Talk:Sabra and Shatila massacre/Archive 6

"Shatila" vs "Chatila"

There is a redirect from a page called "Sabra and Chatila massacre". At Archive 2 it was agreed to only use "Shatila". However, the English-language literature of the time spells the term with the (apparently) French rendering of "Chatila". Further, use of "Chatila" is still present in English language news. Is it permissible to include the alternative spelling at the beginning of this article? The lede would then read:

The Sabra and Shatila massacre (also known as the Sabra and Chatila massacre) was the killing ...

Thank you. Te Karere (talk) 08:58, 14 October 2018 (UTC)

References

Status of the Macbride commission

At present the text is unclear whether the International Commission had any formal standing. Are there RS which define its status?Martinlc (talk) 13:01, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

"Phalangists"

I have removed all references to the Phalangists in this article. By September 1982, the Phalagists (al-Kataeb) had no independent military forces. All Lebanese Front military forces had been united within the Lebanese Forces, under the commad of Bashir Jumayil.

Jokkmokks-Goran (talk) 23:17, 19 September 2021 (UTC)

Massacre

Addition to category Category:Massacres committed by Israel was reverted with reason "not committed by Israel" when the lead clearly states "The Lebanese Forces were ordered by the IDF to clear Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters out of Sabra and Shatila, as part of the IDF maneuvering into West Beirut. The IDF received reports of some of the Lebanese Forces atrocities in Sabra and Shatila but did not take any action to prevent or stop the massacre." So because they only ordered it they are not responsible, I guess? Selfstudier (talk) 21:52, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

The first line of teh lead states "The Sabra and Shatila massacre (also known as the Sabra and Chatila massacre)[4][5] was the killing of between 460 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, by the militia of Lebanese Forces, a Maronite Christian Lebanese right-wing party, It doesn't get any clearer than that. The IDF did not order a massacre. Inf-in MD (talk) 22:06, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

More evidence from a book on the massacre

Quote from page 72 of book "From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Dr. Ang Swee Chai, c1989, as below: " I hoped that the sacrifice of two thousand four hundred Palestinians and Lebanese from Sabra and Shatila camp (this was the official Red Cross figure announced on 22 September, which was derived from an actual body count) would not go to waste... " Eunice2021 (talk) 08:52, 6 November 2021 (UTC)

Revenge in the lead

The last sentence of the lead blames Israel for ignoring the danger of revenge, but "revenge" isn't mentioned anywhere else in the lead.

It seems to make sense to add a sentence, or partial sentence, to make it clear that this massacre was at least in part an act of retaliation and revenge.

From the article:

"Following the assassination of Lebanese Christian President Bachir Gemayel, the Phalangists sought revenge."

As for the timeline, Gemayel was assassinated on September 14, this massacred began just two days later.

Any objections?

-- Bob drobbs (talk) 03:56, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 4 December 2021

"The Israeli Army surrounded Sabra and Shatila and stationed troops at the exits of the area to prevent camp residents from leaving and, at the request of the Lebanses Forces, fired illuminating flares at night."

Change "Lebanses" to "Lebanese". Scotty1141 (talk) 09:05, 4 December 2021 (UTC)

Done. “WarKosign” 09:59, 4 December 2021 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 21 January 2023

Ariel Sharon was directly involved in the massacres by encouraging the militia to end the lives of Palestinians living in the camps. 219.88.97.243 (talk) 08:58, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Cannolis (talk) 09:12, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 11 September 2022

Current list of perpetrators only includes “Lebanese Forces militia under Elie Hobeika”

Per UN commission findings cited in article, please change listing of perpetrators to include Israel, Mossad, and the Israeli Defence Forces. Pxsarkany (talk) 00:43, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit extended-protected}} template. Thinker78 (talk) 00:54, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

