MER Article From the Editors (November/December 1982) The massacre at Sabra and Shatila camps was an episode that immediately transcended the brutal war it was part of. The Israeli commission of inquiry seems almost a distraction from the obvious responsibility of the Begin government in this affair. Many of Begin’s critics regard the massacre as an in The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Relief Efforts in the South Richard Butler is director of the Middle East office for the National Council of Churches. Jim Paul interviewed him in New York in August 1982. When were you in Lebanon? James Paul • 5 min read
MER Article The Prisoners of Israel The Israeli Defense Forces have taken some 9,000 to 10,000 Palestinians and Lebanese prisoner in south Lebanon. Because the Israelis have not released lists of names or figures, the exact number of prisoners currently held cannot be determined. The IDF itself has released its estimate of 7,000 to 9, Judith Tucker • 8 min read
MER Article US and Israeli Weapons in Lebanon I visited Muhammad Sannoun, fourteen and a half years old, at his home in Burj al-Barajna to ask him why he had touched the triangle-shaped cluster bomb that had blown off his right arm. “It looked like some kind of aluminum cup painted red on the top, yellow on the bottom, with a black casing on th June Disney • 7 min read
MER Article The War of Numbers How many people have been killed and wounded in the course of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon? Precise numbers have been hard to assemble because of unsettled conditions, lack of free access to all areas, the incomplete recovery of bodies buried under the rubble, censorship and the tendency on the p Judith Tucker • 9 min read
MER Article Fakhani, 1981 Her shoes were blown off, torn from her feet. That’s all. And the other half of the room, the entire building, simply gone. She was thrown by the force of the blast against her desk, her shoes taken from her in the explosion along with those standing across from her, her friends. An incision was pre Hilton Obenzinger • 8 min read
MER Article The 100-Year War “Israel is fighting in Lebanon,” declared Israel’s armed forces chief of staff Raphael Eitan on July 10, “to win the struggle for Eretz Yisrael.” Addressing officers and soldiers of a front-line armored unit, Eitan declared that “destroying and uprooting the terrorists’ base in Lebanon, would weaken Joan Mandell, Salim Tamari • 8 min read
MER Article Israel's Invasion and the Disarmament Movement On June 12, 1982, over half a million people demonstrated in New York, calling for a halt to the nuclear arms race. The demonstration was unusual in its size, and even more so in the favorable media coverage it received. About the same time, a few thousand people in scattered cities throughout the c Noam Chomsky • 22 min read
MER Article South Lebanon: Behind the News I was working for an American network and I was on the coastal front during the first week. The battle of ‘Ayn al-Hilwa was still going and the Israelis were “mopping up” the resistance forces still there. Then we moved near Khalda, which became the new front. By the last day, I was already in east A Special Correspondent • 10 min read
MER Article Israel's Future in Lebanon Elias Khoury is a Lebanese novelist and literary critic. Nubar Hovsepian is a fellow of the Institute of Arab Research in Beirut. They spoke with MERIP editors Jim Paul, Joe Stork and Sheila Ryan in New York in July 1982. What are Israel’s war aims? Nubar Hovsepian, Elias Khoury • 15 min read
MER Article The Israeli Opposition As the Israeli invasion of Lebanon enters its third month, the polarization of the Israeli public continues. People there have become increasingly aware of the terrible destruction being wrought on the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples by their military machine. More important for most citizens, conc Zachary Lockman • 7 min read
MER Article Dayr Yasin and Qibya What is the meaning of the Israeli parliamentarian's comment that “in Lebanon we have entered with a policy that is a direct continuation of Dayr Yasin and Qibya”? Joe Stork • 2 min read
