Until Return - Issue 1

September 13, 2007

The Sabra and Shatila Massacre

The Sabra and Shatila Refugee Camp Massacre took place between 15 to 18 September 1982. This massacre is considered the bloodiest single atrocity committed against the Palestinian people in living history. Similar in magnitude to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, which left close to 3000 innocent people dead, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, more than 2,750 Palestinian men, women and children were massacred in the Sabra and Shatila camps in Beirut while the city was occupied by the Israeli army.

The principal war criminal bearing legal responsibility for this massacre is then Israeli Minister of Defense, General Ariel Sharon - the perpetrator of the Kibya Massacre nearly thirty years before. Even Israel's Kahan Commission could not hide the fact that Ariel Sharon was "personally responsible" for the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Until recently, Ariel Sharon was Israel's elected prime minister.