Archive, with voices popping up

“I saw them putting the men on trucks and military vehicles...”

“Many of these men disappeared... This is the unknown story of Sabra and Chatila.”

Night sequence

It all started in the evening. For 36 straight hours in September 1982, Lebanese Christian militiamen slaughtered unarmed men, women and children in Beirut’s Palestinian refugee camps – Sabra and Chatila. The militias were ordered into the camps by the man who is now Israel’s prime minister – Ariel Sharon.

Archive of massacre

Some say 900 Palestinians died... some more than 2,000. No-one knows exactly how many. After the massacre, an Israeli state enquiry, the Kahan Commission, found they had died at the hands of the Lebanese Forces militia but said that Sharon as defence minister bore “personal responsibility.” He resigned his portfolio, but stayed in the cabinet....

To this day, this crime remains unpunished. But now Ariel Sharon has reason to be worried...

Set up Chibli and JF

If this man has his way, the Israeli prime minister will stand trial in a Belgian court accused of war crimes – crimes committed in Lebanon almost 20 years ago. Chibli Mallat is a Lebanese lawyer who represents 23 Palestinians who lost relatives in the massacre.

Camp sequence

Israel doesn’t recognise the authority of the

International Court of Justice in the Hague. But recent legislation now allows Belgium to prosecute foreigners for war crimes wherever they were committed – and this has given Chibli Mallat his chance. Ariel Sharon’s lawyers are arguing that he has no case to answer.

Sync Chibli

The Israelis will fight tooth and nail to stop it getting to trial because they know that once it comes to trial, Ariel Sharon has no chance of escaping justice.

New stadium...

As Mallat prepares his case, a hitherto untold story has come to light – the story of the disappeared. This stadium is now one of the jewels of post-war Beirut.

Archive stadium

But this neglected footage from the day after the massacre shows lines of Palestinians under Israeli control. What happened to the people shown here? We don’t know. But eyewitness testimony given to Channel 4 News suggests that some Palestinians brought to the stadium were never seen again.

Sync Chibli

Hundreds of people were rounded up under the supervision and control and with the interrogation of the Israeli forces. A lot of them disappeared.

Sana

Among them was the husband of this woman, Sana Mahmoud Sersawi. She saw him go into the stadium, but never saw him come out.

Sync Sana

We went into the stadium and then never saw them again.

That was 19 years ago. No-one talks about them. No-one knows about them. No-one knows whether they are alive or dead.

Siham Balqees

And then there’s Siham Balqees, who was filmed arguing with an Israeli officer outside the stadium.

Natsoc

Why are you holding him?

We’re asking him some questions. He’s telling us all he knows.

Archive Siham

Eventually she forced her way inside to look for her brother. She says she saw scores of young men here, some of them blindfolded.

Sync Siham

The Israeli officer got very angry when he saw me there and tried to make me go out. But I refused. I told them: “Kill me. I will not go out unless I take my brother with me.”

Archive cameraman and JF watching monitor

We tracked down the cameraman who took these pictures. He says the interrogations in the stadium continued after the massacre and for security reasons asked not to be identified.

Sync cameraman

It was a Sunday morning. The Israelis had a list. If they found someone on the list, they took him to one side. Look! Those are the people who were on the list! They took them inside the stadium. After that I don’t know where they went.

Archive of Israelis calling people to the stadium

On the edges of the camps, Israelis soldiers call on Palestinians to come to the stadium. “Bring your weapons and your grenades,” they say. “Bring them and don’t be afraid.

Contemporary football at the stadium and archive

Palestinians walked to the stadium believing they would be safe... The killing in the camps had been done by the Lebanese Forces, not by the Israelis... and the Israelis were in charge at the stadium... The Kahan Commission said the stadium was a place of refuge, where Palestinians were given food and water after the massacre... It also said Israelis and Lebanese Forces never worked side by side.

Set-up Mahmoud Younis

Not everyone agrees. Mahmoud Younis was only 12 when the massacre happened. Today he works as a dental technician in Shatila. Mahmoud lost his father, uncle, three brothers and three cousins in 1982. He was very young at the time, but he contradicts the conclusion of the Kahan Commission, claiming that he saw Lebanese militia and Israeli forces working together.

Sync Mahmoud

The militia took us to the stadium and put us under the stairs. There were many women and children. Behind this sandbank, Israeli soldiers were standing with Lebanese Forces. They were together. In the afternoon, an Israeli soldier came and said: “Go to the Cola area. Whoever comes back to the camps will die!

Sync Sana

There were Israeli soldiers here, tanks, jeeps, covered jeeps. The road was full of Israelis. Many of them... holding their weapons like this!

Three-shot Chibli, Siham and JF

Chibli Mallat and his team are now preparing for a hearing in Belgium.

Sync Chibli

I have a very profound belief that it is difficult to have peace in the Middle East without minimal accountability certainly for the largest crimes... and that is true for Sabra and Chatila, but also for other events...

Reprise archive/Sync Chibli

The footage is extremely important because of this extraordinary line of prisoners waiting to be interrogated. And it’s clear from what we uncovered that a lot of these people were taken away and never appeared again.

Reprise Siham at stadium and line of men

Remember Siham Balqees, the young Palestinian woman filmed arguing with the Israelis? She found her brother... and most importantly she offers perhaps the only clue as to what happened to the men who disappeared.

Siham’s story

I saw them putting the other men in the trucks and in the military cars and they told them: “We are going to give you to the Lebanese Forces!”

The same forces that had earlier massacred the refugees in Sabra and Chatila.

Reprise line

There is no independent confirmation of Siham Balqees’s testimony... and no one knows how many Palestinian men disappeared in September 1982. But many of Chibli Mallat’s witnesses have relatives among the disappeared – and this will be an element in his case against Ariel Sharon... that’s if he succeeds in bringing him to court.