Task 2: The Sabra and Shatila massacres source analysis

The Sabra and Shatila massacres

Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Beirut was besieged and heavily bombed. Israel's intention was to destroy the influence of the PLO in Lebanon and secure Maronite Christian rule in Lebanon. After 79 days of bombardment a cease fire was brokered by the US. Arafat and 14 000 PLO fighters left Lebanon for Tunis. On 14 September, 1982, the Israeli backed Phalange Christian leader and newly elected president of Lebanon was assassinated. The Palestinians were blamed. Israeli forces moved into West Beirut. Between 15 and 18 September, Israeli troops allowed Christian Phalangists, bent on revenge, to enter two Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila, where Israel believed Palestinian terrorists were hiding. A horrific massacre took place inside the two camps. Between 1000-2000 refugees were killed. Defence Minister Sharon and Prime Minister Begin resigned after an inquiry into the event, which had shocked most Israelis.

Sources Analysis Answer Guide

Don’t forget: Quote often and begin your response with name of the author, not the Source number. Put the source number in brackets at the end of the quote/paraphrasing.

For example:

This is supported by Jones who states that 'History students would be more popular at parties if they used this method.' (Source 3) 

SACE Sources advice

More successful responses:

  • were well-structured

  • contained relevant evidence from sources when required.

Less successful responses

  • provided responses without reference to any evidence from the source

  • stated that sources are limited without reasoning

  • did not address the nature of sources clearly

  • did not explain how the nature and origin of the sources were a strength or limitation

  • did not include of the source in the response.

Source 1. The massacre. Who was responsible? Podhoretz. N. Washington Post. 24 September 1982.

Yasser Arafat, whose followers had murdered Israeli babies at Maalot, and the leader directly responsible for the death of the Lebanese babies behind whom he hides his forces in Beirut was everywhere photographed kissing Palestinian babies who had escaped. Arafat, whose people had been murdering Christians throughout Lebanon was received by the pope, while the chorus denouncing Israel became ever more strident and cacophonous. Last week, relatives of some of those murdered Christians-went into two camps In Beirut , along with other Christian militiamen, did unto several  hundred Palestinian women and children what had been done by the PLO unto their women and children in Damur in 1976 in retaliation for a still earlier assault by Christians against Moslems. The PLO 'leadership which conspired (again!) to hide guerrillas and arms in camps housing civilians after it had agreed to leave Beirut; The Israelis who allowed the Christians into these camps did not act quickly enough to stop the atrocities. But surely this cannot be ranked with the actions of the Christian  militias and the PLO.

Questions

  1. Examine Source 1. According to Podhoretz, why did the Christian Phalangist militia murder Palestinian women and children in Sabra and Shatila? (2)

Source 2. ‘Help they are fighting civilians’. Brehrendt R. PLO in Lebanon. 1983.

‘Help they are fighting civilians, men, women….and even little children.’

Mr Arafat (Head of the PLO) is shown crying in the foreground while PLO guerillas hide behind Palestinian refugees.

Source 3. Distraught Friends. Bitzer. W. Jerusalem Post. 24 September. 1982.

The Lebanese Christian massacres at the two Palestinian refugee camps in West Beirut have been disaster for Israel in Washington—indeed throughout the United States. It will take Israel many years to regain its once very high moral image in America. Even among Israels best friends  in congress and the American Jewsih community the Israeli government is seen as, at least indirectly, responsible for the terrible tragedy. The US government has hard intelligence information - made available on a classified basis to some influential people in Washington - confirming that Israeli military officers in Beirut were well aware of the brutal killings many hours before the Israeli defence forces actually went into the camps. 'They simply sat on their hands,' one well-placed U.S. source said referring to high ranking Israeli military authorities waiting outside the camps in West Beirut. 'They did nothing to stop the carnage.'

Questions

2. According to Source 3, what criticisms did Israel face in the wake of the massacres? (2)

Source 4. ‘We did not know what was going on’. Guardian 20 September. 1982

Menachem Begin (Israeli PM) stands in front of tank while Ariel Sharon (Israeli defense minister)

Source 5. Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon, Fisk, R. 1990

This wall and its huddle of corpses were reminiscent of something we had all seen before. Only afterwards did we realise how similar it was to those old photographs of executions in occupied Europe during the Second World War. There may have been 12 or 20 bodies there. Some lay beneath others. When I leaned down to look at them closely, I noticed the same dark scar on the left side of their throats. The murderers must have marked their prisoners for execution in this way. Cut a throat with a knife and it meant the man was doomed, a `terrorist' to be executed at once.

A Norwegian diplomat - one of Ane-Karina Arveson's colleagues - had driven down the road outside a few hours earlier and had seen a bulldozer with a dozen corpses in its scoop, arms and legs swaying from the vehicle's iron bucket. Who had dug this earth over with such efficiency? Who drove the bulldozer? There was only one certainty: that the Israelis knew the answer, that they had watched it happen, that their allies - Phalangists or Haddad militiamen - had been sent into Chatila and had committed this act of mass murder. Here was the gravest act of terrorism - the largest in scale and time carried out by individuals who could see and touch the innocent people they were murdering - in the recent history of the Middle East.

There were, remarkably, survivors. Three small children called to us from a roof to say they had hidden while the massacre took place. Some weeping women shouted at us that their men had been killed. All said Haddad's men and the Phalange were responsible and gave accurate descriptions of the different cedar tree badges of the two militias

Questions

3. What are two conclusions that can be drawn from Source 5 about the massacre at Shatila? (2)

4. Examine Sources 4 and 5. Assess the usefulness and limitations of each source for historians researching the Sabra and Shatila massacres. (4)

5. To what extent is the evidence presented in Source 3, supported by the evidence presented by Fisk in Source 5?  (4)

6. ‘The massacres at Sabra and Shatila brought widespread condemnation of Israel and an upsurge in sympathy for the Palestinian cause.’ 

Evaluate this statement with reference to all sources. (6)

Source 2. Help they are fighting civilians.

Source 4. We did not know what was going on.