PETER GRAHAM,
MEMORIAL LIBRARY
The massacre of Palestinians at
Sabra and Chatila imperialism. Everyone knows that a massacre was possible, and tories of the West Bank and Gaza, and to the anti-war move-
The massacre of more than one thousand Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatila camps by the reactionary Lebanese militias between September 16 and 18, 1982, flows from the logic of the aggression unleashed three months ago by Israel against Lebanon.
Menachem Begin has obtained the withdrawal of the Palestinian fighters from Lebanon. But he cannot content himself with that. Every concentration of the Palestinian people represents a potential centre of resistance against the humiliations and crimes committed by the Zionist state.
Taking the assassination of Bashir Gemayel as a pretext, the Israeli government has trampled underfoot the agreement signed less than a month ago, and sent its troops to West Beirut. It has done this under the pretext of guaranteeing order and security. In reality the Zionist army opened the way to murder and the 'pogrom'.
According to one of its spokespersons the Israeli army went into West Beirut because it wanted 'to rid the town of all the troublemakers'. In other words, to disarm the progressive Lebanese forces, to hit at their militants and leaders. The Zionist troops did their dirty work, combing through the neighbourhoods, the houses and the refugee camps, with veritable lists of proscription prepared by the information services.
It is impossible to estimate exactly the number of people arrested and sent to unknown destinations. But this operation indicates already what sort of regime the Zionist state wants to see installed in Beirut.
The repression against the Lebanese progressives has however been relegated to second place by the massacre of the Palestinians perpetrated by the reactionary Lebanese militias, with the backing of the Israeli army, who gave them free access to the camps and knew their intentions perfectly well.
### ISRAEL AND IMPERIALISM
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MASSACRES OF THE PALESTINIANS
Today, tragically, the necessary role played by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in the self-defence of the refugee camps has been proved. Its withdrawal left tens of thousands of Palestinians at the mercy of their worst enemies.
The real content of the Habib plan and the real role of the Multinational Intervention Force have equally been proved. The departure of the fighting units of the PLO left the Israeli army occupying the field. From the moment that the Intervention Force turned its back Ariel Sharon took the first opportunity to push his military advantage.
It is not very important to know whether the authors of the carnage at Sabra and Chatila were the Phalangists of Bashir Gemayel or the mercenaries of Commandant Saad. Haddad. The killing logically flowed from the war of extermination waged by the Zionist state, which does not hesitate to use such monsters as instruments and allies. Nobody should be fooled: the blood of this massacre soils the hands of Begin, Sharon and their imperialist sponsors, in the first line of which is American even probable, and they knew the potential authors.
They did nothing to avoid it. On the contrary they facilitated the task of the assassins. After that the crocodile tears can always flow in Washington, Paris, Rome, Ryad, Damascus, and even Moscow whose silence and passivity largely contributed to the isolation of the Palestinians.
The crisis opened by the assassination of Bashir Gemayel and the massacre by the Palestinians showed however that the imperialists and the Zionists will have difficulty in perfecting the victories achieved against the PLO and the Lebanese National Movement. The stabilisation of a strong state in Lebanon, desired by the Israelis, and the neo-colonial solution of a Palestinian mini-state, wanted by some imperialists, are not for tomorrow. Many centrifugal forces are at work, which do not always accord with the needs and wishes of Israel or Washington. In addition there are disagreements between the proposals of Israel, the United States, and those put forward at Fez by the Arab states, in agreement with the PLO.
SOLIDARITY: FROM PROTEST TO MOBILISATION
The project of recomposition of the Lebanese state around the Gemayel family and the Phalange which it has formed can still be put into question, despite the election of Amin Gemayel to replace his dead brother as President of the Republic of Lebanon. It is true that the reactions to the assassination of Bashir Gemayel reveal the pressures towards national unity, beyond contradictory social interests. Almost all the Lebanese forces, including the Communist Party and the Lebanese Organisation for Communist Action, participated in the mourning after the assassination of Bashir Gemayel. From every political standpoint came praises for the dead murderer of Palestinians at Tell-el Zaatar, for the man who liquidated his rivals even within the Christian camp. The same revolting homage occurred at the international level. But it is still a long way from these reactions to the recomposition of a strong state apparatus in Lebanon.
For the workers and anti-imperialist movement throughout the world the horrified reaction to the massacres at Sabra and and Chatila must not be expressed only through mute and resigned indignation, but by a relaunch of activity and solidarity. Political parties, trade unions, and mass organisations must act urgently to oppose the Zionist operation and prevent new massacres. - Zionist army out of Lebanon! - Total support to the Palestinian refugees and the Lebanese progressives: they must be assured of the means of self-defence against the Zionist troops, Phalangist militias, and mercenaries of the butcher Haddad! - Immediate freedom for the Palestinian and Lebanese
Prisoners! - No to the denial of democratic rights in Lebanon: the right to information, organisation, meetings ...! - Support to the resistance movements in the occupied terriment in Israel!
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