Vals Im Bashir Page #5

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So I called my commanding officer.

I told him what I heard

was going on in the camps.

He said, "We know about it.

It's under control. We reported it."

As far as I was concerned,

the army was handling it.

Where was the operations room,

the headquarters?

About 100 yards away.

On top of a very tall building.

How tall?

- Tall enough to see everything.

They surely had a better view

than I did.

I didn't want to walk around at night,

so I drove

to my place in Bahabda.

I had an apartment in Beirut.

Micha Friedman was with me.

We decided to make dinner.

Micha invited the guys from

the regiment of the 211th Brigade.

During the meal,

the regiment commander took me aside.

He said:
"Ron,

my men say there's a massacre

going on in the camps."

He mentioned one or two incidents,

saying a family was seen shot.

I asked him again,

"Did you see it yourself?"

"I didn't", he said,

"but my soldiers told me about it.

The officers sitting here did, too."

We talked about it over dinner later.

As soon as they left at 11:30 pm,

I knocked back a whiskey

and phoned Defense Minister Arik Sharon.

At his ranch.

Arik was half asleep.

I said, "I've heard

there's a massacre going on, Arik.

They are slaughtering Palestinians.

We have to put a stop to it."

He asked me,

"Did you see it yourself?"

"No", I said, but there are

several witnesses who saw it."

"Okay", he said.

"T hanks for bringing it

to my attention. That was all.

You'd normally say, "I'll check it out,

I'll look into it. But no!

He said, Thanks for bringing it

to my attention. Happy New Year!"

Well, something along those lines.

Then back to sleep!

It's amazing.

A massacre took place,

it was carried out by

Christian Phalangists.

All around were several circles

of our soldiers

Every circle had some information.

The first one had the most. However,

the penny didn't drop.

They didn't realize

they were witnessing a genocide.

What circle were you in?

In the second or third.

What did you do?

We stood on a roof

and saw the sky was lit up.

With what?

- Flares.

Flares that must have helped them

do what they were doing.

Did you fire the flares?

Is that important?

Does it make any difference

if I fired them

or if I just saw the flares

that helped people shoot others?

In your state of mind at that time,

it didn't really make a difference.

You can't remember the massacre

because in your opinion,

the murderers and those around them

are the same circle.

You felt guilty at the age of 19.

Unwillingly,

you took on the role of the Nazi.

You were there firing flares,

but you didn't carry out the massacre.

I woke up at 5 or 5:30,

and I woke everyone up,

the whole team.

Then I drove to Sabra and Shatila.

When I arrived there...

What a mess!

You know that picture

from the Warsaw ghetto?

The one with the kid

holding his hands in the air?

That's just how the long line of women,

old people and children looked.

I thought about

going to Brigadier Amos's headquarters,

but as I was leaving,

Amos suddenly turned up.

He drove to the head of the convoy.

His angry gestures

forced them to stop.

And that was the end of it.

The Phalangists

withdrew back up the street.

The women and children

returned to the camp.

The Palestinians?

- Yes.

I said to my men,

"We're going in with them...

With those women and children.

We'll see what happened in there."

Inside the camp we saw

a huge amount of rubble.

My eye caught

a hand, a small hand.

A child's hand

stuck out from the rubble.

I looked a bit closer and saw curls.

A head of curls covered in dust.

It was hard to make out.

But it was a head,

exposed up to the nose.

A hand and a head.

My own daughter was the same age

as that little girl.

And she had curly hair, too.

The Palestinians in refugee camps

have houses with courtyards.

These courtyards were full

of bodies of women and children.

The young men had been shot first.

Then the rest of the family

was dealt with.

We entered one alley,

a very narrow alley...

the width of a man and a half

That alley was full...

Piled up to the height of a man's chest

with the bodies of young men.

That's when I became aware

of the results of the massacre.

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