Since Israel began to expel Palestinian residents in large numbers after the establishment of the state. About 110,000 Palestinian refugees were forcibly relocated. Entering southern Lebanon. After the third Middle East war in 1967 (known as the Six-Day War in history), the number of refugees in southern Lebanon gradually increased to more than 300,000, and the PLO also grew here and launched several rockets against Israel Attacks such as bombs, including terrorist attacks. Israel has launched several retaliatory actions before, but they were stopped in due time by the United Nations.
Since 1976, Israel has begun to win over the Christian militia in Lebanon (Lebanese Falange) , providing military equipment and training, etc., and supporting the Christian-backed political party Maronite. The purpose is to transform the Lebanese government into a pro-Israel regime through popular elections. The "Bashir Gemayel" in the title of the film is the Christian political party "Maronite" "The leader.
Bashir also wants to take advantage of the anti-Christian momentum in Syria and Lebanon to put pressure on Israel to obtain more financial aid and consolidate the regime. He is also partially occupied by Israel and Syria. In August 1982, he was elected as a puppet president.
Israel has occupied southern Lebanon and trained the Falangists to keep stirring up trouble in the refugee camps, hoping it would have an excuse to attack. Forcing the PLO to retreat 40 kilometers to create a safety buffer. When the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom was assassinated and seriously injured, Israel launched a retaliation against the PLO, "Operation Galilee Peace", in June of that year, with a large-scale invasion of Lebanon. In the end, the PLO and a large number of refugees were surrounded in the urban area of West Beirut, and air strikes continued. In early September, the PLO withdrew from the camp maintained by the peacekeeping force through a ceasefire agreement and relocated the PLO headquarters to Libya. Israel successfully ousted the PLO and installed a Lebanese puppet government with Bashir as president. The Israeli president wants to sign a 40-year peace deal with Bashir. At this moment, the multinational peacekeeping forces have also withdrawn from southern Lebanon. Not long after that, President Bashir, who had just been elected, was assassinated. The Israeli high-level immediately decided that the Israeli army must invade the west side of Beirut, but the Israeli army will not enter the Beirut refugee camp, but the Falangists and local right-wing Christian militias will enter the refugee camp to clear the possible remnants of the PLO personnel, as shown in the video. appeared. This act of invading West Beirut directly violated the US clenched fist agreement. Israeli troops guarded the exit of the refugee camp and sent a small group of Christian militiamen into the camp, with a total of about 1,500 Falangists. In retaliation for the assassination of President Bashir, these Falangist militias and right-wing Christians carried out a three-day religious massacre in the refugee camp. Many corpses were brutally dismembered, some were castrated, and some were marked with cross scars. The elderly, children and women were not spared, and rape incidents also occurred from time to time.
The film "waltz with Bashir" is also known as "Dancing with the Devil". I believe you can now understand why some people say that Bashir is a devil.
In the early days of the massacre, Israeli soldiers were aware of what had happened and began to report it to headquarters, and news came out slowly. The Israeli high-level let it go. Arafat, the leader of the PLO, had pleaded with peacekeepers from the United States, Italy and other countries to return to protect the refugee camps, but the request was rejected.
This massacre has caused great panic and harm to the Palestinian refugees. However, it also made some Christian politicians see an extraordinary solution to the refugee crisis. Palestine refugees would flee southern Lebanon and go into exile in other surrounding countries.
As a final note, this film is banned in Lebanon. The reason is mostly out of fear of causing domestic religious hatred and other reasons. It's really complicated.
View more about Waltz with Bashir reviews
