Democratic Palestine : 19 (ص 34)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 19 (ص 34)
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foreigner, old or young, man or woman.
3. The forms were divided into three categories. Information
was present for the individual person, family and event.
4. In addition to the field research, which is the basis, lists of
victims and kidnapped were gathered by various groups. These
lists sometimes contained information about nationality, age
and occupation. These include lists from the Lebanese Civil
Defense, the International Red Cross, the Palestinian Red
Crescent Society, daily newspapers, committees of mothers of
the kidnapped, and the graveyard of the martyrs.
5. The results obtained in the field research cannot be con-
sidered final, but we do not expect that the results of any future
research will deviate very much percent-wise.
6. The primary importance of the research is its inclusion of
the correct names and numbers arrived at, the reliability of the
sources used; to emphasize this, lists of names were presented
at the end. Next to the name of each martyr and kidnapped is
recorded the source or sources from which the information was
acquired. This means that additions to the list of names would
be impossible without following this method.
THE VICTIMS
Kahan’s report revealed the number of victims to be 328,
based on Red Cross statistics. The report said their number did
not reach 1,000. The Israeli army estimated there were 7-800
victims; its report adopted this number because it was the
«closest to reality». We agree with Kahan that it is impossible
to give a «final, definite number,» but we disagree with his
estimated figure. The figure has to be much higher. The list of
names we have compiled amounts to a much higher figure than
his. The list of victims compiled from field research includes
430 victims, and the list from the different sources includes
439. The total is thus 869. The list of kidnapped, compiled
through field research, includes 393 names. The list of kid-
napped from different sources includes 100. The total of these
two is 493. The total of both victims and kidnapped is thus
1362.
The process of compiling this list was the most difficult of all
the stages of the research. I felt obliged to thank all those who
contributed their efforts to provide information and lists. |I
also feel obliged to thank my friends who were patient enough
to continue this long process with me. With regard to the esti-
mated figures, we should not be in arush. We should continue
to follow up the other lists, especially since experience has
proven that many names are repeated in many lists, while
many other names were not listed at all. Another reason we
think that the figures are much higher than estimated is that we
were told in many interviews about many whole families that
were killed. We were unable to get information about all of
them.
SEX OF THE VICTIMS
Kahan’s report mentioned that the vast majority of the vic-
tims were males, needless to discuss the reasons. The report
also mentions detailed figures: Only eight Lebanese females
and seven Palestinian females were killed! Faced with this
obvious falsification, we had either to completely ignore it or
else refute it, using all means possible. We determined to do the
latter.
It was easy to recognize female names on the different lists,
by referring to the first name. Among the 869 victims we have
listed, there are 187 female victims. We got our figure through
Our own search that was based on limited capacities. We
wonder how Kahan, and those who worked with him, dared to
distort the facts and history to the point of diminishing the
number from 187 to 15. Kahan had the capacity to find the
facts. Our percentage of female victims is 25%, whereas in
Kahan’s report, we are not sure if he means there were 15
females out of 328 victims, or out of his estimated 7-800 figure.
In the first case, the percentage of females would be 4%; in the
second case, only 2%. Kahan has gone too far with his lies.
32
CHILDREN
Kahan’s report said that only eight Palestinian children, and
12 Lebanese children were killed. Who could believe these
figures when the cameras showed piles of children’s bodies?
Among Palestinians, there were families that lost eight chil-
dren a piece. The Mohammed family is one example. Among
Lebanese, the Miqdad family lost twelve. Who could forget
them? In researching this topic, we only used the figures from
our field research, because the lists from different sources did
not always specify the age of the victims. There were 25 babies,
from a few months to one year; the bodies of some of them
were found near their mothers’ bodies, and the rest were scat-
tered. There were 14 children between the ages of one and
three. There were 56 between the ages of three to twelve. The
total number of children was 95. Their percentage out of 430 is
22.9%. Out of Kahan’s estimated figure, it is only 2.5%, and
out of the Red Cross figure, it is only 6.9%. It is not necessary
to explain the huge discrepancy between these figures, because
the Israelis deliberately falsified the number of children killed.
‘Israel’ knows very well what it means to kill children in the
eyes of international opinion, since it is very concerned with
maintaining a ‘civilized’ image.
OLD PEOPLE
Kahan’s report did not discuss the number of victims who
were elderly or handicapped. The figures we have here are
solely from field research. The number of victims, men and
women aged 50 to 60, is 30. The number of victims, aged 60 to
70, is 18. The number of victims older than 70 is 22. The total
of elderly is 70. The perecentage of elderly among the total
number of victims is 16.28%. Why did the Kahan report ignore
these people? Was killing elderly European Jews in Dachau
and Auschwitz the only sin? Was killing elderly civilians in
Sabra and Shatila a virtue?
NATIONALITIES
In Kahan’s report, there were 329 Palestinians and 109
Lebanese and other nationalities. Of course, for the Israelis, it
was necessary to focus on the number of Palestinians in order
to justify the whole operation.
What is the truth? There is no doubt that the Palestinian
refugees were targeted, but butchers don’t usually differentiate
between their victims in massacres. In Sabra and Shatila, they
certainly didn’t. The details of the field research, based on
information from survivors, eyewitnesses and civil defense
workers, told of a tragedy that words cannot describe. Such a
human tragedy does not permit any outbidding concerning the
nationality of the victims.
Sometimes, those we interviewed forgot the names of the
victims. One witness forgot the names of his foreign neighbors
who came from Bangladesh and rented a room in his home.
They died with their families. There were eight of these guests.
They had come looking for jobs. Six of them were killed toge-
ther in one room; the other two were killed another place in the
camp. In the nationalities list, there were fifteen unidentified
‘persons, the reason being that they were children, infants or
fetuses that no one could identify. Out of 25 infants, we only
had names for ten, which gives credibility to our witnesses’
speaking about the bodies of unidentified children.
The fact that the victims were of different nationalities
proves that there was a massacre. The high percentage of
Palestinians among the victims confirms that it was a mas-
sacre, and is only natural since the population concentration in
the area is of Palestinian refugees. If it wasn’t for that concen-
tration of Palestinian refugees, the massacre wouldn’t have
taken place in the first place.
According to the field study, there was the following distri-
bution of nationalities among 430 victims:
- 204 Palestinians
- 120 Lebanese
- 31 nationalities still under investigation
- 22 Syrians - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 19
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