Lebanon – The 1982 Sabra and Shatila Massacre | DW Documentary

Lebanon – The 1982 Sabra and Shatila Massacre | DW Documentary

We a re in the Sabra Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, where horrific scenes have played out. This no longer has anything to do with war. What youíre about to see is absolutely terrible. There is no political or human explanation. It is pure hatred.

It is indescribable, but it has to be told, it has to be shown. Beirut occupied by Israel. Bachir Gemayel murdered. It was a tumultuous year. The aim was to cleanse Lebanon right into the heart of the capital. People said things like: We wi ll storm the camps and eliminate their residents.

We will turn Sabra and Shatila into golf courses. We had to stand up against the wall, and someone said: Shoot them. Shots were fired, the screaming stopped. They were dead. It was like something out of Dante, Goya. It was a scene of horror. Christian East Beirut and the Phalangists celebrate the election

Of Bachir Gemayel to the post of president. Itís a victory for the Christians after seven years of war. At the time, no one could have known that their president would be assassinated a few weeks later, on September 14. I met him a few days after the election,

And I can still remember how impressed I was by his love and determination for Lebanon. But compared to his brother and father, Bachir was a fighter. Who would turn out to be implacable. Right at the start of the war, Bachir Gemayel established himself as the leader of the Christian militias.

He had huge charisma and was revered by his supporters. A young man who wanted rapid change, who was ambitious and didnít shy away from violence. Our nation will be a democratic one. It will regain all its sovereignty and independence throughout its constitutionally and internationally recognized territory.

We want our sovereignty and no one meddling in our domestic affairs. Weíre old enough to manage on own. Will Syrian troops withdraw? Theyíll all go. I was very close to Bashir Gemayel, we worked closely together. Bachir presented himself as the candidate who wanted to give Lebanon back to the Lebanese.

Right from the outset he made it clear that he rejected the presence of the Syrians and the Palestinians and all that that entailed. Though I donít want to presume anything. In April 1975, Lebanon a country that had been regarded as a model of religious coexistence was plunged into civil war.

From 1976 to 2005, Syria occupied north and east-central Lebanon; the south of the country was briefly occupied by Israel. In Beirut, the capital that had been split into two, the Phalangist Christian militia, the Maronites, Druze, Sunni, Shia, pro-Syrian forces and Palestinians clashed and set the city ablaze.

When Bachir Gemayel, commander of the Phalangist militia, was elected President in 1982, it was a prospect that raised both hope and fear. My name is Maher Al Sourour. Iím Palestinian and I come from northern Palestine. Iím from a small village in the Safed region in the former Palestinian Mandate.

My family fled to Lebanon in 1948 and I was born in the Shatila refugee camp, where I still live today. After the election of Bachir Gemayel, strange, suspicious people suddenly appeared in the neighborhood. There were rumors that the Lebanese army was spying. Before Bachir Gemayel, there was never any mention of the military

Or any kind of terrorists. Thatís why we were nervous after his election. We were afraid because everyone knew the stories about the Phalangists and other militias. After 1948, some of the Palestinians driven from their homes and scattered throughout the region after the foundation of the State of Israel sought refuge in Lebanon.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization or PLO was founded in 1964. In the years that followed, the military wing of the PLO under Chairman Yasser Arafat carried out terrorist attacks on Israel. After 1970, the PLO operated primarily out of Beirut. In 1982, after Israeli forces invaded,

An agreement over the withdrawal of the PLO was eventually mediated under the auspices of US special envoy Philip Habib. Under the terms of the agreement, Palestinian fighters would leave by ship for Tunisia or overland to Syria, while their families and other civilians could remain in the refugee camps under international protection.

The agreement called for a multinational force under US leadership to monitor the PLO fightersí pullout. Good morning, today weíre reporting on the deaths of two significant people, albeit on very different scales. First, Gemayel. You donít need to be a political expert to understand that after eight years

Of civil war and a Syrian-Israeli occupation, this president could not be the entire solution. Only a leadership that is prepared to compromise and able to maintain balance among the religious communities can achieve the impossible. As leader, adventurer and above all as candidate for the Israelis, his nomination was fraught with risk.

