Democratic Palestine : 24 (ص 32)
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- Democratic Palestine : 24 (ص 32)
- المحتوى
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Nabih Berri and demanding Syrian
deployment.
The residents of Mar Elias camp in
Beirut were very active especially the
women. Three women’s demonstra-
tions were organized and hundreds of
women participated. The submitted
petitions to Syrian responsibles in
Beirut, to the ICRC and religious per-
sonalities to intervene to stop the siege.
All the suffering did not keep the
youth of Burj Al Barajneh from com-
memorating national occasions. The
Democratic Palestinian Youth
Organization in the besieged camp held
an art exhibition to commemorate
Land Day, calling it the «Exhibition for
the Defense of Camps Under Siege.»
Ironically, Amal’s response to the
avalanche of activities condemning it
was that the Palestinians were «exag-
gerating and overreacting to divert at-
tention from Palestinian-Israeli con-
tacts»!
WARY OPTIMISM
On April Sth an agreement was
reached as a result of intensive meetings
between the PNSF and Amal, under
Syrian auspices, giving hope that the
nightmare of the besieged camps in
Beirut would be put to an end. The
agreement stipulated:(1) a comprehen-
sive ceasefire starting April 6th; (2) lif-
ting the blockade on supplies, allowing
supply trucks entry, and allowing
women to leave and reenter the camp
freely, starting April 6th; (3) designa-
tion of the points of deployment for
Syrian troops; and (4) evacuation of the
wounded, starting April 7th.
This agreement was implemented
despite incidents of Amal violating the
ceasefire. In Burj Al Barajneh, three
Palestinians were wounded, while in
Shatila one was martyred and another
four wounded. Both incidents occurred
on April 6th. In Shatila, supplies could
not be completely unloaded because of
the intensity of the shooting. At the
meeting of all representatives on April
6th, indignation was voiced at Amal’s
violations. After unanimous condem-
nation of Amal, the meeting turned to
discuss the details of evacuating the
wounded and the Syrian deployment.
With the actual deployment of Syrian
troops in Shatila and Burj Al Barajneh
on April 7th, calm prevailed. Roads
were cleared in preparation for
evacuating the wounded, and food and
medical supplies were unloaded without
incident; 25 wounded were evacuated
from Shatila and 47 from Burj.
The black clouds of siege are slowly
lifting, and Palestinians are picking up
the pieces of their disrupted lives once
again. However, their children will
forever bear the scars of the daily hor-
rors of death and war. The optimism
generated by the new agreement to lift
the siege is not based on illusions that
Amal has reconsidered its original in-
tent to eliminate Palestinian armed
presence in Lebanon. The lifting of the
siege is rather understood as a tem-
porary retreat brought about by
Palestinian struggle and steadfastness,
and the pressure applied by the broad
solidarity campaign with the besieged
camps, condemning Amal on _ the
political and humanitarian levels. That
Palestinian optimism is accompanied
by wariness is quite justified consider-
ing Amal’s violation of past
agreements, its initial violation of this
latest ceasefire and the numerous veiled
threats of Amal officials.
For genuine optimism to prevail, a
number of measures must be taken.
First and foremost, Syria must oblige
Amal to lift the military siege of the
Beirut camps. Moreover, there must be
guarantees that Amal and its supporters
will retreat from the area of the camps,
and be permanently prevented from
new attempts to carry out their original
plans. Only then can one say that the
stated purpose of the Syrian troops’
entry into West Beirut has been fulfill-
ed. This would be the prerequisite for
working towards the implementation of
the 1985 Damascus agreement with
regard to the Palestinian camps,
regulating relations between the
Palestinian and Lebanese nationalist
forces on a sound basis, to guarantee
the rebuilding of the Palestinian-
Lebanese-Syrian national alliance. The
new agreement must be dealt with on a
comprehensive basis, avoiding repeti-
tion of tragedy in the future, while en-
suring Palestinian rights to self-defense
and anti-Zionist struggle in Lebanon.
If not, the latest agreement cannot in-
spire optimism at all. - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 24
- تاريخ
- مايو ١٩٨٧
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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