Ariel Sharon
 | This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
- For more detail of Sharon's recent illness, see Illnesses of Ariel Sharon; for an overview, see January 4 stroke
Ariel Sharon | |
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| Born | February 27, 1928 |
| Title | 11th Prime Minister of Israel |
| Term | February 6, 2001 - present |
| Predecessor | Ehud Barak |
| Successor | Incumbent. (Acting Prime Minister: Ehud Olmert) |
| Political party | Kadima (formerly Likud) |
| Spouse(s) | Margalit Sharon (d. 1962); Lily Sharon (d. 2000) |
(Hebrew: אריאל שרון; Arabic: أرئيل شارون; born February 27, 1928) is an Israeli politican. He has served as the Prime Minister of Israel since February 2001, but is currently hospitalized after suffering a massive hemorrhagic stroke. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is serving as acting prime minister.
A long-serving Israeli military leader, Sharon was a founding member and former head of the Likud Party and previously served for over 30 years in the Israel Defense Forces, rising to the rank of major general and achieving fame within Israel for his actions in the Six-Day War (1967) and the Yom Kippur War (1973).
In late 2005, he broke from Likud and founded a new centrist party, Kadima, in anticipation of the election of a new Knesset in March, 2006. It is the first time in recent Israeli history that the Knesset race is among three major parties (Kadima, Likud, and Labor) as opposed to the usual two (Likud and Labor).
Sharon has been a highly controversial figure, both in and outside Israel. Supporters sometimes refer to him as Arik or The Bulldozer and view him as a leader who strove to establish peace without sacrificing Israel's security. Many Israelis consider him a war hero who helped defend the country during some of its greatest struggles. Critics sometimes refer to him as "the Butcher of Beirut" and sought to prosecute him as a war criminal for his indirect responsibility over the Sabra and Shatila massacre during the 1982 Lebanon War.
One of the most important issues that surrounds Sharon is the completed unilateral disengagement plan. Sharon broke from Likud to carry out the plan, which removed all permanent Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank.
Critics on the right believe that the disengagement was wrong because it gave up too much territory to the Palestinians, while critics on the left want more withdrawals from the West Bank.
Early life
Sharon was born Ariel Scheinermann February 27 1928 in Kfar Malal in the Yishuv of the British Mandate of Palestine. His father was of Lithuanian Jewish origin and his mother was of Russian-Jewish origin. Sharon's parents were Second Aliyah veterans, that is, Zionist socialists with a secular worldview.
In 1942, at the young age of 14, he joined the Gadna, a paramilitary youth force, and later the Haganah, the underground paramilitary force of the Jews in the British Mandate of Palestine. At the creation of Israel (and the Haganah's absorption into the Israel Defense Forces), Sharon was a platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade. Sharon was severely wounded in the groin by the Jordanian Arab Legion in the Second Battle of Latrun, an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the besieged Jews of Jerusalem. His injuries eventually healed.
In 1949, he was promoted to company commander and in 1951 to intelligence officer. He then took leave to begin studies of history and Middle Eastern culture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A year and a half later, he was asked to return to active service in the rank of major and as the leader of the new Unit 101, Israel's first special forces unit.
Unit 101 undertook a series of retaliatory raids against Palestinians and neighboring Arab states that helped bolster Israeli morale and fortify its deterrent image. However, the unit was also criticized for targeting civilians as well as Arab soldiers, resulting in the widely condemned Qibya massacre in the fall of 1953, in which more than 60 Palestinian civilians were killed in a reprisal attack on their West Bank village. In the documentary "Israel and the Arabs: 50 Year War," Ariel Sharon recalls what happened after the raid, which was heavily condemned by many countries in the West, including the United States:
- I was summoned to see Ben-Gurion. It was the first time I met him, and right from the start Ben-Gurion said to me: 'Let me first tell you one thing: it doesn't matter what the world says about Israel, it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive.'
Shortly afterward, just a few months after its founding, Unit 101 was merged into the 202nd Paratroopers Brigade (Sharon eventually became the latter's commander), which continued to attack military targets, culminating with the attack on Qalqilyah police station in autumn 1956.