Even though little was said about this, all Middle East observers were aware of it. And he wasnít granted much time to master his new duties and assume his role. On September 14, our world fell apart. A newly elected president was murdered in such a way. The headline in the newspaper read:

ËLike a cedar being felledí and thatís exactly how it was for us. On September 14th, I was in my office when I heard about the attack. They said the entire command center building collapsed on him. It was a great tragedy. The explosion was heard across the entire city.

For hours, the craziest rumors did the rounds: Heís not dead No, heís just injured Heís not even injured, heís unharmed. Until the moment he was found under the rubble. It was devastating. On September 14th, Lebanon was riddled with different militias. There were several Christian militias that Bachir Gemayel

Had united through bloodshed with his own Christian militia, the Forces Libanaises. The Shias had the Amal militia and the Druze also had their own militia. The Sunnis were the only ones without one of their own. They were members of the Murabitun militia, which wasnít just Muslims, but also Christians.

Another mixed militia was the pro-Damascus ëSyrian Social Nationalist Partyí or SSNP. Of course, Damascusís political leaders took issue with the election of Bachir Gemayel because it had been widely known that he was very close to the Israelis since 1981. So he had to be eliminated at all costs.

In the 17 days between August 23rd, the day he was elected, and September 14th, the day he was murdered, he presented himself as a president who wanted to reunite as many Lebanese as possible, to establish a robust, neutral state. His speeches resonated with large numbers of Lebanese youth,

Which is why his murder shocked so many and is seen as a turning point in Lebanese history. Itís part of the mundane daily routine in the life of a journalist: something happens in the world, and you try and get there as fast as possible. Often that turns out to be complicated,

If there are no more flights or ships going to a war zone. You have to set all the wheels in motion and outwit others to get there. When we heard about the attack on Bachir Gemayel, my friend the photographer Marc Simon and I wanted to go to Lebanon immediately.

We knew weíd get as far as Cyprus by plane and from there, we planned to find a boat to take us to Beirut. The Israelis had already invaded Lebanon, but not yet advanced as far as Beirut. We knew weíd be putting ourselves in a very delicate position.

The Israelis and the Phalangists were extremely angry because their leader had been killed. While at sea, we received the devastating news: Grace Kelly had been killed in a car accident. Rather than the death of Grace Kelly itself, we were more shocked at the media competition.

In other words: what with all the articles about Grace Kelly in the newspapers, there wouldnít be much room for our stories on international politics. We tried to block that out as much as we could and did our job just as we always did. But sure, it was quite a blow to our spirits.

We were facing stiff competition. Grace Kelly led an extraordinary life: she was a gifted actress and the wife of Prince Rainier the Third of Monaco. Grace Kelly died of injuries sustained in a car accident. This death wonít do anything to alter the fate of mankind,

Itís just another tragedy to befall a famous family. On September 15th, so a day after the murder of Bachir, we still didnít know who was responsible for the assassination. As intelligence agents we couldnít jump to hasty conclusions. I was deputy chief of the Forces Libanaises intelligence service at the time.

When we later identified the murderer, we had to keep the information to ourselves. People were very careful to keep it a secret even at the highest level. Even the Gemayel family kept it quiet. So only we and our soldiers knew the truth. The rest of the population assumed the Palestinians were to blame.

After all, the Palestinians were the biggest losers in the Israeli invasion. And because Bachir was an ally of the Israelis, everyone blamed the attack on the Palestinians. In the wake of the assassination of Lebanese President-Elect Bashir Gemayel, Israeli troops advanced toward West Beirut. Their goal was to occupy the entire Lebanese capital.

The person giving the orders was Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. Sharon pushed on to Beirut believing that nothing would stand in his way, and that the capital could be reached without sustaining significant losses. The official goal of the Israeli invasion was to extinguish Fatah, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, in South Lebanon.

The government of Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon was egotistic, arrogant and extremely violent. They were determined to use armed force to get their way and create a new Lebanon that would follow Israeli interests as an ally of Israel. After Bachir was murdered, the Israelis let us know that things had changed.

They said: Weíre not sure that the new president will pursue the same interests as Bachir. Thatís why you now need to send your soldiers into the Palestinian camps to monitor them. The Israelis demanded: Now you have to fulfil your side of the bargain, you promised.

Now itís time to prove that youíre our allies. Hobeika, who was head of the security agency of the Christian militia Forces Libanaises, promised them: I can assemble militiamen from all Christian regions, not just members of the Forces Libanaises. Theyíll do the job.

