The Damascus University amphitheater. Hafez al-Assad is speaking: “… Those who are making uninformed opinions must understand that I am not someone who loves power. I am nothing but an individual of this people, and nothing will keep me from feeling the feelings of this people, and taking the decision that I feel expresses the feelings of the citizens of this country and their desires.
“When the events in Lebanon began, some long months ago, we had an explanation for them… We said that the conspiracy couldn’t achieve its goals except through killing. So in order for us to frustrate the conspiracy, we had to stop the killing. And we set out to act for that reason…
“… But there are some who want the problems to stay the way they are, because they want to work. Some gunmen in Lebanon now are against peace. If peace is achieved, then they will be out of work. And that’s a problem.
“… We welcomed Kamal Jumblatt. I said to him, We want you to let us know what you really want… He spoke about secularism. A secular state in Lebanon. I told him that the Phalangists are enthusiastic for secularism. Shaykh Pierre Gemayel told me that he will accept no substitute for secularism. I am insistent on, and hold fast to, a secular state in Lebanon. But the mufti of the Muslims, the Shii imam, and some prime ministers and speakers of parliament have refused secularism.
“Jumblatt said: ‘Let us punish them. We have to settle it militarily. They have ruled us for 140 years, and we want to get rid of them.’ Here I saw that the mask had slipped. The issue was one of reprisal and revenge.
“A military settlement in a country like Lebanon, between two warring sides in one nation, is impossible. A military settlement for any problem means a decisive elimination of that problem. And in Lebanon that notion is impossible because exercising power should not require having absolute power. Or rather, there should be more than one source of power, although that doesn’t exist now. As for the proposed military settlement, if it creates a situation where one side dominates Lebanese public life, then it will result in the emergence of a new problem in Lebanon and in this region. The problem of a certain people, of a certain religion, is the problem of Lebanon or part of Lebanon. The problems of those who are dominated is one that the world will empathize with.
“We can all imagine this solution would not exist at all except through the partitioning of Lebanon. A state filled with hatred would arise. A state more dangerous and more hostile than Israel.
“A third thing: you can all foresee that a military settlement in this way will fling open the doors to every foreign intervention, and especially Israeli intervention.
“On the same day, I summoned Yasser Arafat and this is what I said to him: I told him and I’m telling you now that I cannot conceive of the connection between Palestinians doing battle on top of Mount Lebanon and the liberation of Palestine… My friends, do you recall what went on in 1970 in Jordan? At the time, they shouted slogans: Power, all power to the resistance. We are liberating Palestine by way of Amman. The matter is being repeated now in Lebanon. At that meeting, Yasser Arafat promised me that he would withdraw from the fighting.
“Syria is a land of stalwart resistance. Whoever is for stalwart resistance must be for Syria. Syria is a land of liberation, and whoever is for liberation must be for Syria. Syria is a land of Arab nationalism and progress, and whoever is for Arab nationalism must be for Syria. Syria is a land of the Palestinian struggle, and whoever is for the Palestinian struggle must be for Syria. Any talk about liberating Palestine without Syria is ignorance and a deception of the masses.”
Title card:
On the same day that the Syrian president gave this speech, Lebanon’s mufti sent him the following appeaclass="underline"
“Today, after the pressure caused by the crisis of hunger, thirst, fear and illness has grown intense, and spreading epidemics have come to threaten the lives of all the inhabitants of Beirut and its environs, not to mention the danger of spreading contagion throughout Lebanon… because of the continuation of the squalid 500-day war, and the tightening of the blockade around us from all sides, from land, sea and air.
“… We turn to you, demanding in the name of Muslim and Arab brotherhood, that you fulfill the call of duty to the human race and to Arab nationalism, namely:
“First — that you leave the international Damascus — Beirut road open to all convoys carrying supplies of food, medicine and fuel from brother Arab states through Syria.
“Secondly — that you prevent any threatening move that would block the arrival of ships to the harbors of Sidon and Tripoli…”
A separate title card:
Two days later…
The headquarters of the Socialist Progressive Party in Beirut. A crowd of journalists and politicians. Kamal Jumblatt, head of the party, holds a press conference. The Lebanese leader announces the establishment of a central political council with him as president that will undertake the functions of political leadership for the nationalist and progressive forces and parties in Lebanon.
In front of the Tel Zaatar camp. Crowds of soldiers. A group of Red Cross ambulances slowly approaches.
A newspaper headline: “Isolationist forces fire on the Red Cross delegation that attempted to evacuate the wounded from the Tel Zaatar camp.”
A newspaper headline: “TASS blames Saudi Arabia for what is happening in Lebanon.”
A newspaper headline: “The Saudi Industrial Services Company (SISCO) announces that the Middle East will likely settle down once the Palestinian resistance in Lebanon has been weakened.”
A newspaper headline: “For 3 days, Syrian forces have been unable to break through the lines of the Palestinian resistance in Bhamdoun.”
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On July 29…
A newspaper headline: “Agreement in Damascus between the Palestinian resistance and Syria to end the fighting.”
A circle around a paragraph from the same newspaper: “The Syrian side confirmed its firm and ongoing position supporting the PLO as representative of the Palestinian people in their struggle against the Israeli enemy and on behalf of liberation; and confirmed that Syria was and will remain a base of the struggle for the people of Palestine… Likewise, the Palestinian side praised the position of the Arab nation of Syria with regard to the struggle of the Palestinian Arab people, the Palestinian cause, the assistance of the Syrian nation, and its support for the Palestinian resistance.”
Title card:
Two days later…
A newspaper headline dated July 31: “Evacuation of the wounded from Tel Zaatar. A Swedish doctor states that the number of killed at the camp has reached 1,400, and the number of injured 4,000.”
The Naba’a neighborhood near Beirut. A Phalangist militia fires bullets in every direction. The militia starts expelling residents from their homes.
A crossing-point between the Eastern and Western sectors, near the Museum. Hundreds of residents of the Naba’a district, expelled from East Beirut, arrive together. A narrow street that ends at an overturned bus. Barrels filled with sand. Broken pipes. Women carry everything they own on their heads and drag their children behind them. A girl is carrying a doll, and another carries a gas stove. Everyone advances to the end of the street where the barrier to West Beirut is located.
Title card:
On the fiftieth day of the siege of Tel Zaatar, Yasser Arafat sent letters to Arab leaders, holding them responsible for the fate of the camp. On the same day, the agreement was reached, through the Red Cross and Arab Security Forces, to complete the evacuation of 12,000 civilians from the camp, and to transport them to the Bekaa Valley or West Beirut.