Sharon has been widowed twice. Shortly after becoming a military instructor, he married his first wife, Margalit, with whom he had a son, Gur. Margalit died in a car accident in 1962. Gur died in October, 1967 after a friend shot him while they were playing with the elder Sharon's rifle.[1][2][3] After Margalit's death, Sharon married her younger sister, Lily. They had two sons, Omri and Gilad. Lily Sharon died of cancer in 2000.
Mitla incident
In the 1956 Suez War (codenamed by Britain: Operation Musketeer), Sharon commanded the 202nd Brigade and was responsible for taking ground east of the Sinai Peninsula's Mitla Pass and eventually taking the pass itself. Having successfully carried out the first part of his mission (joining a battalion paratrooped near Mitla with the rest of the brigade moving on ground), Sharon's unit was deployed near the pass. Neither reconnaissance aircraft nor scouts reported enemy forces inside the Mitla Pass. Sharon, whose forces were initially heading east, away from the pass, reported to his superiors that he was increasingly concerned with the possibility of an enemy thrust through the pass, which could attack his brigade from the flank or the rear.
Sharon asked for permission to attack the pass several times, but his requests were denied although he was allowed to check its status so that if the pass was empty, he could receive permission to take it later. Sharon sent a small scout force, which was met with heavy fire and became bogged down due to vehicle malfunction in the middle of the pass. Sharon ordered the rest of his troops to attack in order to aid their comrades. In the ensuing successful battle to capture the pass, more than forty Israeli soldiers were killed. Sharon was not only criticized by his superiors, he was damaged by revelations several years later by several former subordinates (one of the IDF's first major revelations to the press), who claimed that Sharon tried to provoke the Egyptians and sent out the scouts in bad faith, ensuring that a battle would ensue. Deliberate or not, the attack was considered strategically reckless because the Egyptian forces were expected to withdraw from the pass in the following one or two days.
Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War
The Mitla incident hindered Sharon's military career for several years. In the meantime, he occupied the position of an infantry brigade commander and received a law degree from Tel Aviv University. When Yitzhak Rabin (who within a few years became associated with the Labor Party) became Chief of Staff in 1962, however, Sharon began again to rise rapidly in the ranks, occupying the positions of Infantry School Commander and head of Army Training Branch, eventually achieving the rank of Major General (Aluf). In the 1967 Six-Day War, Sharon commanded the most powerful armored division on the Sinai Peninsula front, which made a breakthrough in the Kusseima-Abu Ageila fortified area. In 1969, he was appointed the head of the IDF's Southern Command. He had no further promotions before retiring in August, 1973. Soon after, he co-founded the right-wing Likud political party.[4]
Sharon' s military career was not over, however. At the start of the Yom Kippur War on October 6, 1973, Sharon was called back to duty and assigned to command a reserve armored division. His forces did not engage the Egyptian army immediately, but it was Sharon who helped locate a breach between the Egyptian forces, which he then exploited by capturing a bridgehead on October 16 and throwing a bridge across the Suez Canal the following day. He violated his orders from the head of Southern Command by exploiting this success to cut the supply lines of the Egyptian Third Army, located to the south of the canal crossing, isolating it from other Egyptian units.
The divisions of Sharon and Avraham (Bren) Adan passed over this bridge into north-eastern Africa, advancing to within 101 kilometers (63 miles) of Cairo. They wreaked havoc on the supply lines of the Egyptian Third Army stretching to the south of them, cutting off and encircling the Egyptian's Third Army, but could not force its surrender before the cease-fire. Tensions between the two generals followed Sharon's decision, but a military tribunal later found his action was militarily effective. This move was regarded by many Israelis as the turning point of the war in the Sinai front. Thus, Sharon is viewed by many as a war hero who saved Israel from defeat in Sinai. A photo of Sharon wearing a head bandage on the Suez Canal became a famous symbol of Israeli military prowess.
Sharon's aggressive political positions were controversial and he was relieved of duty in February, 1974.
