Remembering Sabra and Shatila as Palestinians struggle against settler violence at Al Aqsa

(WASHINGTON DC 09/15/2015) – As Palestinians have endured settler violence for three days at Al Aqsa sanctuary, we also remember the thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps who were wiped out in a brutal raid on Sept. 16-18, 1982.

On that date, Lebanese Christian Phalangists, under the approving eye of then-Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, launched a three-day assault on PalestinianS in Sabra and Shatila. The Palestinians were made refugees in 1948 and 1967 and were forced to remain refugees because Israeli policies prohibit their return home, in contravention of international law.

Officially, no one has ever been able to arrive at an exact number of dead, though figures range from the 1,000 corpses buried in a mass grave by the International Committee of the Red Cross to at least 3,500. Many people were buried beneath of the rubble of demolished homes and buildings and hundreds were rounded up and carried away on trucks, never to return, according to Dr. Laurie King-Irani, who has conducted research into this massacre.

Sadly, Sabra and Shatila is just one milestone on a roadmap that has paved the way for the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since before 1948. Zionism, a racist political ideology that calls for the removal of Palestine’s indigenous population to make room for Israel, is at the heart of Palestinian suffering. Since then, Israel has engaged in an imperialist, settler colonial strategies aimed at removing Palestinians from Palestine. From rampant settlement construction throughout the West Bank, to the apartheid wall, water confiscation, random arrests and detentions, home demolitions, the siege and subsequent military assaults on Gaza, Israeli policies have contravened international and American laws with impunity for decades.

Enough is enough. It is time for the international community to find the political will to hold Israel accountable and to ends its occupation of Palestinian lands. AMP also calls upon the White House and State Department to ensure Israel complies with international law and ends the occupation, lifts the siege and allows refugees the right to return home. Nothing less will do justice the memories of those who perished in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.