Dr Swee Ang on anniversary of Sabra Shatilla Massacre

Dr Swee Ang. Screenshot

Dr Swee Ang, orthopaedic surgeon, author and founder of Medical Aid for Palestinians, gave the following speech to medical staff and aid workers in Beirut last week, on the 42nd Anniversary of the Sabra Shatilla Massacre - in between operating on patients injured in the pager attacks.

Your Excellencies. Dear brothers and sisters. Before I start I would like to pay tribute to one of the patients I operated on last evening.

I arrived last Tuesday and have been sent to operate on patients who were blown up by the pager attacks. Several thousands were injured when their pagers exploded in their hands, faces and eyes.

The many injured have the same pattern of injury. Their hands were blasted to bits. Eyes blown out on one or both sides, with multiple shrapnel wounds over their torso and in the severe cases nasty brain and face injuries.

This particular patient had a mutilated hand on the left and had lost the entire middle finger and chunks of the index finger and thumb. He also lost his left eye.

I went to the recovery to explain to him that although he retained all digits minus the middle it will be many surgical procedures before he acquires some sort of meaningful use. He also had blast injuries to his other hand.

I told him I was really sad what happened to him and to the thousands of victims.

His reply was totally unexpected and brought me to tears. He told me he was not sad. He accepted that this was the price he was prepared to pay for standing in solidarity with Gaza. and humanity "Please do not feel sad doctor. I have no regrets suffering these injuries. This is the price I pay for standing with humanity and justice."

Forty two painful years have gone past. Today I can see among you so many young faces born after the massacre and also the faces of those whom I have lived with, through and during during the massacre. All of you have taught me the meaning of struggle, of hope, of never despairing and of never giving up.

You have also accepted me as your friend and family. Your generosity to me in the midst of your suffering and deprivation will never be forgotten.

oday we commemorate the events of 1982 but we also stand in solidarity with Gaza and West Bank. We will not rest till Palestine is free and every Palestinian refugee has the right to return to a free Palestine.

The genocide in Gaza is designed to eliminate the Palestinian people and to drive them all out of their homeland.

All of us have seen in real time the killing of so many, with bodies incinerated and pulverised, and those whose bodies are still buried under the rubble.

We see all means for human living and survival destroyed-hospitals, schools, solar panels, water tanks, farms, orchards, factories - all destroyed.

The world watches in real time the man-made famine which not only kill by starvation, but also bring diseases to emaciated bodies and homelessness to people with amputated limbs and thousands of orphans.

But history has taught us that it is not over. The Palestinians will not be wiped out.

Some might have forgotten.

The Sabra Shatilla massacre killed 3,000 people in three days in a refugee camp home to less than a 100,000 person. If it continued 30,000 would die in a month and nearly half a million in a year. And in two years a million. There was no ICJ at that time!

So what about justice? 42 years on there is still a Shatila camp. And the Palestinians are still here in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and West Bank - and in every corner of the world. - human, dignified and strong.

Millions around the world stand in solidarity with them. What is destroyed will be rebuilt. Palestinians are builders and rebuilders Your children who had lost parents and homes during the massacre stood in front of rows of decaying bodies lifted their hands in the victory sign telling me they are not afraid. Yes there is life.

Standing here among you fills me with resolve that tomorrow is for Palestine. Tomorrow the sun will rise in Gaza. Tomorrow the tears will stop flowing and there will be rejoicing and laughter. We will look back with pride on how you have built the road to justice and freedom.

Justice is the laughter of our children in a free Palestine, where they reclaim their humanity and their place under the sun. They who are trampled upon will arise and be free citizens of this world.