Most of your friends who worked with the Palestine Red Crescent Society are
gone from Lebanon. Our cherished friend, Hadla Ayubi has semi-retired in
Amman, Um Walid, Director of Akkar Hospital, finally did return to Palestine
following Oslo, still with the PRCS. And its President, Dr. Fathi Arafat,
your good friend, passed away in December of 2004 in Cairo less than a month
after his brother Abu Ammar died in Paris. They both loved you for all
you had done for their people.
That trash dump near the Sabra Mosque is now sometimes a mountain. Yesterday I did a double take as I walked by because I saw three young girls-as sweet and pretty as ever I have seen -- maybe 7 to 9 years old in rags picking thru the nasty garbage. Their arms were covered with white chemical paste. Apparently whoever sent the angels to scavenge sought to protect them from disease. As I climbed thru the filth to give them my last 6,000 LL ($4) they managed a smile and giggle when I slipped on a broken thin plastic bag of juicy cactus fruit skins and plunged to my knees.
In some areas of the camps there are mainly Syrians. Selling cheap "tax free' goods. Still some Arafat loyalists. Mainly among the older generation. Palpable stress among just about everyone it seems. One young Palestinian explained to me his worry that with the upcoming Parliamentary election to choose a new President scheduled for September 25, there may be fighting and his October 6, SAT exams may be cancelled and he won't be able to continue his studies.
When you and I last spoke Janet, it was on April 16 of that year and I was en route to the Athens Airport to catch a flight to Beirut to be with you, you told me you were working on evidence to convict Sharon and others of war crimes.
Twenty years later, lawyers representing two dozen victims and other relatives attempted to have Ariel Sharon tried for the massacre under Belgian legislation, which grants its courts "universal jurisdiction" for war crimes. There had been great expectations about the case among the Palestinians and their friends, since as you remember, Sharon had already been found to bear "personal responsibility" in the massacres by an Israeli commission of inquiry which concluded he shouldn't ever again hold public office. But hopes were dashed when the Belgium Court, under US and Israeli pressure, decided the case was inadmissible. I regret to report that all those who perpetrated the Massacre at Sabra-Shatila escaped justice. None of the hundreds of Phalange and Haddad militia who carried out the slaughter were ever punished. In fact they got a blanket amnesty from the Lebanese government.
As for the main organizers and facilitators, their massacre at Sabra-Shatila
turned out to be excellent career moves for virtually all of them.
Arial Sharon, found by the Israeli Kahan Commission Inquiry " to bear personal responsibility " for allowing the Sabra-Shatila massacre resigned as Minister of Defense but retained his Cabinet position in Begin's Government and over the next 16 years held four more ministerial posts, including that of Foreign Minister, before becoming Prime Minister in February, 2001. Following the Jenin rampage US President Bush anointed him "a man of peace."
Rafel Eytan, Israeli Chief of Staff, who shared Sharon's decision to send in the Phalange killers and helped direct the operation, was elected to the Knesset as leader of the small ultra rightwing party, Tzomet. In 1984 he was named Agriculture Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in 1996. He currently serves as head of Tzomet and is jockeying for another Cabinet position in the next government.
Major-General Yehoshua Saguy, Army Chief of Intelligence: found by the Kahan Commission to have made "extremely serious omissions" in handling the Sabra-Shatila affair later became a right-wing Member of the Knesset and is now mayor of the ultra-rightist community of Bat-Yam, a little town near Tel Aviv.
Major-General Amir Drori, Chief of Israel's Northern Command: found not to have done enough to stop the massacre, a "breach of duty", recently was named as head of the Israeli Antiquities Commission.
Brigadier-General Amos Yaron, the divisional commander whose troops sealed the camps to prevent victims from escaping and helped direct the operation along with Sharon and Eitan was found to have" committed a breach of duty". He was immediately promoted Major-General and made head of Manpower in the army, served as Director-General of the Israeli Defense Ministry and Military Attaches at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He is currently working for various Israeli lobby groups as a scholar in "think thanks'.
Elie Hobeika, the Chief of Lebanese Forces Intelligence, who along with Sharon master-minded the actual massacre, fell out with the Phalange in 1980s under suspicion that he was involved in killing their leader, Bachir Gemayal.
He defected to the Syrians, acquired three Ministerial posts in post-civil war Lebanon Governments, including Minister of the Displaced (many thought he know a lot about this subject) of Electricity and Water, and in 1996, Social Affairs.
On January 24, 2002, twenty years after his involvement at Sabra-Shatila he was blown up in a car bomb attack in East Beirut. Two of his associates who were also rumored to be planning to "come clean' regarding Sharon's role were assassinated in separate incidents. A few days before Hobeika's death he stated that he might reveal more about the massacre and those responsible and according to Beirut's Daily Star staff who interviewed him, Hobeika told them that his lawyers had copies of his files implicating Sharon in much more than had become public. These files are now is the possession of his son who, following Sharon's death, may release the files.
They still remember you in Burj al Barajneh camp. A few weeks ago, one old man told me: "Janet Stevens? No, I didn't know her. He paused and then said, Oh!..you mean Miss Janet! She spoke Arabic"I think she was American. Of course I remember her! We called her the little drummer girl. She had so much energy. She cared about the Palestinians. That was so long ago. She stopped coming to visit us. I don't know why. How is she?"
And so, Dearest Janet, I will be waiting for you at Sabra-Shatila , at Martyrs Square, on Saturday, September 15, 2007.
You will find me patting and mumbling to that old yellow dog. He and I have become friends and we will pay our respects to the dead and I will reflect on these past 25 years and we will watch for and wait for you. You will find us behind the straggly rose bushes on the right as you enter.