We met the Phalangists on the night of 14th to the 15th of September. Theyíd asked us for help. At this meeting people said things like: Weíll storm the camps and eliminate their residents. Weíll turn Sabra and Shatila into golf courses. Elie Hobeika was in charge. Other high-ranking officials such as Chaftari and Geagea

Were also present but didnít say a word. When Bachir died, the Israeli army and the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad used their connections with particular units of the Forces Libanaises. The Israelis turned to the armed forces that had been given military training by Mossad in Israel. At the time, the Israelis said:

We must take revenge, we must avenge Bachir, this is unacceptable. Of course it was all a big show, but thatís how they managed to bring some Lebanese armed units from southern Lebanon under their control. These armed units trained by Mossad were the ones who later carried out the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

At the time, the Phalangists attracted attention with public slogans. For example, a play on words with the Israeli defence minister Ariel Sharon and ëArielí laundry detergent. The slogan was ëAriel will wash Lebanon whiteí. You could feel something was about to happen. Thursday, September 16th. The Israeli army is advancing on Beirut.

The assassination of Bachir Gemayel leaves it temporarily in control of southern Lebanon. The Israeli military is imposing a curfew on Christians and Muslims to prevent reprisal attacks and violence. I could see Israeli tanks passing by from my office window. It was crazy. It was the first time that an Arab capital

Had been occupied by Israel and there were many absurd moments. That same morning, two people knocked on the door of my office. They said: Weíd like to place an advertisement in your newspaper. I asked: An advertisement for what? They replied: For Israeli cookies and pasta.

Just imagine! They came to my office on the very same day that the Israelis marched into Beirut and wanted me to publish that. I was furious about the Israeli takeover, and they wanted me to run that? We sent them packing, of course. The invasion of Beirut by Israeli troops was a traumatic experience

For the entire Arab world. In 1982, the Israelis were firmly set on cleansing Lebanon right into the heart of the capital. When we arrived at the port of Beirut, Israeli troops had already begun their advance into the city. At that point in time, the death of Bachir Gemayel had become a secondary concern;

That his brother was now going to be president was also unimportant. The big event was the Israelisí invasion of Beirut. We entered a city at war, where things were pretty violent. But how do you get to the front when youíre already behind the line of attack?

Of course, we didnít want to stay back with the Israeli soldiers, that wasnít interesting. We wanted to report from the other side. We found a taxi, though calling it that is an overstatement. A guy drove us in his car straight into an active battle zone

Between the Israeli army and the Lebanese defense forces, in this case a simple citizensí militia. It definitely wasnít a trained militia. The government of Menachem Begin has decided to finish off what it has started: the annihilation of all resistance in West Beirut. You want to control all Beirut?

Take out the dirt from Beirut once and for all and to get back to our boat and leave peacefully and quietly. It was Sharonís plan from the outset to capture Beirut. He wanted to go to Beirut to completely liquidate the remaining Palestinians living in Sabra and Shatila.

Before the start of the invasion there were very intensive talks with Bachir on the involvement of Lebanese armed forces in Israeli army missions, and particularly during delicate operations. Sharon insisted that the Forces Libanaises should be involved in the cleansing of Sabra and Shatila. It was one of Sharonís primary goals

To break Palestinian resistance in Lebanon. When we arrived in the Sunni neighborhood of Basta, we found ourselves in the midst of the battle. The Murabitun militia in particular were putting up robust resistance and fought as though they were the last bastion against the Israeli army.

Thatís why we had to take a break in Basta, and we spent the night in the house of a local man. I noticed the glow that night. That night in Basta, we saw the flares. Without realizing it, we were witnessing the massacre.

As night fell, we saw flares and heard shots being fired in the alleyways. It was light for a moment, and we made sure the children were playing safely in their houses. At some point, my sister called out for me. She was looking outside through the doorway and said:

Maher, look at that, theyíre all dead. I thought she was trying to scare me, and I went over to her. In the light of a flare I was able to recognize my neighbor Abou Reda lying on the ground. He was crying out for help. I went over to him.

There were dead bodies lying on top of him. Because it was so dark, I could only make out his eyes. He said heíd been shot. His body was lying under a mountain of corpses with only his head poking out. They shot us, help me, he said.