Sabra and Shatila massacre
During the 1982 Lebanon War, while Ariel Sharon was Defense Minister, the Sabra and Shatila massacre took place, in which between 460 and 3,500 Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps were killed by Lebanese Christian forces under the command of Lebanese Maronite Phalange militia. The security chief of the Phalange militia, Elie Hobeika, was the ground commander of the militiamen who entered the Palestinian camps and killed the Palestinians. The Phalange had been sent into the camps to clear out PLO fighters, and Israeli forces had been sent to the camps at Sharon's command to provide them with logistical support and to guard camp exits. The following year, Hobeika defected to the Syrians, along with his supporters, and represented the Syrians in the Lebanese cabinet for twenty years, leading to speculation by victims' families that Hobeika was a double agent and that the massacres were a Syrian provocation.
Israel's Kahan Commission investigating these massacres recommended in early 1983 the removal of Sharon from his post as Defense Minister. In its recommendations and closing remarks, the commission concluded that:
- We have found, as has been detailed in this report, that the Minister of Defense [Ariel Sharon] bears personal responsibility. In our opinion, it is fitting that the Minister of Defense draw the appropriate personal conclusions arising out of the defects revealed with regard to the manner in which he discharged the duties of his office - and if necessary, that the Prime Minister consider whether he should exercise his authority under Section 21-A(a) of the Basic Law: the Government, according to which 'the Prime Minister may, after informing the Cabinet of his intention to do so, remove a minister from office.' [5]
Sharon was dismissed by Prime Minister Menachem Begin, but he remained in successive Israeli governments as a minister.
In 1987, Time magazine published a story implying Sharon was directly responsible for the massacres. Sharon sued Time for libel in American and Israeli courts. Time won the suit in the U.S. court because Sharon could not establish that Time had "acted out of malice," as required under U.S. law, although the jury found the article false and defamatory. [6]
On June 18, 2002, relatives of the victims of the Sabra massacre began proceedings in Belgium to have Ariel Sharon indicted on war crimes charges. [7]. In June, 2002, a Brussels Appeals Court rejected the lawsuit because the law was subsequently changed to disallow such lawsuits unless a Belgian citizen is involved. [8] (original: [9])
Despite his being vindicated and reactions to inquiries that ruled his involvement was limited, many of the victims of the massacre, as well as some of Sharon's opponents and detractors, insist that Sharon was responsible or involved with the events at Shabra and Shatila. However, Israel's critics in the international arena and the media have often misrepresented Sharon and the IDF as directly responsible for the massacre, without pointing out to the fact that it was committed by Lebanese Christians and not by the Israeli army.
Political career
When Sharon joined Begin's government, he had relatively little political experience. He avoided Begin's Herut party in the 1940s and 1950s and seemed to be personally devoted to the ideals of the Mapai labor party and then Labor itself. However, after retiring from military service, Sharon was instrumental in establishing the Likud in July, 1973. The Likud was comprised of Herut, the Liberal Party, and independent elements. Sharon became chairman of the campaign staff for the elections scheduled for November, 1973. But two and a half weeks after the start of the election campaign, the Yom Kippur War erupted and Sharon was called back to reserve service (see above). In December, 1973 Sharon was elected to the Knesset, but a year later he tired of political life and resigned.
From June, 1975 to March, 1976, Sharon was a special aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin serving as one of Rabin's military and strategic advisors. With the 1977 elections near, Sharon tried to return to the Likud and replace Menachem Begin as head of the party. He suggested to Simcha Ehrlich, who headed the Liberal Party bloc in the Likud, that he was more fitting than Begin to win an election victory, but he was rejected. Following this, he tried to join the Labor Party and the centrist DASH, but was rejected in those parties too. Only then did he form his own list, Shlomtzion, which won only two Knesset seats in the subsequent elections. Immediately after the elections, he merged Shlomtzion with the Likud and became Minister of Agriculture.
During this period, Sharon supported the Gush Emunim settlements movement and was viewed as the patron of that movement's settling of the West bank and Gaza Strip. He used his position to encourage the establishment of a network of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to prevent the possibility of the return of these territories to the Palestinian Arabs. Sharon doubled the number of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and Gaza Strip during his tenure.
After the 1981 elections, Begin rewarded Sharon for his important contribution to Likud's narrow win, by appointing him Minister of Defense. (See above for further information about Sharon's tenure as Minister of Defense.)
