WHILE WANDERING through the narrow alleys of the Shatila refugee camp in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, I noticed a man in his 70s sitting by his window, gazing out at the street. I approached him and said, “It seems like you’ve witnessed many historical events. May I ask you some questions?” With a sarcastic half-smile that conveyed the frustration of having been overly researched and interviewed on the same subject to no avail, he replied, “Ask whatever you want, but don’t ask me about the massacre.”

The Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut were the site of a brutal massacre that occurred between Sept. 16 and 18, 1982. The atrocity was perpetrated on the undefended camp residents by the Phalange, a right-wing Lebanese Christian militia, with assistance from Israeli forces. [Seeking an end to Israel’s June invasion and siege of Beirut during Lebanon’s civil war, the U.S. brokered an agreement on Aug. 21 which allowed for the safe evacuation of Palestine Liberation Organization forces to Tunisia on Sept. 1, and guaranteed a multinational peace-keeping force would protect the Palestinian refugees the fighters left behind. Unfortunately, peacekeepers left West Beirut on Sept. 11, and by Sept. 14 President-elect Bashir Gemayel, a controversial Phalange leader with alleged ties to Israel, was assassinated, infuriating his supporters.] The Phalangists killed up to 3,500 men, women and children while Israeli troops provided cover.

This year marks the 42nd anniversary of that massacre, occurring against the backdrop of a new wave of atrocities. The world is currently witnessing the Israeli military, supported by the United States and Western countries, commit a genocide against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, a genocide that has persisted for 11 uninterrupted months. 

“Every day in Gaza is like the Sabra and Shatila massacre amidst the ongoing genocide,” said Naji Dawali, 65, the secretary of the Popular Committee for Shatila Camp.

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In September 1982, the Israeli military invaded West Beirut and Israel-allied Lebanese militiamen massacred Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Meanwhile, Israeli forces also raided the Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center and trucked its complete library to Israel. Palestinian activists and supporters protested loudly to international organizations and the Western press, claiming that the assault on the Center proved that the Israelis sought to destroy not merely Palestinian militants but Palestinian culture as well. The protests succeeded: in November 1983, Israel returned the library as part of a prisoner exchange. What was in that library?

Much of the expansive collection the PLO amassed consisted of books about Judaism, Zionism, and Israel. In Reading Herzl in Beirut, Jonathan Marc Gribetz tells the story of the PLO Research Center from its establishment in 1965 until its ultimate expulsion from Lebanon in 1983. Gribetz explores why the PLO invested in research about the Jews, what its researchers learned about Judaism and Zionism, and how the knowledge they acquired informed the PLO's relationship to Israel.