LEBANON: Palestinians in Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp celebrate the passing of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whom many consider a war criminal

Record ID: 346880

  • Title: LEBANON: Palestinians in Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp celebrate the passing of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whom many consider a war criminal
  • Date: 11th January 2014
  • Summary: SAIDA, LEBANON (JANUARY 11, 2014) (REUTERS) PALESTINIANS GATHERING IN AIN AL-HELWEH REFUGEE CAMP PALESTINIAN CHILD HOLDING RIFLE AND SINGING VARIOUS OF PALESTINIANS SINGING AND CELEBRATING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNIDENTIFIED MAN, SAYING: "God is great, he took revenge, every Muslim person who died in these massacres especially in Lebanon, eight years and God was torturing
  • Embargoed: 26th January 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3EFMQ6CKG0PYBV6254HO5W4NX
  • Story Text: Palestinians in the Ain al-Helweh refugee camp in Saida celebrated the death of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who died on Saturday (January 11), by singing and chanting in the streets.
    Sharon died of heart failure at Sheba Medical Center, near Tel Aviv, where he has been in a coma since being hit by a stroke at the pinnacle of his power as prime minister in January 2006. Doctors there had reported a precipitous decline in his condition last week.
    Palestinians in the camp sang and chanted while holding weapons, one of the camp residents who preferred his name to stay anonymous told Reuters that Sharon was responsible for the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982.
    "God is great, he took revenge every Muslim person who died in these massacres, especially in Lebanon, eight years and God was torturing him, that butcher, we couldn't defeat him, God did", the resident said.
    Palestinians accused Sharon of sparking their "Intifada" with a provocative visit to the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City. And he embittered many with the Israeli army's destructive sweep into self-rule areas of the West Bank in 2002 after a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings, and its siege of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound.
    But he surprised many by withdrawing soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 under a policy of "disengagement" from conflict and a pursuit of dialogue with the Palestinians.
    The pullout, however, led to Gaza's takeover by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement who, unlike the West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, spurns peace and co-existence with Israel.
    Palestinians in Gaza were handing out sweets to passersby and motorists in celebration of Sharon's passing.
    It is thought Sharon's body will lie in state at Israel's parliament, the Knesset, on Sunday before a big state funeral is held on Monday (January 13).
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