[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
BEIRUT – Anybody old enough to recall the 1980s would probably also recall the horrific fate of Sabra and Shatilla. These two adjacent Palestinian camps just outside of Beirut had become the setting of the massacre of more than two thousand people in September 1982. Not just men but women and children were mercilessly slaughtered by the Christian Maronite militias, while their Israeli allies watched uncaringly at arm’s length. It was a truly dark episode for mankind.
Almost three decades later, which is just the other day, I had the chance to see Sabra and Shatilla for myself for the first time. And I felt hardly any better than when I first saw the photos of that shocking massacre.
I actually came to Beirut for a brief research on the impact of Turkey’s new foreign policy in the region – a story that I hope to share later. Yet none of my meeting and observations were as eye-opening as the couple of hours I spent in these refugee camps. In fact, nothing that I have seen in a long time was as touching as the old woman in Sabra who was still longing for her parents’ home in Haifa, from which they were expelled in 1948 to live in these destitute camps.
First, a little background: When Israel unleashed its first wave of ethnic cleansing on Palestinian Arabs in 1948, some 700 thousand of them became refugees. In 1967, Israel occupied the remaining part of Palestine, too, creating at least 300,000 more refugees, some of which came to Lebanon. While most Muslims and the Druze of Lebanon felt solidarity with these asylum seekers, Christian Maronites saw them as uninvited guests. When the Palestinians started to arm themselves, becoming a foreign army in Lebanon, the tension further peaked. Finally a civil war broke out in 1975, which would last for 15 years, and lead to brutality by all sides.
So, one could say, Israeli expansionism not only traumatized the Palestinian people, but also tore the Lebanese apart.
Today, the narrow, dark and dirty alleys of Sabra looks like a testimony of that doomed history. This is a giant shantytown where people live literally on top of each other. The three-story “buildings” are made up of bricks and pieces of metal and plastic, and are surrounded by an ugly web of cables. The distance between the blocks is sometimes less than a meter, which means that you can barely see the sky through them.
Not only the sun but also air is scarce in the camps. Most homes don’t have any window. I saw a “kitchen” whose only utensils were a few rusty bawls, and whose floor was flooded by dirty water. “You actually see the camp in its cleanest mood,” said one of the refugees. “In winter, when it rains a lot, water floats all around.”
Yet poverty is not the real source of resentment in here. It is the feeling of oppression (by the Israelis) and discrimination (by the Lebanese). Most Palestinians have simply no legal status in Lebanon. So, they can’t buy or even rent places and even need permits to leave their refugee camps. They are denied access to Lebanese schools and hospitals, a tragedy compensated only partly by the efforts of the United Nations. They are not even second-class citizens, to use that famous term: they are rather sub-humans.
All this plight looks all the more disturbing when compared to Beirut’s extravagant nightlife, which presents a baffling synthesis of the most expensive cars, clothes and accessories you can imagine. This is an all-night-party city, full of fancy restaurants, bars and clubs. I have been to some of those places as well, and met wonderful people there, for whom I wish only the best. But I also wonder what they think, if they ever do, of the plight of Palestinians, which is caused and perpetuated partly by the decisions of their political leaders.
Of course, the same question is even more relevant for Israelis, who enjoy the privileges of their prosperous country, which is built on a country that used to belong to another people. I wish all the best, including peace and security, for the Israelis as well, but I also wonder what they think about the millions of people that they forced out of their homes. Does it really mean anything to them that their heaven is the hell of others? Does it give them any sense of guilt, any feeling of responsibility?
Or is humanity, as some claim, really overrated?
I admit: my visit to Sabra and Shatilla gave me all that cynicism. But it also gave me pride as a Turk, when I saw the poster of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the walls of Sabra. It was a reminder that my government has stood by the Palestinians, and stood at the right side of history.
That right side is certainly not to call for Israel’s destruction, and support terrorist acts against Israeli civilians, as Iran unacceptably does. But it is also not to worship “Israel’s right to security,” while seeing the Palestinians’ rights as a side issue, as successive American administrations have unbelievably done.
It is rather to stand for justice for all. And if you believe for a moment that justice has been served in the Middle East, I would suggest you to go to Sabra and see it for your self. Facts on the ground are the best antidote to delusions in the mind.
I am a lebanese Christian myself and I will start by thanking you for this article in which you did not portray us as the criminal side. The lebanese situation was and still is very complex. Saying that we( the christian) where not sympathic to the palestian is not true. When the palestians where chased from their homeland we where very welcoming of them. My familly was directly involved in this, a very important camp ein helwe) is located in land that belongs to my grand-parent. We gave food, cloth and land. Yes we did not want them armed. And their weapons where unfortunatly turned agains us. This is by no way an excuse for chabra and chatila. Indeed, this is a black part of our history. At the end of the line we are arab and the palestians are our brothers. We should do more for them but alone we can do nothing. Even if beirut seems rich and wealthy, lebanon is not ritch. I can honesty say that we care for the palestinians, but lebanon is barely surving itself and as far as the christians are concern we are very insecure about of furtur ourselves. Our culture is slowly vanishing from the middle east. We are less and less accepted by our muslim brothers and we dont see a bright future for us in that part of the world. If turkey want to be on the right side of history it should also try to help the christians communities of the orient. Yes we need a strong and open minded Turkey that remember that it is a part of that region. As a christian I dont want the muslim solidarity that Erdogan seem to refer buth rather a turkey that rember that its roots are islamo-christian with a jewish flavor. This modern ottoman turkey could be a key for peace in that region.
God bless you Mustafa …
You are getting closer to the facts.
As Milad mentioned, it is very complex history , and you need longer period to understand the different view points of what happened in Lebanon ( 150 years – today).
Unfortunetly , some of the mascare leaders still in the political life and still repeating thier ideas.
Take best care of yourself.
Salaam
I have of few thoughts on this essay; I know this will be at odds with what everyone else on this board thinks, but here it goes.
My first thought is that if you do the right thing for the wrong reason, your actions will become corrupted and eventually immoral themselves.
Aiding the plight of the Palestinians, like aiding in the plight of anyone else in need, is the right thing to do, but it cannot be overlooked that the motivation of most of those interested in doing so is not the Palestinians themselves , but how they fit in several Mid-East power struggle.
Erdogan and Davutoglu, in particular are vying for leadership role in the mid-East, not humanitarian aid. This is after all; a man received the President of Sudan with great honors in Istanbul, threatened to deport most Armenians living in Turkey and stated that the Turkish state had “nothing to be ashamed of” with respect to 1915. And how much worst are the events currently unfolding in Sudan, or the *Turkish thesis* of the events of 1915, compared to the events of Sabra and Shatilla.
I’m the descendant of survivors of these events, so this in turn brings a second point.
When I read,:
I also wonder what they think about the millions of people that they forced out of their homes. Does it really mean anything to them that their heaven is the hell of others? Does it give them any sense of guilt, any feeling of responsibility?
This was a thought I often had, but of course, not about Israel, but about Turkey. However, I, unlike Akyol, got my answer, Erdogan’s defence minister stated it quite plainly a few months ago:
“One of the great achievements of Atatürk[…] Could Turkey be the same national country had the Greek community still lived in the Aegean or Armenians lived in many parts of Turkey?”