After being dismissed as Defense Minister for failing to anticipate and prevent the Sabra and Shatila massacre, Sharon remained in successive governments as a minister without portfolio (1983–1984), Minister for Trade and Industry (1984–1990), and Minister for Housing Construction (1990–1992). During this period, he was a rival to then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, but failed in various bids to replace him as chairman of the ruling Likud party.
The rivalry between Shamir and Sharon reached a head on the "Night of Microphones" in February, 1990, when Sharon snapped the microphone from Shamir, who was addressing the Likud Central Commitee, and famously exclaimed: "Who's for wiping out terrorism?". The implication was that only Sharon knew how to destroy the scourge. The incident was widely viewed as an apparent "putsch" attempt against Shamir's leadership of the party.
In Benjamin Netanyahu's 1996–1999 government, Sharon was Minister of National Infrastructure (1996–1998) and Foreign Minister (1998–1999). Upon the election of the Barak Labor government, Sharon became leader of the Likud party. After the collapse of Barak's government, he was elected Prime Minister in February, 2001.
According to the Palestinians, Ariel Sharon has followed an aggressive policy of non-negotiation. Palestinians allege that the al-Aqsa Intifada (September 2000–February 2005) was sparked by a visit of Sharon and an escort of several hundred policemen to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount complex, site of the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque; the complex is located where the Jews' Second Temple stood in ancient times, thus making the place holy for Jews also (the Western Wall is the only remaining part of the temple compound). Sharon's visit, prior to his election as Prime Minister, came after archaeologists claimed that extensive building operations by the Waqf (the Muslim body that oversees the mosque comlex) at the site were destroying priceless Jewish antiquities and a few months before the election. While visiting the site, Sharon declared that the complex would remain under perpetual Israeli control. Palestinian commentators accused Sharon of purposely inflaming emotions with the event to provoke a violent response and obstruct success of delicate ongoing peace talks.
Sharon's supporters claim that Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority planned the intifada. [10] [11] [12] [13]. They state that Palestinian security chief Jabril Rajoub provided assurances that if Sharon did not enter the area of the mosques, no problems would arise. They also often quote statements by Palestinian Authority officials, particularly Imad Falouji, the PA Communications Minister, who admitted months after Sharon's visit that the violence had been planned in July, far in advance of Sharon's visit, stating the intifada "was carefully planned since the return of (Palestinian President) Yasser Arafat from Camp David 2000 Summit negotiations rejecting the Uinted States' conditions." [14][15]
According to the Mitchell Report, the government of Israel asserted that
- ...the immediate catalyst for the violence was the breakdown of the Camp David negotiations on 25 July 2000 and the “widespread appreciation in the international community of Palestinian responsibility for the impasse.” In this view, Palestinian violence was planned by the PA leadership and was aimed at “provoking and incurring Palestinian casualties as a means of regaining the diplomatic initiative.”
The Mitchell Report, based on a subsequent investigation, also found that the Sharon visit did not cause the Al-Aqsa Intifada, though it was poorly timed and would clearly have a provocative effect.[16]
Palestinians doubt the existence of popular support for Sharon's actions. Polls published in the media, as well as the 140% call-up of reservists (as opposed to the 60% in regular periods), seem to indicate that the Israeli public is quite supportive of Sharon's policies. A survey conducted by Tel Aviv University's Jaffe Center in May, 2004 found that 80% of Jewish Israelis believe that the Israel Defense Forces have succeeded in militarily countering the Al-Aqsa Intifada, [17] indicating widespread faith in Sharon's hard-line policy.
On January 20 2004, an Israeli court charged property developer David Appel with trying to bribe Sharon (through his son Gilad) while Sharon had served as Israel's National Infrastructure Minister in the 1990s. On June 14, 2004, Israel's Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, decided to close the case due to lack of evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.
On July 20, 2004, Sharon called on French Jews to emigrate from France to Israel immediately, in light of an increase in French anti-Semitism (ninety four anti-Semitic assaults were reported in the first six months of 2004, compared to forty seven in 2003). France has the third largest Jewish population (about 600,000 people) after Israel and the United States. Sharon claimed that an "unfettered anti-Semitism" reigned in France.
