Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The driver had been given a rough list of places we would like to see. He laboured a little
over my spelling and pronunciation, but he got the drift and assured us he would get to all
those places that lay within the environs of the city.
In 2006, Hezbollah militants fired rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for an at-
tack on two armored patrol vehicles on the Israeli side of the border fence. Three Israeli
soldiers were killed, two were wounded, and two were captured and taken to Lebanon. Is-
rael responded leading to a 33 day conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel between the Is-
rael military and Hezbollah paramilitaries. It ended with a UN brokered ceasefire.
We went through an area controlled by Hezbollah. The women in this area were invariably
wearing headscarves and on each lamppost there was a large poster showing a martyr and
the martyr's name. I am not sure whether this approach to honouring those who died in
battles of one kind or another is a Shia thing, or common to both Shia and Sunni. However,
Hezbollah is seen by many as a surrogate of Shia Iran and in Iran the display of martyrs
forms an important part of the regime's justification for perpetuating the Iran/Iraq War.
Below the martyr posters were advertisements for university entrance and above the posters
were those for various political figures. But the martyr posters were considerably larger
by far. Just as in Syria the clothing shops, particularly those for women had glass-fronted
displays of mannequins on the first and second floors. It was a feature of all the shopping
centres.
One of our destinations was the Shatila refugee camp set up in 1949. This long-term camp
for Palestinian refugees houses about 15,000 refugees.
The camp suffered heavy bombardment from Israeli military forces during the summer of
1982. During a push by the Israeli military into west Beirut, their Phalangist allies conduc-
ted an extensive series of raids on the Sabra neighborhood and the Shatila camp, result-
ing in the massacre of up to 3500 people, primarily civilians. Israel began to leave Beirut
shortly after the news of the massacre broke.
The protection of the camps was then entrusted to Italy. However, following attacks on the
peacekeepers, Italy left Lebanon (which seems to be a fairly typical response of the Itali-
ans in these situations). The safety of the camps was then entrusted to the Shia based Amal
militia but fighting broke out between Amal and other muslim based militias, with further
massacres taking place.
We drove down the narrow streets of the camp, edging past vehicles and people. The streets
were crowded, littered and there was a rancid smell in the air. It was a rabbit warren of nar-
