Targeting Arab Children: Ariel Sharon's 1982 invasion of Lebanon

It is often out of print. If you'd like to try to buy it used on Amazon, click HERE. I will do my best to get this book back in print. I don't know Stephen Green, but I know a great book when I see it.

Arabs & Israel for Beginners

Ron David

Ariel Sharon in Lebanon
During Israel's unprovoked 1982 invasion of South Lebanon, the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) ignored recommendations that civilian concentrations be spared carpet bombing on humanitarian grounds. Not only did the IDF ignore those recommendations, dozens of eyewitnesses (including European volunteer doctors, nurses and teachers) testified that the IDF went out of its way to destroy hospitals, schools, orphanages, school buses -- and any other place where children collected in large numbers. The result was the horrendous destruction "itemized" below in a July 12, 1982 United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) report. Bear in mind that Israel boasted that its bombing raids were "surgical" -- they hit only and exactly what they intended to hit --

from the 906 page

ISRAEL’S WAR IN LEBANON:

Eyewitness Chronicles of the Invasion and Occupation

Edited by Franklin P. Lamb for South End Press

Schools:

v St. Joseph School

v Makassad Secondary School (completely destroyed)

v Sidon Takmilieh Government School

v A1 Madkhal el Shamali Government School 'Al Zein'

v Elementary Government School 'Shehab'

v Al Madkhal El Janoobi Government School

v Government Teachers' Training College

v Al Ittihad Secondary School 'Ste. Nafisseh' (destroyed)

v Sidon School Majdelyoun

v Alexandra School, Old Sidon

v Vocational Training School

v Faisal School

v Government School

v Khan el Frenj-French School & Orphanage, Old Sidon

v Morjan Government School

v Aisha School - Ryad el Solh Street

Hospitals:

v Rashid Khoury Hospital

v Labib Medical Centre

v Shoaib Hospital

v Elias Elia Hospital

v Ramzi Shaab Hospital

v Dalaah Hospital

v Hammoud Hospital

v A1 Hajj Hospital

v Osseiran Hospital

Eleven hundred houses were also destroyed in Sidon and approximately 1,500 were heavily damaged. In the coastal city of Tyre, approximately 350 houses were destroyed and more than 750 heavily damaged. In addition, there was heavy damage to the following schools and hospitals:

v Tyre Primary School

v Tyre Official Primary School

v A1 Jaafariya School

v Teacher Training College

v St. Joseph Convent School

v St. Thomas School

v The Anglican School

v Al Ittihad School

v First Official Secondary School

v Second Official Secondary School

v A1 Najat al Ramali School (completely destroyed)

v Government Hospital (completely destroyed)

v Jabal Amel Hospital

v Palestine Red Crescent Hospital

v Dr Ismail Bahr Hospital (completely destroyed)

The photograph below, taken by Chris Steele-Perkins, is from the book BEIRUT: frontline story, by Selim Nassib with Caroline Tisdall (Africa World Press, PO Box 1892, Trenton, NJ 08608).

I can't bear to look at it for too long...but at the same time, I feel obliged to look at it. It brings to mind something my mother said during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon: "I hate watching the news reports of the massacre of our people, but I think that we have an obligation to witness it in the same sense that Jews outside of Germany had an obligation to witness the Holocaust."

...when I say--point blank, with no hedging--that Ariel Sharon was a murderer, the slaughter of Arab children is exactly the kind of thing that I am talking about. As you will see, the slaughter was intentional. The book with which I began this section, ISRAEL’S WAR IN LEBANON: Eyewitness Chronicles of the Invasion and Occupation, is filled with eyewitness accounts of the Israelis going out of their way to attack schools, orphanages, school buses to slaughter Lebanese and Palestinian children.

You needn't take my word for it. Jacobo Timerman, a heroic Argentinean Jew, describes it with pain and precision in his book, The Longest War:

"Today in Beirut Arab children have their legs and arms amputated by candlelight in the basements of hospitals destroyed by bombs, without anesthetics, without sterilization. It is eleven days since proud veteran Israeli troops cut the electricity and water, and food and fuel supplies. We're in August, a hot August. Rats already outnumber children in the city of Beirut, upon which the best pilots in the world, the aviators of the Israeli Air Force, are exercising their marvelous capacity for precision. From their planes they watch how the buildings of Beirut crumble. People in Beirut also observe those who leap from their windows, choosing a different death from those who were caught in buildings that were reduced to dust."

"In the second month of the war more children were killed in Beirut than during thirty years of terrorism in Israel."

So, when Israelis elected Ariel Sharon Prime Minister, they were reaffirming their intention to target Arab children. When American Jews did not tell Israel to piss off when Sharon was elected Prime Minister, American Jews were saying Yes to the murder of Arab children. When the American government didn't cease altogether its massive financial support of Israel when Sharon was elected Prime Minister, the American government was saying Yes to the murder of Arab children. When the American people did not rise up and stop their government's support of Israel, people all over the world believed -- and still believe -- that the American people say Yes to the murder of Arab children.

We live, ostensibly, in a democracy. Everything our politicians do, they do in our name.

===

Ron D

1. "Israel's War in Lebanon: Eyewitness Chronicles of the Invasion and Occupation" compiled & edited by Franklin P. Lamb, Ph.D. (ISBN: 0961391804; South End Press, Boston, MA) seems to be available at several places on the Internet (Google). No need to pay the outrageous prices ($45-$195!) listed by some booksellers. With a bit of patience, one can find a reasonably-priced version of this fine book.

2. The Second U.S. Edition of this book (cover reproduced above), also published by South End Press, seems to be available in paperback on Amazon.com. It seems to be currently in-print, but it is a bit difficult to find.

3. The best option may be the original British publisher, Spokesman Books. The book, here titled "Reason Not the Need: Eyewitness Chronicles of Israel's War in Lebanon" (ISBN: 0851244335) is available on Amazon's British Web site (www.amazon.co.uk) for the modest price of £11.95.