The French government responded by describing his comments as "unacceptable," as did the French representative Jewish organization CRIF, which denied Sharon's claim of intense anti-Semitism in French society. An Israeli government spokesperson later claimed that Sharon had been misunderstood. Apparently due to Sharon's statements, France postponed a visit by Sharon to France.
Gaza disengagement
While some believe that his recent efforts were damaging to the peace process, Sharon embarked on a risky course of unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, while maintaining control of its coastline and airspace. It was welcomed by both the Palestinian Authority and the political left wing in Israel, as well as by many abroad, including the United States and the European Union, as a step toward a final peace settlement. However, it was greeted with opposition from within his own Likud party and from other right-wing Israelis, on security, military, and religious grounds. Other detractors publicly distrusted Sharon's motives for this plan, and their suspicions were further roused when top Sharon aide Dov Weisglass was quoted in Haaretz on October 6, 2004, as saying the purpose of disengagement was to destroy Palestinian aspirations for a state for years to come. This incident bolstered the position of critics that Sharon was intentionally trying to destroy the peace process, an accusation denied by the Prime Minister's camp. See Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of 2004.
On December 1 2004, Sharon dismissed five ministers from the Shinui party for voting against the government's 2005 budget. In January, 2005, Sharon formed a national unity government that included representatives of Likud and Labor, and Meimad and United Torah Judaism as "out-of-government" supporters without any seats in the government (UTJ rejects having ministerial offices as a policy). Between August 16 and August 30, 2005, Sharon controversially expelled 8,500 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza. After Israeli soldiers bulldozed every settlement structure except for several former synagogue buildings, Israeli soldiers formally left Gaza on Sunday, September 11, 2005 and closed the border fence at Kissufim. The synagogues were later looted and burned to the ground by Palestinians. While his decision to withdraw from Gaza sparked bitter protests from right-wing members of the Likud Party and the settlers' movement, opinion polls showed that it was a popular move among most of the Israeli electorate. On September 27, 2005, Sharon narrowly defeated a leadership challenge by a 52%-48% vote. The move was initiated within the central committee of the governing Likud party by his main rival, Binyamin Netanyahu, who had resigned from the cabinet in protest at Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. The measure was an attempt by Netanyahu to call an early primary in November, 2005 to choose the party's leader.
Founding of Kadima
On November 21 2005, Sharon resigned as head of Likud and dissolved parliament to form a new centrist party called Kadima.[18] November polls indicated that Sharon was likely to be returned to the prime ministership.[19] On December 20 2005, Sharon's longtime rival Binyamin Netanyahu was elected his successor as leader of Likud [20]. Had Sharon remained in good health, Netanyahu, along with Labor's Amir Peretz, would have been Sharon's chief rivals in the March, 2006 elections.
Medical problems
In December, 2005, Sharon spent two days in the hospital following reports of a minor stroke, specifically a relatively unusual type of stroke called a paradoxical embolism, in which a clot from the venous circulation crosses over into the arterial circulation through a hole between the right and left atrium called a patent foramen ovale or an atrial septal defect and goes to the brain, causing a transient speech and motor disturbance. He was to have had the small hole in his heart repaired by a cardiac catheterization procedure in January 5. [21]
However, on January 4, 2006, Sharon was again rushed to the hospital from his ranch in the Negev region, apparently due to another stroke. Although Sharon was reported to be in stable condition, his doctors are calling this stroke "significant," adding that he "suffered a cerebral hemorrhage," which is bleeding in the brain. Sharon underwent seven hours of surgery to stop the bleeding and drain the accumulated blood. Sharon is currently recovering from his surgery in the hospital's intensive care unit and is reported to be in critical life-threatening but stable condition.
Prime Ministerial duties were transferred to Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is currently Israel's Acting Prime Minister. In the early morning of January 5, it was reported that Sharon is not expected to fully recover and may be partially paralyzed.
According to Israeli law, such an interim can last for 100 days before the President has to appoint a new Prime Minister. The next general elections being earlier (March 28, 2006), the question of the succession will be resolved by these elections.
