September 16, 2024
42nd commemoration of Sabra and Shatila massacre
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
September 16, 2024 marks the 42nd anniversary of one of the most brutal and least remembered acts of violence in modern history: the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon.
Tellingly, on the night of 14/15 September 1982 the Israeli chief of staff Raphael Eitan flew to Beirut where he went straight to the Phalangists' headquarters to coordinate the September 16, 17 massacre.
Beginning on September 16, 1982, Lebanese Phalangists'militia, operating under the direction of Israeli forces, massacred, wounded, and left homeless thousands of defenseless men, women, and children in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps.
The indiscriminate killing was carried out methodically over the course of two days until the morning of September 18. By the end of this campaign of violence and terror, between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians—mostly Palestinians and Lebanese.
On the 42nd anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the Hamas Movement in Lebanon said that the Palestinian people would continue to stand firm against the Israeli occupation and resist it until its removal from their land.
“The Sabra and Shatila massacre, which was committed by the Israeli occupation and its allied militias on September 16, 1982, will remain firmly rooted in the conscience of the Palestinian people and the world, as a painful and brutal massacre that reflected the Israeli occupation’s terrorism and barbarism,” Hamas said in a statement on Monday.
“This massacre will remain immortal in our national history because it has showed our people’s determination to stand in the face of injustice and terrorism until the day of liberation and return. It will remain a stain on the record of humanity, which has not taken any step to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of this carnage,” Hamas added.
“The anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre comes this year as the Israeli occupation is waging a brutal attack on our people in the Gaza Strip … killing people and destroying infrastructure and all aspects of life,” Hamas said.
“The real response to the Sabra and Shatila massacre and the Israeli occupation’s daily massacres is through the resistance project and the building of a genuine national unity supporting this project,” the Movement underscored.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), in a statement said the ongoing genocide in Gaza today, with relentless bombardments, blockade, and mass civilian casualties, echoes the horrific violence witnessed at Sabra and Shatila. Over the decades, the pattern of targeted massacres, displacement, and dehumanization of the Palestinian people has continued, rooted in the same colonialist ambitions that have driven Israel’s policies since its founding. The Gaza Strip, like the refugee camps of Lebanon, is a testament to the catastrophic consequences of dispossession and the ongoing efforts to eradicate Palestinian existence.
The international community has long failed to deliver justice for the victims of Sabra and Shatila, and that failure persists today as Palestinians in Gaza face yet another chapter of genocidal violence. The families of those massacred, both then and now, demand not only remembrance but urgent action. Ending Israel’s occupation, holding its leaders accountable for their crimes, and restoring the rights and dignity of the Palestinian people are essential steps toward justice and peace, the ADC statement concluded.
The Sabra and Shatila massacre reminded the July 1995 genocide of Muslims in Srebrenica. More than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica were massacred during the Bosnian War. It was mainly perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army.The massacre was the first legally recognized genocide in Europe since the end of World War II.
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
