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==Background==
==Background==
The Phalangist militia based in [[Damour]] and [[Dayr al Nama]] had been blocking the coastal road.<ref>Yezid Sayigh (1999) Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198296436 p 368</ref> It occurred as part of a series of events during the [[Lebanese Civil War]], in which [[Palestinians]] joined the [[Muslim]] forces
The Phalangist militia based in [[Damour]] and [[Dayr al Nama]] had been blocking the coastal road.<ref>Yezid Sayigh (1999) Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198296436 p 368</ref> The Damour massacre was a response to the [[Karantina massacre]] of 18 January 1976, in which [[Kataeb Party|Phalangists]] killed from 300 up to 1,500 people.<ref name="H1500">Harris (p. 162) notes "the massacre of 1,500 Palestinians, Shi'is, and others in Karantina and Maslakh, and the revenge killings of hundreds of Christians in Damour"[http://books.google.com/books?id=e5R7Ci2btbIC&pg=PA162&dq=karantina+massacre&hl=da&ei=04iYTKeYKsPfOJ3q1csP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=karantina%20massacre&f=false]</ref><ref>Noam Chomsky, Edward W. Said (1999) Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians South End Press, ISBN 0896086011 pp 184-185</ref><ref>http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/173626</ref>

⚫
<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=0W5-jZY_T2IC&pg=PA5</ref>, in the context of the [[Christian]]-Muslim divide<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=QtRojsvBm8wC&pg=PA221</ref>, and soon [[Beirut]] was divided along the infamous [[Green Line (Lebanon)|Green Line]], with Christian enclaves to the east and Muslims to the west. <ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=_R-I_Gx5OgQC&pg=PA35</ref>
It occurred as part of a series of events during the [[Lebanese Civil War]], in which [[Palestinians]] joined the [[Muslim]] forces
⚫
<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=0W5-jZY_T2IC&pg=PA5</ref>, in the context of the [[Christian]]-Muslim divide<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=QtRojsvBm8wC&pg=PA221</ref>, and soon [[Beirut]] was divided along the infamous [[Green Line (Lebanon)|Green Line]], with Christian enclaves to the east and Muslims to the west.
<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=_R-I_Gx5OgQC&pg=PA35</ref>


==Events==
==Events==

Revision as of 11:06, 19 December 2010

Damour massacre
Part of the Lebanese Civil War
LocationDamour, Lebanon
DateFebruary 20, 1976 (cc)
Attack type
Massacre
DeathsEstimated 584 civilians[1]
PerpetratorsPalestine Liberation Organization, Lebanese National Movement
MotiveRetaliation for Karantina massacre

The Damour massacre took place on January 20, 1976 during the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War. Damour, a Christian town on the main highway south of Beirut, was attacked by the Palestine Liberation Organisation units. Part of its population died in battle or in the massacre that followed, and the remainder forced to flee.[2]

Background

The Phalangist militia based in Damour and Dayr al Nama had been blocking the coastal road.[3] The Damour massacre was a response to the Karantina massacre of 18 January 1976, in which Phalangists killed from 300 up to 1,500 people.[4][5][6]

It occurred as part of a series of events during the Lebanese Civil War, in which Palestinians joined the Muslim forces [7], in the context of the Christian-Muslim divide[8], and soon Beirut was divided along the infamous Green Line, with Christian enclaves to the east and Muslims to the west. [9]

Events

The attackers destroyed the buildings in the seaside village systematically and then took revenge on the remaining Christian inhabitants. The Christian cemetery was destroyed, coffins dug up, the dead robbed, vaults opened, and bodies and skeletons thrown across the graveyard. The church was burnt and an outside wall was covered with a mural of Fatah guerrillas holding AK47 rifles. A portrait of Yasser Arafat was placed at one end. Other sources claim that the church was used as a repair garage for PLO vehicles, and also as a range for shooting-practice with targets painted on the eastern wall of the nave.

