Page 16:
A few days ago, Khalil Hawi announced in his own way, his rejection of silence. His voice echoed from a hunting gun directed to his head. Alone in his Beirut apartment, the poet of “River of Ash” took his life with his own hand.
This is how Khalil Hawi decided to be in charge of his death. This is how he chose to declare his last rage at the death of big dreams of his generation. The dreams assassinated by these dreadful Arab times before being crushed by the invading Israeli tanks attacking Beirut.
Page 17:
Tuesday, June 15
The Israeli forces surround Baabda Palace. The silent Palace resident did not announce his position on the invasion of his country. Instead, he forms a six-man ‘salvation committee’ under his presidency. It includes: Shafiq Al-Wazan, Fouad Boutros, Bashir Jumayel , Walid Jumblat, Nabih Berri and Nasri Maalouf.
Page 18:
“A meeting between Bashir and Walid is the event I have been anticipating for six years”, Sarkis says. He presents Philip Habib’s conditions carried from the Israelis.
Walid Jumblat’s comment: So, what’s required is the head of the Palestinian resistance.
Bashir is in a hurry to strike the iron while still hot, to reap the political fruits of the occupation. He calls upon the Muslims to “cease the day” or else not a single Sunni will participate in the rule.
“Walid to Bashir: You want to profit from the Israeli occupation.
Bashir: We can all benefit from it ”…
Page 18:
Tuesday, June 22nd
An Israeli Officer from occupied Baabda to London’s The Times reporter:
“The Palestinians should die. They are an epidemic”.
The British reporter asks him if his discourse of the Palestinians is similar to Hitler’s discourse on the Jews, he does not hesitate in answering: “Yes, it is similar!”
Page 20:
A foreigner risks his life to inform us of his people’s compassion and revolution. He is the foreign minister of Cuba. During the meeting, everyone is concentrating on the importance of the Soviet’s deterrent position towards the American-Israeli orgy. Malmirca says that Fidel Castro asked for a fast visitfor him to Moscow to stimulate a decisive position.
George Hawi: How can we speak later with confidence about “the feature of the age” as the age of the collapse of imperialism? Doesn’t all what happened deserve an urgent meeting of the leaders of the Warsaw alliance? Doesn’t all what happened deserve a harsh Soviet ultimatum?
Page 21:
Walid reminded us of his father’s historic positions. He said: “Let history judge. If some Arabs thought they would avoid the historical curse of History, they’re wrong. The Palestinian blood in Lebanon will not go to waste. A lot of thrones will shake and fall. The Arab world will flood in blood, God willing, God willing, God willing! And the Palestinians will win. As for the poor Lebanese people in Sidon, Tyr and Beirut, they will take their revenge. They will take it from their leaders and regimes. No matter what the occupation’s status is or how harsh the developing political situation is afterwards. Because I think Bashir Gemayel wants to reach the presidency over the dead bodies of the massacres. I will not be part of this filthy conspiracy. ”
Page 23
The Israeli forces expand their control over the Beirut- Damascus road, from Baabda to Bhamdoun. Sharon acknowledges the Phalanges’ participation in the fighting. He perceives the control over Damascus road as the control of the whole of Lebanon. The Phalanges’ deny their participation and claim that their forces have done nothing but fill in the gaps left by the retreating Syrian forces.
Page 36
And you wonder why this [Soviet] warning does not have a harsher rhetoric? And you remember Krutschev’s warnings during the Suez war . You are told things have changed, and you are told that Big Brother is more knowledgeable than you about the complications of the international situation. And you are told you see the whole world from the siege’s needle eye. And you are told… and you are told…
And you cheer when you hear that Big Brother’s naval vessels are heading towards Lattakia port. You wonder: Why can’t one naval vessel or one medical ship break through this siege? You are told: Grow up, ya sheikh. And people from your own race who have never acknowledged any legitimacy, invent the most excessive explanations: these are Lebanese territorial waters and the Lebanese government did not ask Big Brother to interfere to break the siege. And you wonder: Did Israel ask the Lebanese government’s permission to invade the country and enforce the siege?
Page 37
Sunday, July 4th
100 thousand people demonstrate in Tel Aviv against the war on Lebanon, calling for the resignation of Begin and Sharon. Israel initiates war on you and Israel demonstrates against its own war against you. The Israeli kills you and walks in your funeral. You are about to admire your enemy’s democracy.
And the Arabs are silent…
Harsher than the siege.
Hurts more than the screams of children and the sighs of the wounded.
Worse than the sight of dead bodies and destruction.
Page 42
Friday, July 23rd
The Palestinians propose to withdraw their forces five kilometers from Beirut as an initiative to start the retreat’s negotiations for complete withdrawal. Philip Habib refuses.
