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The Kahan Commission (???? ???), formally known as the Commission of Inquiry into the Events at the Refugee Camps in Beirut, was established by the Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
i government on 28 September, 1982, to investigate the Sabra and Shatila Massacre
Sabra and Shatila massacre

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was carried out between September 16 and 18, 1982 by the Lebanese Forces Christian militia group after the Israeli Defense Forces allowed Lebanese Kataeb Party militiamen to enter two Palestinian refugee camps, and the militia massacred civilians inside....
 (16 September-18 September, 1982). The Kahan Commission was chaired by the President of the Supreme Court, Yitzhak Kahan
Yitzhak Kahan

Yitzhak Kahan was President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1982 until 1983. He was the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the Events at the Refugee Camps in Beirut also known as the Kahan Commission, which was established to investigate the Sabra and Shatila massacre....
. Its other two members were Supreme Court Judge Aharon Barak
Aharon Barak

Aharon Barak is a professor of law at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and a lecturer in law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a lecturer in law at the Yale Law School and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law....
, and Major-General (res.) Yona Efrat.






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The Kahan Commission (???? ???), formally known as the Commission of Inquiry into the Events at the Refugee Camps in Beirut, was established by the Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
i government on 28 September, 1982, to investigate the Sabra and Shatila Massacre
Sabra and Shatila massacre

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was carried out between September 16 and 18, 1982 by the Lebanese Forces Christian militia group after the Israeli Defense Forces allowed Lebanese Kataeb Party militiamen to enter two Palestinian refugee camps, and the militia massacred civilians inside....
 (16 September-18 September, 1982). The Kahan Commission was chaired by the President of the Supreme Court, Yitzhak Kahan
Yitzhak Kahan

Yitzhak Kahan was President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1982 until 1983. He was the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the Events at the Refugee Camps in Beirut also known as the Kahan Commission, which was established to investigate the Sabra and Shatila massacre....
. Its other two members were Supreme Court Judge Aharon Barak
Aharon Barak

Aharon Barak is a professor of law at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and a lecturer in law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a lecturer in law at the Yale Law School and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law....
, and Major-General (res.) Yona Efrat. The Commission was to make recommendations on Israeli involvement in the massacre through an investigation of:

[A]ll the facts and factors connected with the atrocity carried out by a unit of the Lebanese Forces against the civilian population in the Shatilla and Sabra camps.


Following its investigation, on 8 February, 1983, the Kahan Commission submitted its report. It concluded that direct responsibility rested with the Jemayel Phalangists led by Fadi Frem
Fadi Frem

Fady Frem , born in Achrafieh suburb of Beirut, Lebanon is the former leader of the Lebanese Forces Christian militia and political party. He was married to Lena Abou Nader, the grand daughter of Pierre Gemayel....
, and that no Israelis were deemed directly responsible, although Israel was held to be indirectly responsible.

The decision on the entry of the Phalangists into the refugee camps was taken without consideration of the danger - which the makers and executors of the decision were obligated to forsee as probable - the the Phalangists would commit massacres and pogroms against the inhabitants of the camps, and without an examination of the means for preventing this danger.


Similarly, it is clear from the course of events that when the reports began to arrive about the actions of the Phalangists in the camps, no proper heed was taken of these reports, the correct conclusions were not drawn from them, and no energetic and immediate action were taken to restrain the Phalangists and put a stop to their actions.


The Defence Minister
Defence minister

A defence minister is a Cabinet position which regulates the armed forces in some sovereign nations. The minister usually has a very important role in a cabinet....
, Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon

is a former Israeli Prime Minister of Israel and military leader. Sharon served as Prime Minister from March 2001 until April 2006, though he was unable to carry out his duties after suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006, when he fell into a coma and entered a persistent vegetative state....
, was found to bear personal responsibility "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge" and "not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed". Sharon's negligence in protecting the civilian population of Beirut, which had come under Israeli control amounted to a non-fulfillment of a duty with which the Defence Minister was charged, and it was recommended that Sharon be dismissed as Defence Minister.

Initially, Sharon refused to resign, and Prime Minister Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin

was the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. Before the establishment of the state, he was the leader of the Irgun, playing a central role in Jewish resistance to the British Mandate of Palestine....
 refused to fire him. However, following a peace march against the government, as the marchers were dispersing, a grenade was thrown into the crowd, killing Emil Grunzweig
Emil Grunzweig

Emil Grunzweig was an Israeli educator and a peace activist, one of the prominent members of Peace Now movement. He became a symbolic figure of the center-left democratic forces in Israel after having been killed during a peace rally in Jerusalem on February 10, 1983....
, a reserve combat officer and peace activist, and wounding half a dozen others, including the son of the Interior Minister. Although Sharon resigned as Defence Minister, he remained in the Cabinet as a Minister without Portfolio. Years later Sharon would be elected Israel's Prime Minister.

The Commission arrived to similar conclusions with respect to Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen.
Lieutenant General

Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
 Rafael Eitan
Rafael Eitan

Rafael "Raful" Eitan was an Israeli general, former Ramatkal of the Israel Defense Forces and later a politician, a Knesset member Cabinet of Israel....
 (tantamount to a breach of duty that was incumbent upon the Chief of Staff), as well as Director of Military Intelligence
Aman (IDF)

The Directorate of Military Intelligence is Israel's central, overarching military intelligence, in the Israel Defense Forces. Aman was created in 1950, when the Intelligence Department was spun off from the IDF's General Staff ; the Intelligence Department itself was composed largely of former members of the Haganah Intelligence Service ....
, Maj. Gen. Yehoshua Saguy
Yehoshua Saguy

Major General Yehoshua Saguy was Director of Aman from 1979 to 1983. He was born 27 September 1933 in Jerusalem, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine....
, and other Intelligence officials — though the Mossad
Mossad

The Mossad is the national intelligence agency of Israel. "Mossad" is the Hebrew word for institute or institution. Membership in the Mossad is very prestigious in Israeli society, and the organization is considered to rank among the most effective intelligence agencies in the world....
 was not reprimanded and parts of the report commenting on its role remain under military censorship. Critics of the Commission point to its limited scope, some of whom argue it amounted to a whitewash
Whitewash (censorship)

To whitewash is to gloss over or cover up vices, crimes, or to exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data....
 .

The final paragraph of the report says: "We do not deceive ourselves that the results of this inquiry will convince or satisfy those who have prejudices or selective consciences, but this inquiry was not intended for such people. We have striven and have spared no effort to arrive at the truth, and we hope that all persons of good will who will examine the issue without prejudice will be convinced that the inquiry was conducted without any bias."

See also

  • Command responsibility
    Command responsibility

    Command responsibility, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of war crimes....
  • International law
    International law

    Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of states and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond domestic legal interpretation and enforcement....
  • War crimes


External links

  • - hosted by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.