Sharon beneath his mentor, Manachem Begin, who was hunted as a terrorist before also becoming Israel's leader
Simon Wollers
Radio Havana Cuba
September 16, 2004
Palestinians Remember Sabra and Chatilla Massacre 22 Years Ago
Twenty-two years ago, on September 16, 1982, Christian Lebanese militia carried out a massacre of Palestinian refugees living in the Sabra and Chatilla camps outside Beirut.
The massacre of close to 3,500 civilians - many of whom were children - in a 36 hour killing spree, was carried out with the full collaboration of the Israeli government. Current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was Defense Minister at the time, was fired after being found responsible for the atrocity by an Israeli commission of inquiry.
Two years ago Sharon was charged for the massacre under Belgium's Universal Jurisdiction Law, but the case failed due to pressure from the Bush government and US evangelical Christian groups that support Israeli policies. To date, in spite of the findings of the commission of inquiry in 1982, nothing has been done to compensate the victims or prosecute the perpetrators.
Ariel Sharon's own words in an interview he gave to the Israeli newspaper Daval after Sabra and Chatilla and published on December 17th, 1982 were:
"You can call me anything you like. Call me a monster or a murderer... Better a live Judeo Nazi than a dead saint... Even if you prove to me that the present war in Lebanon is a dirty, immoral war, I don't care... We shall start another war, kill and destroy more and more until they have had enough...I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us...What you don't understand is that the dirty work of Zionism is not finished yet, far from it".