The UN commission findings did not mention the Mossad even once, in any context, so it is dubious to list the Mossad as a perpetrator "Per UN commission findings". Regarding whether the Mossad was a perpetrator regardless of the commission findings - no academic literature on the subject suggests Mossad responsibility for the massacre. As to listing Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces as perpetrators, legal responsibility (which is indeed attributed to Israel/IDF in the cited commission findings) does not lead to the conclusion that the party was a perpetrator in the crime. The UN commission findings attribute legal responsibility to Israel as an occupying power (quote from the report - "The Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities bear a heavy legal responsibility, as the occupying power, for the massacres at Sabra and Chatila"), not as a perpetrator. The UN commission report does not state that the IDF perpetrated the massacre. The proposed change does not have basis in the cited source, and is controversial at best when considering other academic sources and legal verdicts in various jurisdictions. Listing of Israel, the Mossad, and the IDF as perpetrators would damage Wikipedia's credibility and neutrality. PolypeptideChain (talk) 09:03, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

A note about the "heavy legal responsibility" (currently absent) seems like it might be worth adding somewhere. Which one is the report this came from? Iskandar323 (talk) 10:04, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

Still missing the note about "heavy legal responsibility" (McBride, 1983). Te Karere (talk) 20:24, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Elie Hobeika

There needs to be an emphasis on how Elie Hobeika's forces were the perpetrators throughout the text. The blame should not be put on the Lebanese Front organization collectively! Prodrummer619 (talk) 13:10, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Fix citation

On section "Ariel Sharon's "personal responsibility" for massacre", the cited quote is wrong.

Sentence should be changed from:

The Kahan Commission concluded Israeli Defense minister Sharon bore personal responsibility "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge" and "not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed."

to:

The Kahan Commission concluded Israeli Defense minister Sharon bore personal responsibility "for having disregarded the prospect of acts of vengeance and bloodshed" and "for not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre."

See page 282-283 of the citation source: https://archive.org/details/israelslebanonwa0000schi/page/282/mode/2up?view=theater Slavery-slasher (talk) 16:42, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

Motive and Perpetrators

Currently the motive is given as "Assassination of Bachir Gemayel", it should read as "Response to assassination of Bachir Gemayel". Also should the motive be included in the infobox? It seems like it may be too complex/nuanced for the infobox, especially since it involved at least two different parties/perpetrators, presumably each with differing motives to some degree.

Also we may consider presenting the perpetrators section of the infobox as:

Lebanese Forces
•Supported by Israeli Defence Forces

Rather than listing them both as "Lebanese Forces" & "Israeli Defence Forces (indirect)"

IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 00:20, 26 November 2023 (UTC)

Regarding this edit dispute [1]: Many/most Wikipedia pages for massacres don't include the motive parameter. Often it is something too complex to simply summarise and thus doesn't belong in the infobox, and it is unecessary to include in the infobox anyway. MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE: "When considering any aspect of infobox design, keep in mind the purpose of an infobox: to summarize (and not supplant) key facts that appear in the article (an article should remain complete with its summary infobox ignored, with exceptions noted below). The less information it contains, the more effectively it serves that purpose, allowing readers to identify key facts at a glance."

For example in this case, even the lead of this article includes the following regarding the motive: "Fawwaz Traboulsi writes that while the massacre was presented as a reaction to the assassination of Bachir, it represented the posthumous achievement of his "radical solution" to Palestinians in Lebanon, who he thought of as "people too many" in the region. Later, the Israeli army's monthly journal Skira Hodechith wrote that the Lebanese Forces hoped to provoke "the general exodus of the Palestinian population" and aimed to create a new demographic balance in Lebanon favouring the Christians."

@Skitash, IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 21:30, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

Whitewashing concerns

Note that this is not an accusation, but a raising of concerns which I believe ought to be discussed

Recent edits by Homerethegreat here [2] (which were reverted [3]) seem to be attempts to whitewash the role of the Israeli military in this event.

I fear Homerethegreat may have WP:CONFLICTOFINTEREST or political bias regarding this subject, specifically a pro-Israel bias. Recent contributions also seem to suggest this.

Pinging @nableezy as well, who reverted the edits.

IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 20:47, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Also note that "it is not a personal attack to question an editor about their possible conflict of interest on a specific article or topic", per WP:WIAPA. IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 20:58, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Hey there, so the statement, especially its strong wording can be considered as casting asperations. However, I believe this stems from a misunderstanding. The sources which were referred to as supporting the statement that Israel supported the massacre actually have no such wording. Since the sources do not support the statement that Israel supported the massacre and the several changes done in the past 2 months from what I saw that seemed to have changed the nature of the lead and led to what I described in my edit summary as - gross misrepresentation of historical events, oversimplifying narrative and ommitting important detail and context.

It is important for the encyclopedia not to misinform the readers. According to sources as well as legally as per the Kahan commission, the Israeli military bears indirect responsibility, with Israel firing the Defense minister as well as holding personnel responsible for not having intervened.

Therefore, the sentences need to reflect the above, that the IDF holds indirect responsibility. However, not that Israel supported the massacre since that misinforms and implies that Israel supported the idea of massacring; that is counter to the sources. Homerethegreat (talk) 07:48, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

References

As a random page watcher, the assertion that an editor having a political opinion/bias is tantamount to a WP:Conflict of interest, if I'm understanding IOHANNVSVERVS's argument correctly, is contrary to policy and should be stricken. Furthermore, evidence of any genuine COI (if it exists) would need to be presented in an appropriate administrative forum, rather than this talk page. Regards,TheTimesAreAChanging (talk) 08:51, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

Hello @TheTimesAreAChanging thanks for stopping by. I assume that @IOHANNVSVERVS did not do this out of ill intentions and of course I'll be happy to work together on the issue of the discussion. If it's ok with @IOHANNVSVERVS I'll be happy if we can continue the discussion under a new topic title :). @TheTimesAreAChanging Thanks for stopping by. Homerethegreat (talk) 20:51, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

The claim that Israel did not support the massacre is completely fabricated and based on absolutely no sourcing. See for example

• Lewin, Eyal (2013). Ethos Clash in Israeli Society. Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-8407-3. The Christians entered the Sabra and Shatila camps during the evening, and very soon the IDF was asked to help them by firing illuminating flares over the whole place. In spite of preliminary warnings and immediate reports that were forwarded to headquarters in real time, the IDF officers as well as the Israeli political leadership failed to restrain the Christian phalangists. For forty-eight hours the Christians massacred the Palestinians of Sabra and Shatila; the Israeli command turned a blind eye and ordered the IDF troops to keep the camps sealed from the outside and to continue firing illuminating flares.

Israel provided support and cover for their allies who performed the massacre. nableezy - 22:14, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

Exactly, and there are plenty of sources like that. Zero^talk 23:51, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 9 December 2024

Please change the highest estimated number of casualties from 3,500 to 4,500, as stated by the Lebanese Red Cross (quoted in this UN report). 5.61.122.219 (talk) 13:03, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

 Not done First, the linked document is not a UN report, it is a 2021 submission by an NGO to the UN Human Rights Council. Second, the submission mentions 4,000-4,500 (not 4,500) and is sourced to Bayan Nuwayhed's Sabra and Shatila, September 1982. Regards, --Goldsztajn (talk) 07:22, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

Are there modern sources that state the number of casualties as low as 460?

- The current source that the article links seems to be critical of the claim. (Israel's lebanon war : Ze'Ev Schiff : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive)

- If there are no modern-day credible sources that support the 460 figure, I think the sidebar should be changed (prehaps to the Israeli lowerbound?)

- My reasoning is, if I say "some people wrongly believe X", you surely can't quote me as proof X is true.

- Or put another way, if no one currently believes that the number can be this low (then there is no dispute about it). Bowad91017 (talk) 18:29, 14 January 2024 (UTC)

This seems like a good point. The report of Assad Germanos is far from reliable, even concluding that "the political and militia leadership of the Christian Phalangist Party was not responsible for the massacre"[4]

Should the lower number be changed to 700 per the cited Ze'ev Schiff source which states "the Kahan Commission adopted the estimate of Israeli intelligence (700-800 dead)"? IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 08:39, 27 January 2024 (UTC)