Sabra and Shatila: never forget, never forgive

Today, September 16th 2011, it is 29 years ago that the horrendous atrocities committed by Israeli-allied phalangists against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians took place in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Sabra and Shatila.

According to some estimates, the number of victims numbered 3,500. The images of the unimaginable acts of cruelty that took place between the 16th and 18th of September of 1982 are forever engraved in the collective memory of the Palestinians.

This post does not aim to be a comprehensive representation of facts. Rather, it is meant to help educate the younger generations that are alive today, and have no recollection of the horrible news that shocked the entire world in those days. It is meant to encourage them to do their online research and ensure that they have knowledge of the facts that took place almost three decades ago, and is still affecting the lives of all the families who survived the killing-craze and lost their beloved in this Israel-instigated crime against humanity.

In those years, I was still in high-school in the Netherlands, and was deeply shocked by the news. It had an enormous impact on me, and not only during those specific days. I got into a fight with one of my classmates who provoked me by saying that it was the Palestinians’ own fault; they shouldn’t have been in Lebanon in the first place.

Sabra and Shatila was a turning point in the awareness of my Palestinian identity. After the massacre, I decided I had to know all the facts of Palestinian history, and dove into the books until my knowledge was more or less satisfied. It was then that I decided I had to remain involved and aware, and that the primary responsibility for the Palestinian struggle lies with the Palestinians themselves. Only a few years later I joined the tiny Dutch chapter of GUPS (General Union of Palestinian Students), and the rest is known to those who know me either personally or as a pro-Palestinian activist.

I would like to ask each and every person who reads this to do a little something to help preserve the memory of those fateful days. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Through your social networks, either share this little article, or say something about the Sabra and Shatila massacre on your Facebook status or on Twitter. This little gesture will already have put you in the ranks of those who have decided not to forget a crime which exemplifies so many aspects of the continuing persecution of Palestinians by the Israelis, the Palestinian displacement and refugee status, the continuing acts of treason and political backstabbing, and the mind-blowing atrocities that can be committed by one human against another.

May the blood, needlessly spilled in the alleys of Sabra and Shatila, at least be an incentive for you to remember, think, and remain active in your dedication to finding truth and justice for the Palestinian people.

Doc Jazz