Democratic Palestine : 24 (ص 30)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 24 (ص 30)
- المحتوى
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Lebanon
An End to the Camp War?
Throughout the last weeks of March and the beginning of April, the
aggression of Amal and its supporters rose to brutal, new heights.
Meanwhile, the people in the besieged camps of Beirut, joined by
other Palestinians, and national and democratic organizations, stag-
ed an effective protest campaign. Not only were they laying their lives
on the line to secure the basic needs for survival, Palestinians were
also raising their voices high in protest of the inhuman situation.
In the first week of April, Syrian
troops were deployed in the camps of
Burj Al Barajneh and Shatila, six weeks
after their entry into West Beirut. The
horrendous siege came to an end.
Although Amal initially violated the
ceasefire it had agreed upon, sufficient
quantities of food and medical supplies
entered the camps to _ relieve the
thousands of war-weary Palestinians
after their heroic steadfastness.
Hopefully this marks the prelude to
resolving the issue of the Palestinians’
rights to self-defense and armed strug-.
gle against Zionist aggression from
Lebanese soil. However, keeping in
mind Amal’s numerous violations of
previous agreements, one reserves the
right to be skeptical, no matter how
much optimism the present events may
inspire. There are a number of indica-
tions that a comprehensive solution has
yet to be achieved, such as the recent
outbursts of firing in the area of Kafr
Fallous and Maghdousheh, and Amal’s
continued insistence on Palestinian
withdrawal from three villages east of
Sidon.
The Palestinians have shown their
seriousness about reaching a stable
solution that would relieve the camp
population of future threats. This was
seen in Palestinian withdrawal from
Maghdousheh and the nearby village,
Zaghadraya, and in the intense efforts
in Sidon among Palestinian organiza-
tions and the Popular Nasserite
Organization, to resolve the question of
the three villages - Janasnaya, Ain Al
Dulub and A] Quraya. In contrast,
Amal has shown inflexibility and con-
tinued to fabricate new conditions, ex-
posing its intention to continue the
campaign against Palestinians, despite
30
the present lull in the fighting. Despite
Amal’s efforts to appear more flexible,
events in the last days of March and the
beginning of April, up to the first hours
of the Syrian deployment, further ex-
posed Amal’s true intentions.
PROTESTING THE
PASSAGE OF DEATH
The end of March and beginning of
April witnessed unprecedented military
attacks on Burj Al Barajneh, especially
at the Jalbout entrance which became
widely known as the ‘Passage of
Death’. Amal snipers continued to use
men, women, children and the elderly
as targets in their grotesque game of
death. In March, this passage was
opened more than fifteen times. Each
and every time, Palestinian women who
dared to venture through it were mar-
tyred or wounded. A Palestine National
Salvation Front (PNSF) communique
stated that more than 35 had been
martyred and seventy wounded at this
point. On March 28th, Amal militiamen
tried to infiltrate into Burj Al Barajneh
through this entry, but were repulsed by
Palestinian revolutionaries. In the two
weeks before the Syrian entry into the
camps, four more Palestinians were
killed and eighteen wounded at this ill-
fated path. On April Sth, one day
before the Syrian deployment and the
day when Amal had agreed to uphold
the ceasefire, three Palestinians were
wounded by sniper bullets in the
‘Passage of Death’. Moreover, Amal
gangsters confiscated food supplies and
thousands of Lebanese pounds which
were supposed to be distributed to
families of martyrs. There were
numerous incidents where Palestinian
women were beaten up.
Palestinians outside the camps were
also subject to Amal’s tyranny. Many
were kidnapped, only to be found
murdered in some side street or alley. In
March, one Palestinian was found out-
side the vicinity of Shatila with fourteen
wounds from a machine gun shot at
close range. Another Palestinian who
lived outside Burj Al Barajneh was
kidnapped by Amal. His home was
stormed and his belongings stolen in
front of the family; he was later found
dead in a side street.
In protest of Amal’s atrocities, 150
women marched out of Burj Al Bara-
jneh on March 25th, to join 3,000 who
had gathered at the airport road.
Amal’s response was a barrage of fire
which left six martyrs and_ seven
wounded in its trail. On March 29th,
Palestinian women gathered in front of
the mosque in Shatila, to march in pro-
test of the siege. Amal enacted another
massacre. When the women got within
range, a barrage of machine gun fire
was let loose; five women were mar-
tyred and many others wounded. Those
whom the bullets luckily missed were
scattered into the alleyways, unable to
find secure shelter or to drag the dead
and wounded away from Amal’s deadly
shooting range.
On April 3rd, after much negotiation
and two days before the Syrians
deployed in Shatila, Amal conceded to
allow one of two supply trucks into
Shatila. (The other one Amal con-
fiscated for its own use.) After the
truck entered and people had gathered
to get their share, Amal and the
Lebanese Army’s 6th Brigade attacked
with rockets, setting the truck ablaze.
Three Palestinians were killed on the
spot - two of them children, one and a
half, and three years old. Twenty others
were wounded, in addition to the many
who suffered serious burns as they tried
to salvage bags of rice and flour.
DESPERATE CONDITIONS
The desperation that led people to
risk their lives for some bags of rice and
flour can be understood on_ the
background of Shatila’s critical situa-
tion. Five days before, five of the - هو جزء من
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