There were more dead people behind our house, directly beneath our window. We didnít hear anything when we were inside the house, although the bodies were lying just five meters away. On my way back to the house I was stepping on corpses. But I didnít realize that until the next morning.

We lived in permanent fear from that moment on. I didnít have a clue what was happening, but my father understood the gravity of the situation. It was a massacre. As the shooting raged on outside, he smoked and paced the hallway. The next morning I was tired and stayed sitting in my chair.

My father hadnít slept all night either. A neighbor came by and wanted to go up on our roof. She wanted to see if her house had been destroyed. She went up on the roof and encountered armed men there. They wanted to know who she was.

Within a matter of seconds, they were in our house. Jerusalem, Friday, September 17, 9 a.m. The media still has no information about the massacres in Beirutís Palestinian refugee camps. After the assassination of Bachir Gemayel there was an imminent danger of total anarchy.

We were forced to take harsh steps to ensure order and security in the first instance. And also to prevent a resurgence of terrorist cells in Beirut. On the morning of September 17, we left Basta to return to our hotel. That was the first time we heard about the quote unquote ëriotsí.

No one was calling it a massacre at the time, just riots in the camps. Marc and I wondered what the relentless shooting was, coming from the direction of the camps. We took a taxi to the south of Beirut, to the entrance of the Sabra and Shatila camps.

The atmosphere there was one of desolation. We were stopped by militiamen who unnerved us. You could tell that the guys were on edge. They were all high on drugs. They were boiling over with anger because their leader Bachir Gemayel had been killed. These men were from Elie Hobeikaís militia.

They were notorious for their lawlessness and brutality, even among the Forces Libanaises. The Phalangists were a militia. Its founder was Pierre Gemayel, the father of Bachir Gemayel. Heíd travelled to Berlin in 1936 and took a liking to all the young people in uniform who obeyed orders, sang beautiful songs and took up arms.

He set out to import this ideology into Lebanon. After his return from Germany, he founded the Phalangist party, recruited members and trained them. As time went on, the Phalangists became proxies for the Israelis. In fact, they became Israeli fighters. As the Israeli Chief of Staff said: Anyone insulting or attacking a Phalangist

Is attacking an Israeli soldier, because the Phalangists are our soldiers and we are theirs, we belong together. Of course, the Phalangists were trained in Israel and equipped by the Israelis. Our ties with the Phalangists didnít just begin on September 15, but many years before that.

For example, they supported us by being the first to advance into western Beirut. Our good relationship lasted throughout the entire war. When I arrived at headquarters, I was told that the Phalangists would invade the camps and not us, which I was very relieved about. It was never about carrying out a massacre.

It was our duty to ensure that no one in the camp was armed. And if we did find someone with a weapon, we would either arrest or kill them. It was my job to gather all the information from the camps. As well as the soldiers from the roof,

Another unit came through the door of the house. They questioned us. They asked my father what he did for a living. He replied that he repaired telephones and that he had gone to school in the Achrafieh district; he was an ordinary working man, nothing more.

They didnít arrest him, but they asked him if he had any money. He said he had some in the bedroom and he went to fetch it. A soldier followed him and called out: And now, kill them. I fled from the bedroom through the kitchen into the bathroom and hid.

I was sure they would find and kill me, but miraculously they didnít. They were just blinded by fury. My brothers and sisters hid in another corner of the house. Thatís when the fear really took hold, we were trapped. I heard my mother and father crying out: By god, leave us in peace,

Weíve done nothing wrong, then shots were fired, and the crying stopped. Theyíd killed them. From the bathroom I watched as my brothers and sisters went down one by one. After a while my sister Shadia, who was lying between my father and mother, moved. She touched my father and said ëPapaí,

But he was dead Theyíd shot him in the back. Then she turned to my mother and did the same. In vain. And she stayed there, lying between them. It was a horrific scene. We stayed where we were for a while without saying a word.

When we left the house, we discovered more and more dead people. At the back of the house lay our neighbor and friend SaÔd. We had to step over several corpses to get to him. SaÔd was lying next to another neighbor whose face was pressed into the asphalt. I didnít recognize all the faces,

But I could see the logos of the Forces Libanaises, the Phalangists and other militias. This massacre was carried out by the Forces Libanaises under the command of Elie Hobeika. He was head of security for the Forces Libanaises and driven by a desire for revenge. Although the death of Bachir was the trigger,

His attitude was nothing new and sooner or later there would have been a reckoning. Hobeika, we called him HK after the Heckler & Koch machine gun that he carried, was extremely charismatic and represented the military like no other. He was the military, and I was the intelligence service.

