate and their move as it use to be are against hoisted united Muslims which their term as extremist
I’m against the Sedition Act.
I hope to see it repealed.
Ariel Sharon was notified by Gamayel of his intentions and stayed out of his way. The Christians were later betrayed by Israel. They were the South Lebanese Army under Major Hadad who were trained and armed by Israel to help dislodge the PLO and Arafat who used Lebanon as a de facto Palestinian state.
Sharon was cleared of his complicity because of his power base in the Israeli army. It was out of this mess and massacre that a group called HAMAS was born. They were AMAL (the welfare and socio religious arm of the Shi ites) then, Hezbollah (them military wing of the Shi ites) and later HAMAS (the political wing).
There is a trend and has been so for sometime to use these evangelistas to stoke the flames of hatred and provoke the Muslims to a point of violence. The same pattern has been applied in the Middle East and now being attempted in Malaysia.
On this date – Sept 18 too. We wait in eagerness to see whether the world’s first Protestant nation will break up or not.
Scotland – to divorce or not to divorce that is the billion pound question.
I thought Christians hate Jews more than Muslim. It was jews that reject Jesus in first place.
Wealth or Poverty: Jews who were wealthy were despised by Christians who were poor. This was common all throughout Western Europe. Jews who were poor were despised by Christians who were both poor and wealthy. This happened far more often in Eastern Europe. Although this is not a religious reason, this sentiment was primarily felt in Europe before the 1800s. (Since the 1800s, it has gained much more of a foothold in the Arab World.)
How the real Jews dressed? like this
re: “I thought Christians hate Jews more than Muslim.”
The Christians in Europe killed 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.
Then the remaining Jews left Europe and moved to live in Israel which is smack in the Middle East and an ‘island’ is a sea of Muslim countries – all the countries in green in the map below are Muslm majority.
So what the Christians have done is transfer their “Jewish problem” to the Muslims.
Kak Helen, You should read this. Miley “Hannah Montana” Cyrus is deep sXXX. Disrespect of the Mexican flag.
http://www.nst.com.my/node/34658
“MONTERREY: US pop star Miley Cyrus has caused a stir in Mexico after getting whipped on a giant fake buttocks with the country’s flag during a concert, prompting an official investigation.”
“The fine could amount to $1,270, although the legislature also called for 36-hour jail time. ”
Jail time…. so if you want to make fun of flags and national anthems, think again. Even Hannah Montana is not spared from the law.
It is very sensitive if the act of kurang ajarness is during the National Day.
“The Bangerz Tour 2014 concert coincided with Mexico’s independence day festivities and the video made waves across local media.”
We will see how this Miley case will progress. Our budak2 pun terikut2.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/showbiz/article/mexican-lawmakers-seek-to-fine-miley-cyrus-for-flag-spank-while-twerking
Mexican authorities tidak teragak2 mengambil tindakan.
“Mexican authorities are often sensitive toward signs of disrespect for national symbols. In 2008, singer Paulina Rubio was fined for posing without clothes but wrapped in the country’s flag”
Ingat kawan kita yang berbogel dengan bendera BN.
re: “Ingat kawan kita yang berbogel dengan bendera BN”
BN flag is not national flag, so it is not against the law.
But The J-Star made Vivian Lee an instant celebrity. So can we take it that the owner of the paper, i.e. MCA, condones the act?
By highlighting the berbogel dengan bendera BN, JStar is saying to the youth, it is OK to berbogel with whatever flag.
If they have sense of public decency, they would not have published the picture.
It is good the Mexicans clamp down on all this is disrespectful.
Come to think of it. The Sukan Bogel… when JStar has the most coverage. – which make me think moderation means bogel.
I’m not sure whether the J-Star ever featured the Vivian-BN flag photo. I think not. I first saw it in Malay blogosphere, and I’ve previously republished it in my blog too.
What I meant was that the J-Star is sympathetic to Alvivi and at the same time, sensationalized the sex angle because it sells papers.
The current psyche is too extreme; swinging from love to hate and back again, depending on the issue. “Love the sinner, hate the sin” , “UMNO is wicked but I love my Muslim brothers” etc. . This kind of polemic is very destructive. It leaves no room for considering nuances, balancing views and coming to consensus.
Its either you’re with us or against us, this kind of thinking and words are very dangerous due to its simplicity and emotional appeal.
The Love x3 people just too freaky for words.
Dear Aunty Helen,
One of people behind the Sabra and Shatila tragedy is Charles Habib Malik. Who is Charles Habib Malik? Charles Habib Malik helped to draft the of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – UDHR.
So, that is why we must be careful about what the human rights activists are fighting for because even the person who drafted the UDHR did not respect the human rights of others.
In Malaysia, those activists want a total freedom of speech saying that it is granted by Article 10 of the Federal Constitution. Another spin because Article 10 does not give us a total freedom of speech. I wrote about it in my last post, “Is Muhyiddin Racist?”
http://ahmadalikarim.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/is-muhyiddin-racist/
They just use a part of the Article 10 and ignored the main part that says it is subjected to Clause (2), (3) and (4). They also did that to Article 11. By the funniest part is, while asking for the Akta Hasutan to be abolished, they are also asking for Akta Hasutan to be used on people that they do not like.
They’re hypocrites of the highest order.
Thanks for the lesson in history. I didn’t know that happened and it is so recent too.
Incidentally, I am for the the Sedition Act.
GENE
Malaysia is an envy of a lot of countries. Last Monday I had lunch with a project manager from India. He told me Malaysia has made a lot of progress compared to India even though they have gain their independence from British rule 10 years ahead of us. It would be a shame if this country is turned into tatters now after all the years of relatively peaceful and stable political climate.
Viva Palestin