SHARON SHOULD HAVE FACED JUSTICE FOR MASSACRE: HRW

Beirut, 10 Rabi’ul Awwal 1435/12 January 2014 (MINA) – The director of Human Rights Watch (HRW)’s Middle East and North Africa division, Sarah Leah Whitson stated in its statement, the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon should have faced justice for massacre.

Sharon led Israel into a war with Lebanon in 1982 and was responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. “It’s a shame that Sharon has gone to his grave without facing justice for his role in Sabra and Shatila and other abuses,” said Sarah Leah Whitson in a statement on Saturday.

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As the Israeli minister of military affairs, Sharon earned the title “Butcher of Beirut” over the massacre. The HRW director also slammed Sharon’s role in the “assassination” of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat back in 2004.

“Sharon was a criminal, responsible for the assassination of Arafat, and we would have hoped to see him appear before the International Criminal Court as a war criminal,” she said, as Press tv reported quoted by Miraj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

Meanwhile, many Palestinians celebrated the death of the former Israeli premier in different locations in Lebanon and Palestine. Palestinian officials Jibril Rajoub of the Fatah party and Salah el-Bardaweel, a spokesman for Hamas, also called Sharon a criminal.

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Early on Saturday, the former premier died at the age of 85 at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv. On January 4, 2006, Sharon suffered a stroke and went into a coma, from which he never recovered.

Ex-Prime Minister of Ariel Sharon died on Saturday afternoon after critical condition late Thursday, hospital officials said as cited by Times of Israel.

Sharon who was recognized as “the butcher” died in a hospital near Tel Aviv after doctors recently reported serious and life-threatening kidney problems.

Many in the Arab world called Sharon “the Butcher of Beirut” after he oversaw Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon while serving as defense minister.

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The Ex-prime minister had been fighting kidney failure and blood infection, and was in “immediate, life-threatening critical condition,” the officials said.

Israeli and US specialists said in January 2013 that Sharon had shown “significant brain activity” in an MRI scan, responding to pictures of his family seven years after the stroke. (T/P04/P03/mirajnews.com)

Miraj Islamic News Agency (MINA)