Twenty Phalangist militiamen were executed and then civilians were lined up against a wall and sprayed with machine-gun fire. None of the remaining inhabitants survived.[10] Estimates of the civilian dead is 584[11]. Among the killed were family members of Elie Hobeika, and his fiancé.[12] Following the Battle of Tel al-Zaatar later the same year, the PLO resettled Palestinian refugees in Damour. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the Zaatar refugees were expelled from Damour, and the original inhabitants brought back.[13]

According to Thomas L. Friedman, the Phalangist Damouri Brigade which carried out the Sabra and Shatila massacre during the 1982 Lebanon War sought revenge not only for the assassination of Bashir Gemayel, but also for what he describes as past tribal killings of their own people by Palestinians including those at Damour.[14][15]

According to an eyewitness: The attack took place from the mountain behind "It was an apocalypse," [said Father Mansour Labaky, a Christian Maronite priest who survived the massacre at Damour:] They were coming, thousands and thousands, shouting "Allahu Akbar! (God is great!) Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust to Mohammad!", And they were slaughtering everyone in their path, men, women and children. [16], [17] [18]

The PLO: the rise and fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984, p. 124 [5] qtd in[6] [7]</ref> [19]

Perpetrators

There are a number of conflicting claims as to exactly which militias participated in the massacre. It is clear that it was a Palestinian-led attack, but some sources indicate a heavy participation of Syrian-backed Palestinian factions[dubious – discuss]. This much is clear: the attack and subsequent massacre was carried out by a mixed crew of Palestinian militiamen aligned with the Lebanese National Movement (LNM).

According to journalist and author Robert Fisk, the attack was led by Col. Abu Musa, a senior commander of the PLO and Fatah, but later leader of the anti-Arafat Fatah Uprising faction. Cedarland.org however, names Zuheir Mohsen, leader of as-Sa'iqa, a Damascus-based Palestinian faction operating directly on Syrian orders, and claims that he was known in Lebanon as the "Butcher from Damour".

The bulk of the attacking forces seems to have been composed by brigades from the Palestinian Liberation Army[20] and as-Sa'iqa, as well as other militias including Fatah. Some sources also mention the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Muslim Lebanese al-Murabitun militia among the attackers. There are also reports that mercenaries or militiamen from Syria, Jordan, Libya [21], Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan were part of the assault, and even Japanese commandos who were training in Lebanon.[22]

Notes

  1. ^ Nisan, 2003
  2. ^ Armies in Lebanon, 1985, Osprey Publishing
  3. ^ Yezid Sayigh (1999) Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198296436 p 368
  4. ^ Harris (p. 162) notes "the massacre of 1,500 Palestinians, Shi'is, and others in Karantina and Maslakh, and the revenge killings of hundreds of Christians in Damour"[1]
  5. ^ Noam Chomsky, Edward W. Said (1999) Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians South End Press, ISBN 0896086011 pp 184-185
  6. ^ http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/173626
  7. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=0W5-jZY_T2IC&pg=PA5
  8. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=QtRojsvBm8wC&pg=PA221
  9. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=_R-I_Gx5OgQC&pg=PA35
  10. ^ Fisk, 2001, pp. 99-100.
  11. ^ Nisan, 2003
  12. ^ Elie Hobeika killer file
  13. ^ . http://justworldnews.org/archives/000976.html
  14. ^ Friedman, 1998, p. 161.
  15. ^ Friedman, New York Times, Sep 20, 21, 26, 27, 1982.
  16. ^ Israel undercover: secret warfare and hidden diplomacy in the Middle East By Steve Posner, ISBN 0815602200, 9780815602200, p. 2
  17. ^ J. Becker: The PLO: the rise and fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984, p. 124 [2] qtd in[3] [4]
  18. ^ http://www.ict.org.il/Articles/tabid/66/Articlsid/291/currentpage/4/Default.aspx
  19. ^ http://www.ict.org.il/Articles/tabid/66/Articlsid/291/currentpage/4/Default.aspx
  20. ^ Some sources name the PLA's Ayn Jalout brigade armed by Egypt and the Qadisiyah brigade from Iraq. This page also mentions the Yarmouk brigade, set up by Syria.
  21. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=YQzJHVNUkt4C&pg=PA11
  22. ^ Nisan, 2003, p. 41.

References

  • Abraham, A. J. (1996). The Lebanon War. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-95389-0
  • Fisk, Robert. (2001). Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280130-9
  • Friedman, Thomas. (1998) From Beirut To Jerusalem. 2nd Edition. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-653070-2
  • Nisan, M. (2003). The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-5392-6.

Further reading

  • Becker, Jillian. (1985). The PLO: The Rise and Fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization . New York: St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-59379-1

See also

External links

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