Come to us, Janet. We need you. The camp residents need you, one of their brightest lights, on this 25th anniversary of one of their darkest hours. You were always their mediator and advocate"and until today you are their majorette for Justice and Return to their sacred Palestine.
That trash dump near the Sabra Mosque is now sometimes a mountain. Yesterday I did a double take as I walked by because I saw three young girls-as sweet and pretty as ever I have seen -- maybe 7 to 9 years old in rags picking thru the nasty garbage. Their arms were covered with white chemical paste. Apparently whoever sent the angels to scavenge sought to protect them from disease. As I climbed thru the filth to give them my last 6,000 LL ($4) they managed a smile and giggle when I slipped on a broken thin plastic bag of juicy cactus fruit skins and plunged to my knees.
In some areas of the camps there are mainly Syrians. Selling cheap "tax free' goods. Still some Arafat loyalists. Mainly among the older generation. Palpable stress among just about everyone it seems. One young Palestinian explained to me his worry that with the upcoming Parliamentary election to choose a new President scheduled for September 25, there may be fighting and his October 6, SAT exams may be cancelled and he won't be able to continue his studies.
When you and I last spoke Janet, it was on April 16 of that year and I was en route to the Athens Airport to catch a flight to Beirut to be with you, you told me you were working on evidence to convict Sharon and others of war crimes.
Twenty years later, lawyers representing two dozen victims and other relatives attempted to have Ariel Sharon tried for the massacre under Belgian legislation, which grants its courts "universal jurisdiction" for war crimes. There had been great expectations about the case among the Palestinians and their friends, since as you remember, Sharon had already been found to bear "personal responsibility" in the massacres by an Israeli commission of inquiry which concluded he shouldn't ever again hold public office. But hopes were dashed when the Belgium Court, under US and Israeli pressure, decided the case was inadmissible. I regret to report that all those who perpetrated the Massacre at Sabra-Shatila escaped justice. None of the hundreds of Phalange and Haddad militia who carried out the slaughter were ever punished. In fact they got a blanket amnesty from the Lebanese government.
Arial Sharon, found by the Israeli Kahan Commission Inquiry " to bear personal responsibility " for allowing the Sabra-Shatila massacre resigned as Minister of Defense but retained his Cabinet position in Begin's Government and over the next 16 years held four more ministerial posts, including that of Foreign Minister, before becoming Prime Minister in February, 2001. Following the Jenin rampage US President Bush anointed him "a man of peace."
Rafel Eytan, Israeli Chief of Staff, who shared Sharon's decision to send in the Phalange killers and helped direct the operation, was elected to the Knesset as leader of the small ultra rightwing party, Tzomet. In 1984 he was named Agriculture Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in 1996. He currently serves as head of Tzomet and is jockeying for another Cabinet position in the next government.
Major-General Yehoshua Saguy, Army Chief of Intelligence: found by the Kahan Commission to have made "extremely serious omissions" in handling the Sabra-Shatila affair later became a right-wing Member of the Knesset and is now mayor of the ultra-rightist community of Bat-Yam, a little town near Tel Aviv.
Major-General Amir Drori, Chief of Israel's Northern Command: found not to have done enough to stop the massacre, a "breach of duty", recently was named as head of the Israeli Antiquities Commission.
Brigadier-General Amos Yaron, the divisional commander whose troops sealed the camps to prevent victims from escaping and helped direct the operation along with Sharon and Eitan was found to have" committed a breach of duty". He was immediately promoted Major-General and made head of Manpower in the army, served as Director-General of the Israeli Defense Ministry and Military Attaches at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He is currently working for various Israeli lobby groups as a scholar in "think thanks'.
Elie Hobeika, the Chief of Lebanese Forces Intelligence, who along with Sharon master-minded the actual massacre, fell out with the Phalange in 1980s under suspicion that he was involved in killing their leader, Bachir Gemayal.
He defected to the Syrians, acquired three Ministerial posts in post-civil war Lebanon Governments, including Minister of the Displaced (many thought he know a lot about this subject) of Electricity and Water, and in 1996, Social Affairs.
On January 24, 2002, twenty years after his involvement at Sabra-Shatila he was blown up in a car bomb attack in East Beirut. Two of his associates who were also rumored to be planning to "come clean' regarding Sharon's role were assassinated in separate incidents. A few days before Hobeika's death he stated that he might reveal more about the massacre and those responsible and according to Beirut's Daily Star staff who interviewed him, Hobeika told them that his lawyers had copies of his files implicating Sharon in much more than had become public. These files are now is the possession of his son who, following Sharon's death, may release the files.
They still remember you in Burj al Barajneh camp. A few weeks ago, one old man told me: "Janet Stevens? No, I didn't know her. He paused and then said, Oh!..you mean Miss Janet! She spoke Arabic"I think she was American. Of course I remember her! We called her the little drummer girl. She had so much energy. She cared about the Palestinians. That was so long ago. She stopped coming to visit us. I don't know why. How is she?"
And so, Dearest Janet, I will be waiting for you at Sabra-Shatila , at Martyrs Square, on Saturday, September 15, 2007.
You will find me patting and mumbling to that old yellow dog. He and I have become friends and we will pay our respects to the dead and I will reflect on these past 25 years and we will watch for and wait for you. You will find us behind the straggly rose bushes on the right as you enter.
Come to us, Janet. We need you. The camp residents need you, one of their brightest lights, on this 25th anniversary of one of their darkest hours. You were always their mediator and advocate"and until today you are their majorette for Justice and Return to their sacred Palestine.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
