Sabra & Shatila Massacre: The 40-Year-Old Bloodstain Israel Can't Wash Off


In this September 27, 1982, file photo, a Palestinian woman attending a Beirut memorial service holds the helmets worn by those who committed the Sabra and Shatila massacre.


September 1982: While the Israeli army surrounded Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, their allied Lebanese militias walked in and spent 43 hours butchering anywhere between 800-3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians—old men, pregnant women, kids hacked with axes. The killers? Right-wing Phalangists out for revenge after their leader’s assassination. The enablers? Israeli troops who lit flares so the slaughter could continue through the night.

Four decades later, no one’s been punished. An Israeli inquiry found Defense Minister Ariel Sharon "indirectly responsible" (he later became PM). The US called it "tragic" but kept sending Israel billions in aid. Meanwhile, survivors still have nightmares of stacked corpses in alleyways. This isn’t ancient history—it’s proof of how occupation breeds impunity, and why Palestinians still don’t trust the world to protect them.

(Source: Al Jazeera - Sabra and Shatila massacre 40 years on)

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