The Sabra we know very well: 40 years on a massacre (Warning : Extreme Graphic)

Last week, many Marvel fans in the Arab World were shocked to know that one of the Comics giant’s upcoming films will feature an Israeli superhero called Sabra who is originally a Mossad agent fighting none other than Arab terrorists.

We know firsthand in real life how Arab terrorists span to include every Palestinian in the occupied territories. We know also that for decades how Arabs and Muslims were depicted in comics but still, it is amazing how Marvel and DC got fans in the Arab and Muslim world in the first place, we are not that closed-minded.

We know how we have been depicted for decades in Western media.

The news about Sabra was like a slap because it was not only about glamourizing a superhero that works for a government that has no problem killing civilians as well as occupying other countries’ territories disrespecting international laws and ignoring security council resolutions.

But it was also about the name of that superhero: Sabra.

Aside from meaning patient in Arabic in its feminine form, Sabra is associated in the collective Arab memory, especially in the Levant with one of the worst and darkest moments in its modern history: The Sabra and Shatila massacre.

Remembering Sabra and Shatila's victims in 1999 
"Getty Images" 

In case you do not know my dear reader, from 16 to 18 September 1982 radical Lebanese Christian Lebanese Forces Militias killed between 850 to 1500 Palestinians and Shia Lebanese in Sabra neighbourhood and Shatila refugees camp by the orders of the Israeli forces. “Some say that the victims real number reached 3500 people”

"Warning: extreme graphic photos after the break" 

From June till September 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon to officially root out the Palestinian Liberation Front “PLO” committing a string of war crimes for which to this day it was not held accountable.

According to what is officially known, the Israeli army gave its orders to its allies in Lebanon the Lebanese Forces militias to get rid of the PLO fighters in Sabra and Shatila.

Two days earlier exactly on 14 September 1982, Lebanese President the /leader of Lebanese Phalanges/leader of Lebanese Forces/war criminal and war prince Bachir Gemayel was killed in an explosion.

The Lebanese forces militias went on a revenge rampage in Sabre and Shatila killing every living creature there. Women, Children and the elderly were not spared.

The victims of Sabra and Shatila by Alain Mingam on 19 September 
Getty Images 

For nearly three days, the militiamen killed civilian unarmed people in their homes. 

A whole family of four people shot down in their home in Sabra
and Shatila Massacre by Michel Philippat on 18 September 1982
"Getty Images"

They reportedly tortured men and raped as well as killed women in the worst ways ever.

You can see here an old man from his hair whose hands were tied
killed in Sabra and Shatila massacre. The photo was taken by Michel Philippot 
on 18 September 

For nearly three days the carnage continued under the eyes of the Israeli forces and their approval. Ironically, I read that during that invasion of Lebanon, the Israeli government then promised the US administration then it would not come near the Palestinian refugee camps but since when Israel respected its promises!!??

Israeli soldiers sitting outside Shatila camp in Beirut and Nasser's
photo hanging on that column by Michel Philippot on 18 September 
1982. "Getty Images" 

It is worth mentioning that Israeli war criminal and late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was involved in that massacre. He was a defence minister then. It amazes me how to see Sharon’s name jumping in war crimes involving Arabs whether directly or indirectly in the last century. This man’s career is like a string of war crimes!!

One of the survivors of the massacre crying in front of
 Michel Philippot's camera on 18 September 1982 "Getty images"

Back to Beirut in that week in that black September 1982, the smell of death spread across Sabra and Shatila for miles and the scenes were too horrifying for all the reporters and photographers who entered that zone.

The victims of Sabra and Shatila were buried
in mass graves by the Red Cross "Getty Images" 

Hell, you can smell that stench from the photos taken already. Many of that massacre’s photos were taken whether taken in black and white or in colour and you just feel the horror from those captured scenes.

The smell was horrible for the medics afterwards the
Sabra and Shatila massacre "Getty images" 

Bachir Gemayel who got blood on his hands including the blood of his fellow Lebanese Christians was killed in a bomb explosion planted by none other than Leftist Lebanese Habib Shartouni “He was Maronite Christian ironically”.

Shartouni was arrested on the same day the Gemayel’s militia stormed Sabra and Shatila by the Lebanese Forces Militia, so they knew that the people there were not involved but it did not matter.

The current leader of Lebanese Phalanges and MP Samy Gemayel apologized for the role of the Lebanese phalanges in 2016.

It is an important move but still a small move because the Lebanese political powers especially the rest of those radical militias that were in the Lebanese Forces are not ready to confess what they had done. If you open the talk with them, they will start the infamous “what about what the Palestinian fighters did !!”

Two old men killed in Sabra and Shatila massacre
by Michel Philippot on 18 September 1982 "Getty Images"

Already I wonder, how those so-called Lebanese forces fighters returned back to their homes feeling victorious after committing that massacre!? How did they move on with their lives!? 

Part of me tells me that they did not move on with their lives easily and that the ghosts of those victims haunted them. Part of me wants to believe in that. 

The survivors of the massacre mourning a victim in some macabre 
photo "Getty Images"

This is our Sabra and Shatila and this is what we remember when we hear the word “Sabra”.

It is not a humus brand or some Hebrew word for those Israelis born in occupied Palestine. It is the half name of a horrible massacre.

For Disney and Marvel’s luck that their news about Israeli Sabra came at the same time, we remember the 40^th anniversary of this horrible massacre.

That horrible massacre showed how the world does not really care if the victims are Arabs, Muslims, and Brown. It was another reminder of how biased the world is.

Amazingly how the world gave a pass to Israel for invading another country’s capital and participating in horrifying war crimes only for the sake of protecting its own national security and unsurprisingly that did not bring peace or security and stability to Israel and its people!!

Up till now, the victims of Sabra and Shatila have not got any kind of justice or true world recognition.

It is a fact.