Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
6 February
IN ISRAEL MASS MURDERERS BECOME PRIME MINISTERS
On this day in 2001, Ariel Sharon was elected Prime minister of Israel. A 1982 Israeli official investigation had found him “personally responsible” for the massacre of over 2,000 defenceless Palestinian men, women and children in Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon that same year. The new Prime Minister was once reported by a fellow cabinet member insisting that, “The only good Arab is a dead Arab”. Sharon had an extended history of carrying out massacres of Palestinian civilians.
فقط في اسرائيل ، مجرموا القتل الجماعي يصبحوا رؤساء وزارء
6 فبراير
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2001 انتُخب أرييل شارون رئيسًا لوزراء إسرائيل. وجد تحقيق رسمي إسرائيلي عام 1982 أن شارون كان "شخصيا مسؤول " عن المذبحة التي راح ضحيتها أكثر من 2000 من الرجال والنساء والأطفال الفلسطينيين العزل في مخيمي صبرا وشاتيلا للاجئين في لبنان في نفس العام. نقل زميل وعضو مجلس الوزراء عن رئيس الوزراء الجديد ذات مرة بانه قال "العربي الطيب الوحيد هو عربي ميت". لشارون تاريخ طويل في ارتكاب مجازر بحق المدنيين الفلسطينيين.
The Hebrew press reports the testimony of the vice-commander of the Judea region that in a meeting with Civilian Administrator Menachem Milson, General Sharon gave instructions as to how to deal with demonstrators: “Cut off their testicles.” The Chief of Staff went a step further, telling soldiers on the northern front that “the only good Arab is a dead Arab,” as reported by Abraham Burg, son of the Minister of Interior.
The Fateful Triangle, Noam Chomsky, Pluto 1999, p 238
Ariel Sharon was promoted as "a man of peace"
During the 2001 elections campaign Sharon tried to reinvent himself as a man of peace. His spin doctors cultivated the notion that old age was accompanied by a personal transformation from a sanguinary soldier into a genuine peace-seeker. President George W Bush famously described Sharon as "a man of peace".
The UK Government went along with the claim. Tony Blair eulogised Ariel Sharon next to the beast's coffin as "a giant of this land...He did not pursue peace as a dreamer, but he did dream of peace - and an end to war,"
Killing is an Israeli way of life
The Israeli murder machine has been going about its grisly work for a very long time. Army snipers have coolly and professionally killed over 120 unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in the last few weeks, shot and maimed many hundreds more.
Sharon was not original
The proverb "The only good Indian is a dead Indian" is a particularly hateful invective. It has been in use in the United States since the 1860s, and General Philip Sheridan has repeatedly been named as its originator. The proverb's history, dissemination, meaning, and variation are traced to the present day, showing that it is used with surprising frequency in American literature and the mass media as well as in oral speech.