No episode in Ariel Sharon’s career is more infamous than that of the massacres at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. Located on the outskirts of Beirut, the camps housed thousands of Palestinian refugees. When the PLO left Lebanon at the end of August, 1982, these refugees were extremely vulnerable. Palestinian refugees have faced hostility in many countries to which they fled after the Israeli victories in 1948 and 1967. In Lebanon, their presence only exacerbated the already violent inter-communal, political and religious divisions. The Maronite allies of Israel in particular were extremely antipathetic to the Palestinians.

On September 14, 1982, Maronite President-elect and ally of Israel, Bashir Gemayel was killed in an explosion. To this day, it is not known for certain by whom, though many favor the theory that it was Syrian intelligence. Gemayel’s election to the presidency seemed a major step toward Sharon’s vision of a client government taking power in Lebanon. With his death, Sharon’s “Grand Vision” for Lebanon collapsed.

Was it anger over the collapse of his plan that led Sharon to the actions taken at Sabra and Shatilla? One cannot say. In a recent article, Robert Fisk cited a lone Associated Press report that said that Sharon had publicly accused the Palestinians of being responsible for Gemayel’s assassination. No other report confirms this, however. In any case, Sharon’s claim that he was unaware of the enormous hatred for the Palestinians of the Maronite militia he helped send in to the camps was false, as he had been informed by intelligence officers and even members of the Israeli cabinet of this. Furthermore, it was common knowledge.

Some of the carnage of Sabra and Shatilla

From September 16 to 19, the Maronite Phalangist militia rampaged through Sabra and Shatilla. The camps were sealed off by Israeli soldiers who remained outside. Some later reported unease at the noises they heard, but no sound emanating from the camps could have betrayed the horror that was taking place inside them. When it was all over, the number of dead was estimated by Israel at between 700 and 800, the Lebanese government issued over 1,200 death certificates in the camps and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society put the death toll at over 2,000. Subsequent attempts at estimating the dead ranged from the Israeli figure to as many as 3,500. But in the end, the number is not what is most important. Even if it were the low figure, which seems unlikely, this would not diminish the horrifying nature of the atrocity. Thousands of men, women and children were killed, beaten, raped and tortured. The stories that emerged from survivors of Sabra and Shatilla were as chilling as those from any war or atrocity in history.

The international outcry, as well as a severe reaction in Israel, prompted the Begin government to set up a commission of inquiry into the matter, led by Supreme Court Justice Yitzhak Kahan. The finding of the Kahan Commission that is most often reported is that Sharon bore “indirect responsibility” for the massacre. But the report also stated that Sharon bore “personal responsibility” for the massacre as well, something mentioned far less frequently. The preamble to the report states: “Mr. Sharon was found responsible for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge when he approved the entry of the Phalangists into the camps as well as not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed.” In essence, the commission had no hard evidence that Sharon knew what would happen. But his plea of blissful ignorance of the general disposition of the Phalangists, in particular, their feelings toward the Palestinians in the wake of Gemayel’s assassination, and that some kind of excessive brutality was bound to occur is impossible to swallow. The tone of the commission’s report suggests they felt the same way.