Abou Ammar’s decision is a Karbalean one; in his reply to a number of Beiruti Zu’amas who practice blackmail in the name of saving the capital from destruction, he says: Fighting is our choice. We will use all weaponry, no area will be saved. I will destroy the Temple on me and on my enemies, God willing. The Palestinians will regroup in the camps and fight until the last man standing. The remaining few will live in this destroyed land. We are ready for another Karbala. A Palestinian Karbala. And let the Arab world convert to Shiísm with us and after us for another 2000 years.
Page 43
Friday, July 30th
Water is completely cut off from West Beirut.
The Americans knew how to choose well. They sent you a diplomat who is a descendant of Lebanese migrant peddlers’ to outsmart you, dear smart Lebanese, and make a fool out of you.
Yasser Arafat wonders: what is the objective of the war, to remove the Palestinian fighters from Beirut or to slaughter them in it??
Philip Habib is himself preparing the text for the Lebanese working paper on Palestinian withdrawal.
The Arabs invite Bashir Gemayel to the Taef meeting, at the time when his presidency’s candidacy is facing real difficulty in Parliament. Surely, we will be told that what is meant is to absorb the Lebanese Forces’ leader and convince him of their neutrality in the Lebanese conflict.
Page 54
Friday, August 6
When king Khaled died, the Arab radios declared mourning for at least three days. Beirut’s deprived have been dying for sixty days. And no radio is finding a reason to mourn.
The Phalanges’ radio was broadcasting its commercials: “Go out in Dbayeh as if you are in Greece…” when a Phantom plane appeared suddenly in Beirut’s sky; it swooped down and struck. Though the sound of the explosion was hushed, the target was very near. After a few minutes, the news comes: Akar building, in front of Sanae’ collapsed. Hundreds of deaths and injury. Most of the victims are refugees from Dbayeh camp that was invaded by the Phalanges’ forces in 1976 and its Christian Palestinian population displaced West Beirut.
And all this, sirs, is for you to be able to go out in Dbayeh as if you are in Greece!
Page 55
TV channels inform us that this magical bomb is a vacuum bomb, which has been thrown at the building’s foundation, creating a vacuum leading to the total destruction of the building. Thank you for the information!
Last Israeli butchery methods: Sniping individuals from Phantom airplanes. The man [Yasser Arafat] hunted by the Phantom airplane, cruised in his car for four hours under shelling to save a new building and its residents from a new American-made “vacuum” bomb.
Page 56
Sniping individuals from Phantom airplanes. Is there a bigger evidence of the cowardice of the enemy’s army? Is there a bigger evidence of the power of that man and the men with him?
Page 58
Tuesday, August 10th
Beirut without water.
Beirut without food.
Beirut without medicine.
Beirut without electricity.
evening falls…
Page 71
Thursday, August 26
As the agreement on the departure of the Palestinian fighters applies vaguely on the Lebanese, the parties of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) decide to withdraw their armed men from the frontlines and redeploy them inside Beirut. However, there is no reference to the coordination of these retreats. Beirut is apprehensive after the departure of the Palestinian fighters and the imminent withdrawal of the multi-national forces.
Rafful Eytan rages against the militias of the Lebanese left and calls for their disarmament.
Page 72
Wednesday, August 8
6775 people killed, and 30 000 injured in West Beirut during the Israeli invasion.
The simplest estimations here mention about 12 000 dead.
The majority of the victims are civilians (80%). the wounded are 1000 fighters and 5675 civilians.
Page 74
Two television stations stop broadcasting at ten thirty, at least one hour before usual closing time. The worst should be expected . At eleven thirty, the prime minister announces the death of elected president Bashir Gemayel.
In the circle convening at our deputy friend, apprehension and anxious sullenness prevail.
Basher Gemayel represented everything we did not wish for this country, but the assassination forebodes grotesque disasters.
Page 75
Wednesday, September 15
Today the Israeli invasion started on five levels fronts: the airport road, the Kuwaiti embassy roundabout, Ouzaii, the Musuem-Barbir crossing, and the Beirut Port- Hotel Normandy passageway. Illusionary raids represent the enemy’s fear. Israeli tanks ask the civilians not to resist and willingly deposit their arms, because the Israeli defense army wants to protect the “Muslims”.
The Lebanese National Movement invites the patriotic Lebanese to do their duty in resisting the Zionist enemy and protect defiant Beirut. Small groups of fighters, in civilian clothes and individual weapons, aggregate quickly and resist the advancing tanks in Jenah, and the Arab University, Ghobeiri, and Cola roundabout neighbourhoods.
