Democratic Palestine : 6 (ص 5)
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- Democratic Palestine : 6 (ص 5)
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Palestinians in Beirut Today
Almost two years after the departure of the PLO’s forces, a comrade of the staff of «Al-Hadaf», the
PFLP’s Arabic weekly, took the opportunity to visit Beirut. A main focus of his reporting was the situation
in the Palestinian refugee camps. He interviewed a variety of people in Sabra and Shatila. He also spoke
with members of popular committees, the bodies that administered the camps when the PLO was still
present, and which are now being reestablished under new, more complicated conditions. In addition
he interviewed some Lebanese national leaders who addressed the question of the future of the Pales-
tinian-Lebanese relations.
It is now two years since the Sabra-Shatila massacre, the
crime that unequivocally proved the genocidal aims of the
entire 1982 Zionist invasion of Lebanon. Interviewed in Radio
Israel. an IDF major has said of the war: «We were not con-
cerned with capturing Palestinians as much as we were with
eliminating and destroying them. There were frank orders for
this. or why else all the destruction in the cities, villages and
camps where the Palestinians reside?» This genocidal think-
ing dictated the partial destruction of three Lebanese cities:
Sour, Saida and Beirut. It meant destruction of 35% of the
dwellings in Burj a! Shemali, 50% in Al Bas and 70% in
Rashadiya, all camps near Sour in South Lebanon. Ain al Hil-
weh camp near Saida was totally destroyed while the camps in
the Beirut area were rendered uninhabitable by bombing. Over
100.000 Palestinians were uprooted.
The Zionists genocidal aims also meant that clear orders
were given to the fascist militias to enter Sabra and Shatila
after the fighters had left. and «mop up the terrorists». The
Israelis’ claim of «2000 remaining terrorists», which was
echoed by Reagan and his associates, was exposed not only
by all information and logic but by the martyrs found in Sabra
and Shatila on September 18, 1982: old men. women clutching
their children, babies...
The people of Sabra and Shatila were just as «terrorist»
as the Salvadorean trade union activists murdered by death
squads, or the Guatemalan peasants massacred by the dic-
tator's army. Tothe Zionists, as to Reagan's America, the Latin
American dictatorships or the South African racists, «ter-
rorists» are those who seek to recover their human and
national rights. US imperialism’s responsibility for the Sabra-
Shatila massacre lies not merely in the early withdrawal of its
multinational forces contingent, leaving the way clear for the
Israeli invasion of West Beirut. More basically, it lies in the
ultramilitaristic climate and strategy launched by the Reagan
Administration on a global scale. It is this which unites and
encourages fascist tendencies and state terrorism against the
people of the three continents.
Two years after the Sabra-Shatila massacre, we find that
the most meaningful tribute we can pay to the martyrs is to
Open our pages to the voices of those remaining in these heroic
camps. The following interviews give a sampling of the prob-
lems faced by the camp population. Though the nationalist vic-
tory in West Beirut this past winter greatly improved the se-
curity situation of Palestinians,serious social problems remain.
The interviews below define a very clear task for the PLO which
must be taken especially seriously by the revolutionary demo-
cratic forces. The right-wing leadership of the PLO has not
given serious consideration to the problems of the Palestinians
remaining in Beirut, and the intercine fighting of the last year
has only served to further distract the revolution from its obliga-
tions to the masses. Thus, as efforts to reunite the PLO on a
nationalist basis advance, this must-lead to serious attention
being devoted to this matter.
People of Sabra and Shatila Speak Out
«The Palestinian has lost everything».
Khalil Atiyah is 19 years old; he is a construction worker
and lives in Sabra refugee camp. He commented: « The social
conditions in the camps are very bad, and this has affected the
way of thinking and social ties even within each family». Con-
cerning the state of education in the camps, Khalil said, «It has
been set back ten years. Schools are scarce and one usually
has to pay for his education. This is in addition to helping his
family, since most students are sons of martyrs and have fam-
ily obligations.» As for his work, Khalil noted that its continuing
depended on the security situation in the camps.At any rate,
jobs are scarce and not dependable. He added that after the
departure of the Palestinian resistance from Beirut, the
Lebanese authorities ordered the army to impose a tight encir-
clement of camps. This restricted the movement of Palesti-
nians; if anyone moved from one place to another, he was sub-
jected to all types of insults and humiliation, such as being
asked: «What are you doing in this country?» The Palestinian
felt that he had lost everything. There were restrictions on his
movement, work, freedom, even his life, until the February
uprising (which freed West Beirut of the reactionary army's
control). The uprising ended many of the problems in the
camps related to employment and education. Khalil also
pointed out the importance of granting the Palestinians com- >
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