Palestine Bannering – Remember the Sabra & Shatila Massacre

Palestine Bannering – Remember the Sabra & Shatila Massacre
Thursday, September 17th @ 5pm on the Loring Park footbridge (on the side of the park near the Walker Art Center)

On September 16-18, 1982, pro-Israel militiamen murdered hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians living in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. The massacre was carried out at the orders of the invading Israeli army, which had surrounded and besieged the neighborhoods before the attacks. This year on September 17, to remember and denounce the massacre we will be bannering over I-94, at the Loring Park footbridge at 5pm.

The anniversary comes on the heels of the horrific Beirut explosion of August 4, which killed at least 180 people and crippled Lebanese infrastructure. What’s less known is that Lebanon already had been struggling under new US sanctions, quietly imposed in June. US sanctions are contributing to Covid deaths, inflation, shortages and mass unemployment in the Beirut explosion aftermath. Last week, the Trump administration discussed plans for even more sanctions on Lebanon.

The Sabra and Shatila Massacre reminds us that solidarity with Palestine means solidarity with Lebanon. Half a million Palestinian refugees still live in Lebanon, where conditions remain poor. Lebanon and Palestine share an interconnected history of struggle against US-Israeli occupation. The massacre took place during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which led to Israeli occupation of Lebanon’s south until 2000. In 2006, another Israeli invasion was repelled, but Israel inflicted enormous harm across Lebanon with Gaza-style aerial bombings. The US has its own direct history of violence in Lebanon, including a US military expedition in 1958, bombing campaigns in the 1980s, and the current sanctions regime.

On September 17, join us to remember the Sabra and Shatila Massacre by demanding:

–Right of return for Palestinian refugees to their national homeland, Palestine
–Immediate lifting of US sanctions on Lebanon
–End US aid to Israel
Organized by the Anti-War Committee