Page 76
Thursday, September 16th
Scattered groups of fighters are still resisting the best they can. But what can those heroes do about enemy’s soldiers advancing from all eh approaches of Beirut? They avoid direct confrontation with the resistance, and when they have to, they maneuver and reallocate. Neighbourhoods fall one fter the other, leavin the cleansing task for later. Despite all that, they have to fight their own way in Ghobeiri, Manara, Bourj El-Murr, Clemenceau road, Mar Elias, Ouza`i, the vegetable market, the Arab University, and Abi shaker districts.
The enemy’s speaker strives to minimize the importance of the resistance: “our forces faced some resistance”, says he, at a time when three tanks were destroyed in the vegetable market, another three in Clemenceau and the number of army vehicles destroyed today reached forty six.
Page 77
Friday, September 17
Beirut under occupation.
The invasion reaches Basta, Zeidania, Aysha Bakkar, and sieges Mazraa, a lot of destruction in these areas. But the resistance survives in spite of the enemy’s existence in the heart of the city. Heroic battles continue in Mar Elias, Bourj Abi Haidar and Noueiri.
Search and find raids have started. The enemy tries to impose curfew to no avail. The streets choke with people. Families are taken dowm to Ain El-Mryaissi shore and many young people are detained. The enemy forces raid the Ghobeiri mosque, loots the Palestinian Research Center, storms commodore hotel ( headquarter of foreign reporters and journalists) and detain his owner, and storms , the Libyan news agency, the offices of the al-Kifah al-Arabi, Beirut Al-Masaa (where they stole the pictures’ archive), Al–Hadaf, the Mourabitoun headquarters, Saout Loubanon Al-Arabi radio, the PLO office in Corniche al-Mazraa, party headquarters and homes of party leaders.
Page 78
Saturday, September 18
Thursday and Friday, the militias committed a horrifying massacre in Sabra and Shatilla. First estimations by an AFP reporter mention 300 casualties mostly women, children and elderly. Other sources mention 500 casualties and 1400 victims, there are one hundred Lebanese among the victims, 46 from one family, al-Mokdad.
Thursday night, armed fighters broke into Akka hospital and killed 10 children, three doctors, one nurse (after raping her), and four Egyptian workers. Eye witnesses say, militiamen were wearing Kaki uniforms like the ones used by the Israeli army. They attacked the camps at night and demolished the houses over the heads of their inhabitants. They gathered young people and shot them. They chased whoever tried to get away to alleys, vestibules, and shelters. They burned down houses and swept them away over their victims. They booby-trapped the corpses to increase the number of casualties. There are traces of knife stabs on some children’s corpses. The criminals used axes. They disemboweled stomachs and acted with the corpses after the killing. They gathered the men in the Sports Stadium and moved hundreds to unknown destinations.
Survivors cried out to the Israeli soldiers asking for help. The officers answered: We do not interfere in the Lebanese internal affairs! The Israeli radio accused the Lebanese forces and the Phalanges Party of the massacre and announced that they ignored it was taking place. Moreover, they claimed that they disarmed and had to shoot some of them. Saad Haddad denies any of his men’s responsibility in the massacre.
Page 80
Sunday, September 19
Sharon declares: the massacres of September 16-17 confirm the necessity for keeping the Israeli troops in Beirut. If they were not present, the massacre would have been more extensive and bloody than it was.
He kills you and wants your recognition for his effort because the massacre was not more extensive and more bloody.
This Israeli wolf sucks gluttonously from the wounds of the civil war.
They accepted the working paper of Philip Habib that dictates bluntly the protection of West Beirut’s security, then licked their signature. They pressured for the fast evacuation of the multi-national force, waited until the army broke down the Lebanese national armed resistance was exhausted, to raid Beirut. This is how Begin-Sharon succeeded in ‘shooting’ the triumphant scene in this Israeli-American long movie: they occupied the “general headquarters of the ‘mukharribin’ in Sabra and Fakhani and they raised the Israeli flag on it. This is called a victory!
They organized this new Deir Yassine massacre in order to displace the highest number possible of Palestinians. Through the massacre, they renewed their control over the perpetrators and concealed their responsibility in the assassination of the elected president elect. Now they want to attract the sympathy of the victims of the massacre by claiming to protect Muslims against other massacres.
Ultimate betrayal. And the crime is complete!
We have to find a solution for this puzzle: who is guiltier? The criminal that paralyzes your resistance or the criminal that stabs you with a knife in your stomach? Damn you, the age of superlatives!
They kill horses, don’t they?
You stare for a long time in this picture published in today’s issue of Annhar of two dead horses next to the corpses in the camps.
