From Al-Awdi

Palestinians remember the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres of September 16-19, 1982. On Sept 15, a day before the twenty-third anniversary of the killing of thousands of Palestinian refugees, Ariel Sharon will speak as an honored guest at the United Nations in New York City.

Sharon began his murderous career in 1952 as a commander of the army during the massacre in Qibya where 69 villagers were slaughtered. He was the architect of the massacre in Sabra and Shatila that cost the lives of 2,000 people. He is one of the masterminds of the Occupation’s settlement policies in the West Bank and Gaza and now implements the project of the Apartheid Wall prepared by his predecessors against the rights of the Palestinian people and in defiance of international law.

In remembrance of those killed, the Palestinian organizaton Al-Awdi is calling on all who value human rights to challenge the UN’s decision to have Sharon appear as a guest of honor.

Sharon represents a regime that is not only fighting the Palestinian right of existence on their land but also violates international law and
conventions on a daily basis. Hundreds of UN resolutions have been disregarded by the Occupation while the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to dismantle the Wall has been brushed aside by the Occupation bulldozers that continue their to destruction of Palestinians lands and lives.

The UN prepares to applaud Israel’s latest move towards the Bantustanization of Palestine - the Gaza “disengagement” - refusing to acknowledge that Gaza is and remains the world’s largest open air prison. It pressures the Palestinian people to “negotiate” on the status of their ghettos and to surrender to the facts on the ground imposed by the Occupation.

Popular mobilization in the West Bank and Gaza will remind UN that:

• The Palestinian people do not require Walls or Ghettos but Freedom and the Liberation of their land.
• The Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila, in Gaza and all over the world will never give up their right of return.
• If the United Nations want to keep up a facade of coherence with their own rules, it should not allow the presence of the wretched war criminal and Prime Minister of Apartheid Israel in front of the General Assembly but work towards ending Israel’s impunity and the international support for the Occupation, colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

The 60th Session of the UN General Assembly is asked to:

• Start the implementation of the UN resolutions including resolution 194.
• Enforce the decision of the International Court of Justice to tear down the Apartheid Wall and to prohibit any international aid or assistance for this crime.
• Insist on the true meaning of the “Gaza disengagement”, as a ploy to further split and weaken the Palestinian resistance and to enable the annexation of 47 percent of the West Bank and the expulsion of Palestinians from their capital in Jerusalem.

You can:

• Sign a petition to the United Nations calling on it to uninvite Ariel Sharon.
• Get more information on the Sept. 15 demonstration to take place during his address.

Related websites:
International Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra & Shatila
The Sharon Files - The Guardian
UN Security Council Resolution condemning the massacres