Israele sarà anche l’unica democrazia mediorientale, ma è anche un paese con un criminale di guerra conclamato come primo ministro di cui si vedono i risultati. E non si tratta solo di Sabra e Chatila: per vedere la prima “impresa” di Ariel Sharon dobbiamo andare indietro di cinquant’anni, alla rappresaglia armata sul villaggio giordano di Qibya (e quindi fuori dai confini israeliani) nella notte tra il 14 e il 15 ottobre 1953.
The policy of reprisals took a nasty turn with an IDF attack on the Jordanian village of Qibya on the night of 14-15 October 1953. The order to attack was given by the acting defense minister, Pinhas Lavon, following the murder of an Israeli mother and her two children by infiltrators who had crossed the armistice line near Qibya. […]
Lavon’s order was executed by Unit 101, a small commando unit created in August to carry out special tasks. Unit 101 was commanded by an aggressive and ambitious young major named Ariel (“Arik”) Sharon. Sharon’s order was to penetrate Qibya, blow up houses, and inflict heavy casualties on its inhabitants. His success in carrying out this order surpassed all expectations. The full and macabre story of what had happened at Qibya was revealed only during the morning after the attack. The village had been reduced to a pile of rubble: forty-five houses had been blown up, and sixty-nine civilians, two-thirds of them women and children, had been killed. Sharon and his men claimed that they had no idea that anyone was hiding inside the houses. The UN observer who inspected the scene reached a different conclusion: “One story was repeated time after time: the bullet splintered door, the body sprawled across the threshold, indicating that the inhabitants had been forced by heavy fire to stay inside until their homes were blown up over them.”
Tratto da Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall.
Aggiornamento: una traduzione in italiano in una pagina “dedicata” a Sharon.
Scritto da alessio alle 11:02