Sharon was hospitalized on December 18, 2005 after reportedly suffering a minor ischemic stroke [22]. He was released from the hospital on December 20. During his hospital stay, Sharon was also diagnosed with a minor hole in his heart and was scheduled to undergo a cardiac catheterization to fill the hole in his atrial septum on January 5, 2006.
January 4 stroke
On January 4, 2006, 22:50 Israel Time (UTC+2), Sharon suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke, with bleeding in the brain, and was evacuated by ambulance to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem to undergo brain surgery. At 23:15 Israel Time, IRIS Blog[23] was the first to report that his condition offered no chance of meaningful recovery and that this stroke was likely caused by the aggressive anticoagulant (blood thinner) treatment of the earlier stroke. His prognosis was reported as "extremely bleak" after the surgery, and he was placed on a respirator in intensive care. Hadassah director Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef reported at 14:00 Israel Time, following the seven-hour surgery, that the bleeding had stopped: "All the parameters are according to expectations after an operation of this type." Sharon's status is "stable but still severe."
The doctors estimate his chances for recovery as being "very low." Sharon's brain is reported to have suffered "extensive damage." On the morning of January 6, Sharon was expected to undergo a CT scan, but it was later announced that this procedure has been cancelled. Sharon will remain in an induced coma until Sunday when doctors plan to revive him to begin assessing the mental and motoric ramifications of the stroke. The extreme seriousness of Sharon's condition caused many in government and the the media to question whether or not Sharon will be able to survive beyond the next few days.
Wide speculation among doctors and reporters alike is that Sharon will no longer be able to hold power, as after-effects of the stroke will most likely be incompatible with the demanding schedule of an Israeli Prime Minister. On the morning of January 5, doctors downgraded Sharon's condition to critical. A senior doctor reported to Haaretz that moving Sharon back to his isolated ranch in the south following the first stroke, was "an unbelievable negligence," and that Sharon's current "medical conditions is an outcome brought by [his medical team's] own hands," who were trying to present an appearance normality to the public. Sharon's doctors now report that "chances are great" that the damage he suffered to his brain is irreversible.
On the night of Sharon's stroke, in the wake of his serious illness, and following consultations between Government Secretary Israel Maimon and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, the Prime Minister was declared "temporarily incapable of discharging his powers," and Ehud Olmert, the Deputy Prime Minister, was officially confirmed as the Acting Prime Minister of Israel because Sharon was deemed to be "temporarily incapacitated". According to the Basic Laws of Israel, after 100 days in this status, Sharon would have been declared "permanently incapable of discharging his powers," making Olmert's position as Prime Minister permanent; however, Olmert soon stated that the March 28 elections will take place as scheduled, rendering the 100-day limit meaningless, as the elections were less than three months away at the time. All Israeli parties have agreed to the March 28 date.
January 5, question of Sharon being permanently incapacitated
According to Haaretz, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said on Thursday January 5 that Sharon is currently defined as temporarily incapacitated, but if his condition changes to permanently incapacitated, the Israeli cabinet would have to meet immediately to choose another Acting Prime Prime Minister. Mazuz explained that as long as Sharon is temporarily incapacitated, his appointed deputy, Ehud Olmert, serves as the Acting Prime Minister. However, should Sharon be declared permanently incapacitated, then by Israeli law the cabinet must choose a new Acting Prime Minister from among the ministers who are also members of the Knesset and members of Sharon's Kadima party. [24]
References
- IRIS Blog Coverage of the Sharon Medical Tragedy
- Ben Shaul, Moshe, Ed. Generals of Israel. Tel-Aviv: Hadar Publishing House, Ltd., 1968.
- Council for Arab-British Understanding (2001). The Complaint Against Ariel Sharon. Retrieved 4 December 2004.
- Israel's Generals: Ariel Sharon (17 June 2004). BBC-4 television series.
- Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1983). Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the events at the refugee camps in Beirut - 8 February 1983. Retrieved 4 December 2004.
- Ruling from the Belgian Court of Cassation (12 February 2003). Taken from International Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra & Satila.
- Ruling from the Belgian Court of Cassation (12 February 2003). Untranslated..
See also
External links
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity
- Biography - Israeli Prime Minister's Office
- [25] - Sharon's official biography with annotations
- Report of the Kahan Commission - hosted by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.