Democratic Palestine : 19 (ص 16)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 19 (ص 16)
- المحتوى
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Amal Harasses
Palestinians in
Tvre Camps
Amal tanks that shelled Rashidiya on Oct. 2nd
Aggression against the Palestinian
camps and people in Lebanon has not
stopped. All indications point to the
probability that the episodes of aggres-
sion will continue and spread. The
camp wars in Beirut, the attempts to
ignite the situation in Sidon through
kidnappings and killings, and conti-
nued provocations against the Palesti-
nian camps in the Tyre area, are all
indicators of this.
The agreement which halted the camp
wars has not prevented elements in the
Amal movement from apprehending or
kidnapping Palestinians who pass
through their checkpoints on the sou-
thern and southeastern outskirts of
Sidon. This aims at destroying the
Lebanese-Palestinian alliance in the
area. These elements from Amal were
unable to ignite a war in the camps near
Sidon, due to the awareness of the
Palestinian and Lebanese masses and
nationalist leadership there of the dan-
gers of such a war. Unable to ignite the
strife they desired, these elements
attempt to employ their tactics else-
where. This explains the increase of
incidents aimed at terrorizing Palesti-
nian citizens in the camps near Tyre.
Since the Israeli withdrawal from
Tyre, hundreds of Palestinians have
been thrown into Amal’s prisons in
Ma’raka, Zifta and other villages. The
Palestinian camps have been stormed
tens of times. The common excuse for
these continued waves of intimidation
against civilians is searching for hidden
arms, to prevent the situation from
returning to the way it was before 1982.
In June this year, bulldozers driven
by Amal elements, including some of
their leaders in Tyre, demolished more
than half of Jal Al Bahr camp. The fact
that this camp is built on land of a
wealthy landowner, called Mohammed
Samhat, was considered ample justifi-
cation for ousting whole families and
rendering them homeless. Formerly,
during the Israeli occupation, attempts
were made to wipe out this camp, but
this was stopped through the efforts of
Mohammed Sa’ad, a leader of Amal
and the Lebanese National Resistance,
who has since been martyred.
Amal has again taken to intimidating
the masses. On September 3rd, Amal
stormed Burj Al Shamali camp and
paraded in the main roads, arresting
four civilians. On the same day, Rash-
idiya camp was subject to sporadic
bursts of machine-gun fire and mortar
Shelling.
On September 6th, Amal tried to stop
bulldozers and trucks loaded with
materials for a hospital that is being
built in Rashidiya. The truck drivers
were called in for interrogation and
accused of carrying supplies to build
shelters. When the drivers refused to
answer the summons, Amal prevented
all cars from entering and leaving the
camps, and detained all trucks carrying
building materials. Another truck
carrying medicines was stopped, and
released only after negotiations bet-
ween Amal’s Tyre leadership and Ras-
hidiya’s popular committees. These
incidents indicate that to Amal, the
work to serve and protect the Palesti-
nian masses, as by building shelters, is
considered a crime.
On the same day, the people were
outraged when Amal elements brought
Palestinians and Lebanese nationalists,
whom they are holding prisoner, to
donate blood to an Amal member who
was suffering from a stomach ulcer.
The doctors, however, refused to take
blood from these prisoners.
As of September 8th, tension was still
rising. Amal had Rashidiya under siege
and prohibited entry or exit. A preg-
nant woman, in critical condition, was
forbidden to leave the camp to obtain
medical treatment.
Outside the camps, Palestinians were
forbidden to cross Amal’s checkpoints,
risking arrest and humiliation. The
number of forces surrounding the
camps increased, as did the piling of
sandbag barriers. All roads, even minor
routes, leading to the camp were closed.
All this portends the eruption of new
episodes of camp wars, this time in
Tyre. Amal’s continued policy of inti-
midation and terror will probably
spread to engulf all of the South and all
areas of Lebanon where there are
Palestinian camps. r )
The Lebanese Kaleidoscope
All through August and September, various hot spots in Lebanon have
emerged as headline grabbers. Events oscillated between the battles of
East Beirut in mid-August (which resurfaced towards the end of Sep-
tember), the convening of the committee for dialogue and the turmoil
of the Hezballah-Amal-UNIFIL conflict.
The inter-Lebanese Forces battles
which took precedence towards the
14
middle of August were between two
trends. The first is represented by Samir
Geagea whose Zionist-backed ultra-
fascism rejects all tendencies towards a - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 19
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