Palestinians under renewed attack
1987Jim Richter 1987-03Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 16 →
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The Palestinian struggle is once again under heavy attack.
On one level, there is a real danger of direct U.S. military intervention in the region in the aftermath of the kidnappings of four Beirut professors, three of them Americans.
In early February, the U.S. Sixth Fleet was mobilized just 50 miles off the coast of Lebanon. Two U.S. aircraft carriers were prepared for possible air strikes against Lebanon, Syria, or Iran.
These recent sabre-rattling threats against the Arab and Palestinian masses are not to be dismissed.
In January 1984, U.S. battleships indiscriminately pounded civilian areas in the Moslem sectors of West Beirut with their offshore cannonades. The battleship USS New Jersey, alone, inflicted hundreds of casualties.
Refugee camps under siege Meanwhile, a major attack on the Palestinian movement has been unfolding in Lebanon in the refugee camps of Burj-alBarajneh, Chatila, and Rashidieh. Since last October, these camps have been under siege by the Syrian-backed Amal militias.
According to the Agence France-Presse, some 50,000 Palestinians in these camps were cut off from sources of food and medical care by the Amal militias.
Reports by French journalists describe people trapped in basements and tunnels who were forced to eat rats and dogs. The Amal forces repeatedly blocked convoys Throughout this period, moreover, Israeli planes continued to bomb Palestinian civil -ian targets throughout Lebanon —including the refugee camps near Tyre and Beirut.
On Feb. 12, Israeli planes attacked Mieh Mieh, near the port of Sidon in southern Lebanon, killing two Palestinians and injuring eight others.
Who are the Amal militias?
Amal is the organization whose forces, frequently with Syrian and Israeli aid, have repeatedly attacked Palestinian organiza -tions and camps since the late 1970s.
While Amal forces have fought Israeli troops, their unrelenting attacks on the Palestinians demonstrate they are not a revolutionary or anti-imperialist force.
Syrian President Hafez al-Assad has been only too happy to give the Amal militias support in their murderous onslaught against the Palestinians. The Syrian government is intent on destroying any force in Lebanon not under its control or dependent on its patronage.
Assad wants a divided client state in Lebanon that will ensure Syria's place among the Arab capitalist governments in future negotiations with the Israeli state.
Resistance not broken
The Palestinian masses have suffered terrible blows at the hands of the Israelis and Arab reactionary governments. But,