The unit for this operation consisted of men who didnít fit into our system and who also didnít live in our system. Many of them had absolved very good service during the war and some of them were even true heroes. They were available and were sent to the camp to conduct the operation.

I donít know if the cleansing order came from Elie Hobeika alone. But I heard him say the following: no mercy for the prisoners. The message to his men was clear. The Phalangistsí radio communication took place exclusively on the frequency 3500. Thanks to my driver and interpreter, I was able to listen in.

Thatís how I discovered that the Phalangists were killing their prisoners, including women and children. The massacre took place in this street. The victims were lying here, I can still remember it very well. They were herded together, children and women, even pregnant women. The victims lay there, and over there too.

That was the house of Abu Karim, this one here was the house of our friend Jaber. There were bodies lying here too. The militiamen just went into the houses and killed the residents. This street was full of corpses. They entered here? Yes, or they left through the street, I canít remember exactly.

This was our house here. They came to us along this alleyway. My father was old and disabled and we children were still very young. We heard screams from the neighbors. My brother Nidal and another neighbor went to the door to see what was going on.

Then there was a hammering on our door and my father opened it. We thought they were Israelis, but they spoke in Lebanese dialect. As they entered, I was very scared and hid behind my father. He said to me: Donít be afraid, theyíll just ask us a few questions and be on their way.

They asked my father if he was a member of a militia and he replied that he wasnít, and that in any case he had a paralyzed hand which meant he couldnít even hold a gun let alone fire one. They started hurling insults and eventually said: Stand up against the wall.

As we did so, one of them cried out: Shoot them, and another said: give me your gun. I was carrying my sister Shadia, she was one year and two months old, can you imagine? She really couldnít do anyone any harm and they still shot at her.

Shadia screamed for our mother, and I held her tight to calm her down. Then they shot at her again and she fell out of my arms. She cried out twice ëMama, Mamaí and when he shot at her a third time, her voice fell silent forever.

I fell down next to her and pretended to be dead. When the men had gone, I stood up. It was the worst thing in the world, I was surrounded by my dead brothers and sisters. I couldnít protect my dear little sister. Thatís what hurts the me most to this day,

I shouldíve protected her and died with her. The Israelis let it happen. They could have prevented the militias from entering the camp or even getting anywhere near them. I mean, they were there on the ground and controlling the entire thing. The Israelis must have realized from the outset

What they were dealing with here. Even if they didnít know beforehand, the entire time they had all the means at their disposal to prevent it. Before the massacre took on these gigantic proportions. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. Iím giving this interview as a way of processing the matter

And freeing myself from it. This event has had a profound emotional and moral impact on me. On the morning of September 18, we entered the camps with a number of other journalists. We hailed a taxi and drove immediately to Sabra and Shatila. What we found there was totally unimaginable.

We couldnít believe our eyes. It was surreal, there was no one on the streets. We entered the camp and took the first alleyway on the right. And what was revealed to us there was hell, apocalypse and slaughterhouse all at once. These are photos of sheer horror. This family above all.

The child thatís holding on to its sister, the mother who couldnít protect her, the father, the baby, the whole family lay there. Itís a mass grave. This woman was raped and killed. It was hot, the corpses were already bloated. An elderly Palestinian man who was looking for his family

Led us through the camp. Like a bookkeeper, I wanted to document and understand the full extent of this massacre. The invaders had mowed everything down, theyíd even shot the pets with their machine guns. I tried to count the corpses, but I stopped after a few hundred.

We went deeper into the camp and there were children lying everywhere, women whoíd been raped, old people. It was horror, horror, horror. Towards midday we heard the first weeping women. Behind every door we opened we saw another massacre. Children shot dead in their beds. That was all so It was absolute hell.

We started making our own enquiries and discovered markings on the walls. A cedar symbol together with arrows and the abbreviation MP for military police. We followed the arrows in the opposite direction. The markings began in the east, in other words in the Phalangist zone, and passed behind the airport.

