Massacre of Lebanese Christians in Damour (1976) by PLO Islamists Yasser Arafat

2024 Author: Matthew Elmers | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:49

The destruction of the city of Damur is just one of the links in the genocide of Christians in Lebanon, carried out by local Muslims and Druze, who were later joined by the newcomer Palestinian Arabs, and then the pro-Iranian Shiites.

The citizens of the USSR could not find out about this from the Soviet press, their country supported Arafat. Westerners have heard little about this because the liberal press has little interest in the suffering of non-Muslims.

However, everyone learned about the revenge of Christians in Sabra and Shatila. The Soviet and Western press instantly turned this event into a banner of struggle against Israel and the dwindling Christian community of Lebanon.

Damur is 20 km away. south of Beirut, in the foothills of Lebanon near the Sidon-Beirut highway. On the other side of the shose is the seaside. The city was home to 25,000 Christians, there were five churches, three chapels, seven schools and one hospital, which also served Muslims from neighboring villages.

On January 9, 1976, three days after Epiphany, the city priest, Father Labeki, blessed a new church on the outskirts of the city. A shot rang out, a bullet struck the wall of the church. Then - a machine gun burst. The city was surrounded by forces of 16,000 Palestinian and Syrian Arabs and fifteen formations of mercenaries from Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya.

Labeki's father called the Muslim sheikh of the area and asked him, as a religious leader, to help the city. “I can’t do anything,” he replied: “These are the Palestinian Arabs. I cannot stop them."

Shooting and shelling continued all day. Labeki's father called political leaders for help. Everyone expressed sympathy, but said they could not help. He called Kemal Jamblat, a district deputy. “Father,” he said: “I can’t do anything, everything depends on Arafat.” He gave Arafat's number to the priest. In a conversation with Arafat, Father Labeki said: “The Palestinians are shelling the city. As a religious leader, I assure you we do not want war.” Arafat replied, “Father, don't worry. We will not harm you. If we destroy the city, it will only be for strategic reasons."

At midnight, telephones were cut off, water and electricity. The invasion began at one in the morning. The city was defended by a detachment of Christians in a church on the outskirts. The Muslims attacked the church and killed fifty people. The survivors retreated to the next church. Father Labeki, hearing the screams, went out into the street. He saw women in nightgowns running screaming, "They are killing us!"

Labeki's father continues: “In the morning, despite the shelling, I got to the next house. What I saw horrified me. The entire Kenan family was killed, four children - a mother, a father and a grandfather. The mother was still hugging one of the children. She was pregnant. The eyes of the children were gouged out, the limbs were chopped off. Some bodies without arms and legs. It was an unbearable sight. I carried the bodies into the truck. The only surviving brother, Samir Kenan, helped me. He carried with me the remains of his brother, father, daughter-in-law and children. We buried them in the cemetery, under the PLO shells. While we were burying them, people brought corpses collected from the streets.

The city tried to defend itself. I saw a detachment of young men armed with hunting rifles, most of them no more than sixteen. Residents collected sandbags and stacked them in front of the doors and windows on the ground floors. Continuous shelling led to serious destruction. The Palestinians blockaded the city, cutting off food supplies, shutting off water and preventing the Red Cross from transporting the wounded."

The final assault began on 23 January. Father Labeki continues: “It was like the Apocalypse. They were advancing in thousands, shouting Allah Akbar! And they killed everyone in their path, men, women, children …"

Christian families were killed entirely in their homes. Many women were raped before they died. The rapists took photographs, which they later offered to newspapers for money. The surviving 16-year-old Samavia saw her father and brother killed, her home robbed and burned, and the invaders collecting the loot into trucks.

Labeki's father found the charred bodies of his father and brother in their home, an outsider could not determine if these bodies belonged to men or women.

In the madness of robbery, which transcended the limits of the imaginable, the Muslims tore up the graves, scattering the bones of the dead. People tried to escape. Some made their way to the sea. But when salvation comes from the sea is not known, and the enemy could overtake them at any moment.

Those who did not manage to escape and escaped being shot (mainly women and children) were thrown into trucks by the Palestinians to be sent to the Sabra camp. In this camp, the Palestinians created a prison for a people who had accepted Palestinians as refugees six years earlier after their failed putsch in Jordan. New arrivals were pushed into an overcrowded prison, sleeping on the ground, suffering from the winter cold.

After the seizure of the city, the Arafatites executed twenty captured militiamen, the civilian population who had failed to escape was lined up along the wall and shot from a machine gun. An unknown number of women were raped, babies were shot at point-blank range, their bodies mutilated and dismembered.

During 15 years of war, Arafat and the PLO plunged Lebanon into violence, atrocities, looting and murder. Out of 1.2 million Christians (according to the 1970 census), more than 40,000 were killed, 100,000 wounded, and 5,000 were crippled. Many Christians were forced to leave their homeland, fleeing to the United States and Europe. Lebanon's Christian population is rapidly dwindling. If at the beginning of the 70s Christians made up the majority - 60%, then in the 90s they already became a minority - 40%, and by 2000 there were 30% of them.