Again, Beirut is imitating Picasso’s Guernica. How not, and Guernica tells the story of the Spanish tragedy – the civil war and the Nazi occupation? Guernica 1937: live testing for the latest Nazi inventions of weapons of mass destruction on the eve of the Second World War. Beirut 1982: live testing for the latest products of the deathly arsenal of American mass destruction weaponry in the age of electronic and atomic wars.
Nazism and new Nazism.
Page 82
Guernica’s horse and the horses of Sabra-Shatila: twins born from the womb of one and the same massacre.
Monday, September 20
Rumors that Saad Haddad’s forces came back to the capital unleash a new wave of panic and migration. Saad Haddad reaffirms that his forces did not go beyond the Awali River, but he confesses that some of his troops were spending their vacations in Beirut during the last few days.
Removal of a thousand corpses from the ruins of Sabra and Shatilla camps. The so-called Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners announces its responsibility for the massacre.
Grandiose demonstrations in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and occupied Naqoura under the slogans: Criminal Begin. Shimon Perez calls for the drawing of lessons from the occupation of Beirut and resigns, but he acquits the Israeli army from the massacre. The Israeli council of ministers approves the deployment of the Multinational Forces in Beirut.
Page 91
But here’s a story for you:
Today noon, one of your comrades, Adnan, in the midst of Hamra traffic, took out his gun and advanced steadily to Wimpy restaurant and emptied his bullets in the midst of a group of Israelis in the restaurant, killing one Captain and wounding three soldiers. He retreated efficiently and quickly.
Saturday, September 25
Death and injury of a big number of the enemies’ soldiers. Destruction of two tanks in three operations by the Lebanese National Resistance Front in Beirut’ an attack on the headquarters of the occupation’s forces near Concorde Cinema; assassination of a Captain in Aisha Bakkar, and the blowing of a tank in Jenah.
Israel refuses to retreat before the end of next week. The French contingent in the Multinational Forces refuses to deploy. The Italian contingent returns to Larnaka. Occupation authorities call for a coordination committee between their army and the Lebanese army, and want to keep their forces in the airport, the port, and have the right to patrol West Beirut in search for weapons and armed men. They deny the fact that the American administration has sent them an ultimatum urging withdrawal.
A British reporter accuses Elie Hobeika of being at the head of the Phalanges militiamen in Sabra and Shatilla. A new denial from the Lebanese forces.
Page 92
Saturday 26 September
Creepy Sharon inculpates himself. A big scandal aroused as the defense minister who finally confesses that entering Beirut to force security after the assassination of Bashir Gemayel was only an alibi. However, the real reason was to get rid of the Palestinian fighters. Haaretz describes the Beirut massacre as “Israel’s Watergate”. The number of ministers asking for an investigation committee has risen to four. Rumors say that Sharon has been a scapegoat or Begin being pushed to confront the resignation of his ministry.
Page 93
The Lebanese Prime Minister, Shafiq Al-Wazan, tells his story with Philip Habib, who felt ashamed because Wazan had doubts during the negotiations about the Israeli motives after the withdrawal of the Palestinian fighters. That day, Habib put his hand on his chest and said to Wazan: “My presence guarantees the agreement.”
And there was the invasion and there was the massacre. And Philip Habib returned to Beirut after the massacres and told the Prime minister: “Do you want to hit me?” Then he confessed to him that the United States of America has failed in executing their promises in holding Israel and restraining her from invading West Beirut.
And now what?
The prime minister continues his story, published in today’s newspaper , he says “this time Philip Habib put both his hands on his chest assumingly, again, that his presence is a guarantee of the American promises!”
Believe it or not.
The words are directed to the readers. As for the prime minister, he believed him.
Page 94
Annahar records in “Secrets of Gods” that the Lebanese National Resistance Fronts’ operations hastened the enemy’s decision of withdraw.
The important thing is that Beirut welcomed them with fighting and expelled them with fighting.
The Jerusalem Post: Amir Drory found out about the massacre Thursday evening, September 16th after reading a note from a Phalanges leader saying : “ the result until now is execution of 300 civilians and party members.”
Page 104
A tour in the streets of Beirut.
The normal noise came back to it doubled. Human and car traffic. The lush cars came out from their hiding. Soon a new class of BMWs and Mercedes owners will appear. Peddlers are everywhere. The restaurants have opened shop and turnout is unexpectedly high.
Juice shops and flipper shops proliferate and for some reason; they are the most persistent in hanging flags and presidents’ pictures. Neon lights and advertisements have grown bigger. People are seized by consumer lust. The stunts have increased. Fashion is more westernized and is following the latest trends.
Boutiques grow like mushrooms. Boutiques equal the number of martyrs’. One wonders what the relationship between death and commerce is.
And “Oger- Liban”, the biggest political party in Beirut is lifting up the rubble and sweeping the country clean.