Amal's war on the Palestinians
Over the night of May 19-20, violent clashes broke out Palestinian camps be disarmed. It put the responsibility between members of the Lebanese Shiite movement, for the clashes on Yasar Arafat. This accusation was
Amal and the Palestinians in the Sabra refugee camp in denounced as a false pretext by the anti-Arafat the southern part of Beirut. They subsequently devel- Palestinian left, which has been allied with Syria. It is oped into a full-scale battle for control of the camp. On left that led the resistance in the following day, Amal launched a general oftensive camps. It categorically rejects the demand for disarming.
against the three camps on the outskirts of Beirut -
Sabra, Shatila, and Bourj el-Brajneh. The fighting raged two weeks, causing heavy casualties, in Front - which includes the Progressive Socialist Party of Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Communist Party, the this Palestinian
The Lebanese
Democratic
Progressive for nearly cluding amongs civilians. More than 400 people were
Social Nationalist Party, and the pro-Syrian Ba'ath reported killed and 1,000 wounded.
Party - played the role of mediator.
The Amal militia, joined by the Sixth Brigade (made fundamentalists, both Shiite (the Hezbollahis, etc.) and up of Shiites) of the so-called Lebanese legal army, ran up against fierce resistance from the Palestinians, in
Sunni (the Islamic Unity which every tendency participated. While calling for an northern Lebanon), deplored the fratricidal fighting, supported taking the same tack as the Iranian regime. Libya fighting, the end to the
Syrian regime particular the demand that the resolutely supported the Palestinians against Amal.
Amal's demands, in traditional Shiite chiefs — who were the which is the main Shite region
Salah JABER
Once again the events in Lebanon have prejudices and disoriented the world press which went off on the wildest flights of conjecture in an attempt to interpret the meaning of the fighting and the reasons for the attitudes of the various contending forces.
It has to be acknowledged that it is in fact difficult to follow the strands of the Lebanese tangle. Besides the complexity of the situation in Lebanon itself, which is the result of the multipliof interests and forces involved, false allegations and disinformation are in Middle Eastern
Therefore, in looking at events in the
Middle East, more region of the world, it is necessary beware of oversimplified schemas, which can be the source of great confusion.
To make it easier to understand the battle of the camps and the stakes involved, I will deal separately with the main parties to the fighting.
launched by Amal surprised those who see this organization as a pro-Khomeini or anti-Zionist one. In they were misled by the defeating the Phalangists and forcing the withdrawal of the Israeli army.
In commenting on the debacle of
Gemayel government
February 1984, I defined the Shiite
"Amal, or the current as
'Movement of the Outcast, of which
Amal is the military wing, was formed in the 1970s. Its clear objective was to organize the poor Shiite masses under a bourgeois leadership that, unlike the
Lebanese Feudalism - was capable of using populist demogogy.
Amal operation was against the Lebanese CP, whose spectacular growth in 1968-72 on the recruitment mainly among Shites. From 1975 to 1982, Amal did not fight a single battle against the camp of the Phalangists and its allies. Instead, it built itself through battles against the Lebanese CP and the Palestinian organizations on the basis of antiCommunist and anti-foreign propaganda mirroring that of the Phalange ...
"Today, Berri [the leader of Amal] is not showing any sign of radicalism' beyond his opposition to Gemayel in person, whom he blames for the recent events [attempts by the Christian forces to trample on the Shite interests. At the same time, he is showing a very great concern to keep things from going too bourgeois state. He has insisted that the militarized police and the ordinary
For even Lebanese army troops under the command of Muslim officers, take charge of restoring bourgeois order in West Beirut." (1)
This description remains entirely valid. The growing involvement of Amal in the occupation in southern Lebanon since 1984 has changed nothing of the reactionary nature of this movement's objectives. Its plan is to rebuild a strong Lebanese bourgeois state in which the Shite bourgeoisie, militia Amal is, will be represented in ponderance of the Shiites in Lebanon.
Amal was dragged into anti-Israeli struggle in southern Lebanon,
Movement in Tripoli in. Amal's principal base. If it had not joined in, it would have been outflanked by the Communists, the initiators armed resistance, and by the current. In participating in Amal in no way went bounds of its It simply involved itself in united-front activity to liberate southern Lebanon from Israeli occupawith the Israelis withdrawing, reactionary project came to the fore Morabitoun, the Nasserite Sunnis in Beirut who are linked to Libya and avowed opponents of Arafat, despite the disinformation campaign portraying agents of Arafat. Moreover, the liberated areas of southern Lebanon, the Shite militia has established
"the force of order" and other organizations to maintain their own armed forces.
This was the offensive against the rearmed Palestinian camps in southern Beirut, which was aimed at disarming them them to submit to the Lebanese army. That has also been the main demand of the Phalangist militias for 15 years. In fact, it was in the name of this demand the Christian militias launched the Lebanese civil war in 1975.
At the same time, Amal was fulfilling its part of its implicit bargain Israel. It was showing the Zionist state that the latter could withdraw its troops 1. See 'A grave setback for world imperialism," in International Viewpoint, No 47. 27, 1984, p. 7.
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LEBANON
International Viewpoint 17 June 1985 without having anything to fear, since charge of
Amal would take assuring the security of its northern frontier.
The Damascus regime today has many for satisfaction.
Among reasons the important the resounding most are defeat of the Israeli operation in Lebanon;
the obeisance of all Lebanese political forces to Syria: and the overthrow of of the er for concern.
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