Democratic Palestine : 4 (ص 21)
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- Democratic Palestine : 4 (ص 21)
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The resurgence of a tormented
camp
The Zionists have their own special
grudge against Ain al Hilweh. In June
1982, its defenders held out for two
weeks against the vicious Zionist
onslaught. Prior to the battle of Beirut,
Ain al Hilweh provided the foremost
example of the human steadfastness
that turned the Zionists’ hightech inva-
sion into a nightmare for the invaders.
The camp was almost totally destroyed
in the war itself and then subjected to a
harsh pacification program whose
methods ranged from bulldozing the
remaining houses, and deprivation of
daily needs, to letting loose fascist death
squads to harass and murder Palesti-
nians in the whole Saida area. The
backbone of the Zionists’ policy was
depriving the camp of its leadership and
breadwinners, first through the carnage
of the war and then by massive deten-
tions. In this vacuum, the Zionists estab-
lished the so-called National Guard,
arming agroup of collaborators to spy on
and control the camp pcpulation. Thus,
the Zionists had hoped to avoid daily
confrontation with the people.
This spring the failure of the pacifi-
cation program was brought home to the
occupiers. The return of 1,400
detainees, bringing with them the strug-
gle experience of Ansar, raised the
morale and strengthened the social
structure in the camp. In the overall
atmosphere of the nationalist victories
and Lebanese National Resistance
Front’s escalating operations, people
began to challenge the collaborators of
the National Guard; anti-occupation
demonstrations became more militant.
What caused the Israelis to storm Ain al
Hilweh at this particular time was most
likely the mass demonstration against
the creation of the Zionist state, which
was held on May 14th, and the concur-
rent attack on a National Guard post.
Dynamited houses in Ain al Hilweh
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The masses fight back
The people of Ain al Hilweh
responded militantly to the raid. When
the Israelis withdrew around dawn,
camp residents poured into the streets
protesting this atrocity and boldly declar-
ing their support to the PLO. Barriers
were built at the entrances to the camp,
and the residents declared a three day
general strike; schools and shops
closed down.
This popular protest continued the
next day, and the Israelis again stormed
the camp, accompanied by their stooges
of the South Lebanon Army. The invad-
ers fired indiscriminately, injuring two
camp residents and killing a third, a
woman who, with two sons in Ansar, had
gone out to see where her younger sons
were. More people converged in the
streets, forming a procession carrying
her body to Saida for burial. At the en-
trance of the camp, National Guard
thugs opened fire, injuring three persons
and forcing the procession back into the
camp.
At the same time, the Israeli troops
reinforced their patrols in the whole area
and stopped traffic, as Saida and nearby
villages went on solidarity strikes. In
Baddawi camp in the north of Lebanon,
1500 women began a sit-in protest, as
did Palestinian women in Damascus,
Syria.
Tension continued in Ain al Hilweh
for two more days with the Israelis inter-
mittently sniping at residents. Yet on
May 19th, patriots daringly shot and
wounded a National Guard traitor. The
National Guard went amok, shooting in
all directions. No casualties were
reported however. The next day, relative
calm was restored for the first time since
the initial raid, and one could observe a
small victory won by the people’s
defiance: The National Guard was no
longer manning checkpoints at the camp
entrances. Nor were Israeli patrols in
sight. At the very least, the Israelis must
now rethink their tactics for silencing the
people of Ain al Hilweh. So far, neither
collaborators nor outright brutality has
succeeded. @
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