There were evidently troops whoíd spent the night in hangars and sheds and then returned to the camps in the morning. The Phalangists had never been in West Beirut and without the markings, they wouldnít have found the way. The markings led us over these hills with a view over the airport

And finally to the Israeli headquarters. Itís a six-story building with a roof terrace on the 7th floor. It was guarded around the clock by an Israeli tank. In the former Israeli headquarters we found detailed plans for the invasion of the Sabra and Shatila camps. Even though it had been agreed

That the Israelis would never enter the camps. We discovered drawings on the walls with arrows for the different military units. It was definitely a plan, maybe not for an invasion, but definitely for an attack. We were shocked. Then we went up on the roof of the old UN building,

From where we had a perfect view of Sabra and Shatila. So the Israelis had an unimpeded view of what was happening in the camps, minute by minute. We walked around, the Red Cross had in the meantime begun wrapping the corpses in sheets.

I recognized the body of my younger sister and my neighbor Leila, but I couldnít find my older sister. I looked for a corpse in her size in a red dress, because often the faces of the dead were no longer recognizable. Theyíd even torn half the head off one victim.

There were dead children everywhere, but I couldnít find my sister among them. I had the opportunity to talk to one of the militiamen who was involved in the whole thing. He had killed and massacred people. He was heavily under the influence of drugs throughout the entire operation.

And he probably wasnít the only one. Itís like that in all the militias. But he confessed it to me. I found waking up the next day very hard. Normally, you could say youíre lucky to be waking up at all. But only if you want to wake up.

For us it was the battle of all battles. Harder than the whole war. I wonder, whatís more difficult? Admitting your mistakes to God, or admitting them to yourself? And worse, admitting them to others? History books generally portray the massacre as a consequence of the murder of Bachir Gemayel,

On the grounds that his particularly angry supporters set out to avenge his death. There was a whole series of extremist literature coming from the Lebanese right wing and Israel characterizing Palestinians as parasites and saying that the camps needed to be cleansed. These are the words that preceded the killing.

And now weíre talking about between 800 to 3000 victims, according to the source. A massacre of huge dimensions. When Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin was criticized by international media for what had happened in Sabra and Shatila, he came up with a terrible formulation.

He said: Goyim kill goyim and they come to hang the Jews. So basically, itís Arabs killing other Arabs. Why are you blaming us Israelis? I have many regrets, not just concerning this incident, but the war as a whole. Throughout the entire war I always tried not to kill civilians,

But I still gave this order. So I did kill. With full awareness of what I was doing. Assaad Chaftari confirmed everything to me and realized that he had also committed murder. He went down on his knees in front of me to apologize and I respect him for that.

Weíre not used to coming to terms with the past as is customary in the West. Acknowledging the past, admitting responsibility, asking for forgiveness, receiving forgiveness, reconciling, making amends weíre not used to all that. I respect him for apologizing to me, but most of those responsible in senior positions carry on

As though nothing happened. Thereís no future without forgiveness. But we humans donít know how to forgive. We prefer to forget. Thatís no way to resolve conflicts.

In September 1982 in Beirut, hundreds of Palestinian refugees were murdered. The massacre was carried out in an atmosphere of rising political tensions following the assassination of a Christian politician. Christian militias exacted revenge on innocent people.

One of the worst atrocities of the Lebanese civil war, a massacre took place from 16 to 18 September 1982 in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in southern Beirut. Christian Phalange militias carried out a massacre of Palestinian refugees. They roamed the camps murdering, raping and torturing hundreds of Palestinian refugees, Shia women, men and children. The Israeli army, which was occupying Beirut at the time and surrounded the camps, looked on as their allies went on their brutal rampage.

The Christian Lebanese politician Bashir Gemayel had just been elected president. But before he could take office, he was killed in a bomb attack blamed on the Syrian intelligence agency. The Christian Phalange militias, allied with Israel, believed that the Palestinian Liberation Organization or PLO was behind the assassination – and sought revenge. Despite the historic impact of the event, more than 40 years later, there have been no convictions.

The film gives voice to victims of the massacre, as well as to witnesses — including the novelist Jean Genet, who was one of the first to enter the camps after the carnage. By exploring declassified archives in Israel and Lebanon, and gathering previously unseen testimonies, the documentary sheds light on both the motives and the circumstances that led to the tragedy. Through gripping firsthand accounts of both perpetrators and victims, the film also deciphers the historical and geopolitical issues behind this massacre.

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