Democratic Palestine : 26 (ص 24)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 26 (ص 24)
- المحتوى
-
Lebanon
Palestinians Expelled from
South Lebanon
The war on the Palestinian camps in Lebanon took a dangerous new
turn in July when the Amal movement embarked on an extensive
campaign of expelling Palestinian families from South Lebanon.
In early July, the Amal gangs began a
new series of expulsions, arrests, ab-
ductions and assassinations, aimed
against Palestinians living in the camps
around Tyre in particular. As a pretext,
Amal raised the slogan of stopping
«conspiratorial plans to substitute
South Lebanon for Palestine» - falsely
insinuating that the Palestinians want
to resettle permanently in the South.
The reality is Amal’s attempt to ter-
rorize the Palestinian masses into leav-
ing their camps in the Tyre area
forever. This is part of Amal’s cam-
paign to empty the South of Palesti-
nians and Lebanese nationalists, in
order to establish a sectarian canton
under its own control. This would be a
step towards providing security ar-
rangements for the Zionist state. It
would mean an expansion of the
‘security zone’ in South Lebanon, to
protect the Israeli occupiers and Lahd’s
South Lebanon Army from the
escalating Palestinian and Lebanese
nationalist resistance. To further its
goals, Amal is using methods reminis-
cent of the Zionist colonizers and
Lebanese fascist forces.
TERRORIZING THE CAMPS
Amal has continued its old practices
of restricting movement to and from
the camps, searching residents at
roadblocks and confiscating food and
fuel provisions. In addition, Amal
humiliates and tortures Palestinians at
these roadblocks in the process of
checking their ID’s. All this aims to
strangle the life in the camps and push
people to leave. Since these old methods
didn’t prove to be effective, Amal
started new, more savage practices,
targetting the smaller Palestinian
camps in the Tyre area: Burj Al
Shamali, Al Bus, Shabriha, Jul Al
Bahar, Qasmiyyeh and Abu Al Aswad,
which was burned by Amal earlier this
year. (Rashidiyeh, housing about
10,000 Palestinians, is the largest camp
in the Tyre area).
24
On July 4th, for the third consecutive
day, Amal stormed Burj Al Shamali,
entering all the houses, plundering
valuables, damaging property and
spoiling foodstuffs, especially flour
supplies for breadmaking. The camp
residents were forced to load barrels of
drinking water - the whole camp’s
supply - on trucks brought in especially
for this purpose. Before the Amal
gangs left the camp, they arrested
scores of young men and boys. In con-
trast to the usual practice, that day
Amal removed its roadblocks from
around the camp to facilitate the people
leaving.
Two days later, the same Amal group
once more stormed the camp, repeating
the same process and arresting more
Palestinian men. This time they used
loudspeakers to warn the Palestinian
residents to evacuate the camp im-
mediately. A few hundred Palestinians
packed and left for Sidon.
On Saturday night, July 19th, a large
group of Amal fighters entered the
camp masked and carrying knives in
addition to their usual weapons. They
tried to imitate the speech of the
Israelis. They stabbed people at ran-
dom. Many Palestinians were injured
and at least one man was martyred. The
Amal group burned houses and at-
tempted to rape some women after
making all the camp residents come out
of their houses in their nightware.
Before leaving, they warned the
residents to evacuate before Tuesday.
This created an atmosphere of hysteria;
some packed their things and gathered
in the camp square, ready to leave. Of
those who left for Sidon, many were
stopped at Amal’s roadblocks. The
men were arrested and the others were
forced to turn back.
Amal also warned about a hundred
families, who live along the road bet-
ween Rashidiyeh and Al Bus camp, to
evacuate the area within 24 hours or
risk being killed. An Amal commander
ordered these people to give him a list
of all the residents of the area, in-
cluding those who were temporarily
away, and to tell Amal if any of them
returned.
Using the same methods, Amal ex-
pelled forty Palestinian families from
Mahallat Ras Al Ein, near Rashidiyeh,
and one hundred families from the Jul
Al Bahar industrial area. On July 19th,
Amal was able to force 25 Palestinian
families to leave their houses in the in-
dustrial area near Jabal Aamel. These
families loaded their furniture on
trucks, but were stopped at the
Qasmiyyeh roadblock and forced to
turn back, after being beaten and
humiliated. When they returned home,
Amal men stormed their homes again
and threatened their lives if they didn’t
leave immediately.
At dawn on July 17th, Amal stormed
Al Qasmiyyeh, burning houses and ar-
resting many young men. The women
of the camp threw stones at the Amal
men, forcing them to withdraw, but not
before they had shot several people. On
the same day, both Al Bus and Jul Al
Bahar were stormed once again by fifty
Amal men who opened fire on the camp
Palestinian family expelled from the Tyre area arrives in Sidon. - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 26
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