Recently appointed Acting Consul General of Lebanon to Detroit, Houssam Diab, proposed building statues in remembrance of the victims.

DEARBORN – Many are familiar with the old saying,  “Time heals all wounds.” But
for Haidar Bitar of Dearborn, dealing with the deaths of his two sons Hadi and
Abdulmohsen, who died in 1996 when Israeli forces shelled a clearly-marked UN
compound in southern Lebanon, gets harder with each passing year.

“The more the time passes the more difficult it
gets,” he said. “Today, they would be 24, 25 years old, they left
this life for nothing, no reason.

“If they were here today they could be something in
society and do something to help their community, do something good; as time
passes by it hurts more and more.”

Bitar was among the speakers on Sunday, April 17 at the
Islamic Center of America’s 5th and 15th annual commemorations of the tragedies
in Dearborn’s sister city in Lebanon, Qana, which occurred in 1996 and 2006.

Both of the Bitar children were Dearborn citizens at the
time visiting their grandmother. The last time Haidar spoke to his sons, they
told him they had to flee with their grandmother from her home because the
Israeli army announced they were going to bomb the area. She was old and did
not drive so the closest place to seek safety was the UN compound.

Haidar Bitar (left), whose two young sons were killed in the 1996 Qana Massacre, shakes hands with Imam Hassan al-Qazwini. PHOTOS: Nafeh AbuNab/TAAN

During the first massacre, the well-marked UN compound was
bombed, killing 106 civilians and injuring 116 others. A UN investigation later
determined it was unlikely the bombing was done in error, as the Israeli army
claimed.

The second massacre in the same city happened in 2006, where
56 were killed including 32 children according to the Lebanese Red Cross.
Israel was condemned by the Human Rights Watch organization because of
“the consistent failure to distinguish combatants from civilians” as
a “war crime.”

Congress of Arab American Organizations spokesman Osama
Siblani said that such massacres will continue unless Arabs at home and abroad
do a better job of remembering the victims and holding others accountable.

“Every year this hall is filling more and more and
every year we have more and more youngsters coming in,” he said.

Siblani noted that Arabs and Muslims have been killed in the
region beginning with the Dier Yassin massacre in Palestine on April 9, 1948
that killed 187. The trend has continued at the hands of Israelis with other
massacres and attacks including Qana and more. “If we do not remember that
someone killed us, they will continue to kill us,” he said.

Osama Siblani

Siblani said that the killings stopped when the people began
to react, resist, and hold others accountable. He stressed the importance of
remembering the victims and protecting Arab blood.

Fred Hammoud of the Dearborn-based Qana al-Jalil
organization (committee) helped organize the event along with the Acting Consul
General of Lebanon, Houssam Diab, who also spoke. The group is working with the
city to have a permanent display installed somewhere in Dearborn with a poem
from Lebanese poet Nizar Qabbani about the Qana massacres inscribed on it.

“We need to hand this down to the younger generation so
they can continue to remember their history and the injustices done to their
parents and grandparents, and to get the younger generation involved especially
now that the rest of the Bitar children are older,” Diab said.

The organization also helped support a clinic in the Qana
region to provide medical help to those in need.

“We must not forget their sacrifices…Is it that they
need us or we need them? Is it the martyrs benefiting from us remembering them?
Or is it us benefiting from remembering the martyrs?” asked Imam Hassan
al-Qazwini of the ICA in his speech, referring to those killed in the struggle
and resistance against occupation and attacks in Lebanon.

“Indeed it is us who benefit from remembering the
martyrs, and the reason we commemorate their memory is because we owe them
quite dearly. It is through their sacrifices my dear brothers and sisters that
we survive today, and it is due to their sacrifices that we enjoy a dignified
life.”

Bitar has written letters to various politicians seeking
justice, including President Barack Obama, but never heard back. He and
survivors of the Qana attack have pled for justice at the United Nations and in
the U.S. courts. A suit against retired Israeli Lt. General Moshe Ya’alon was
dismissed because the court found that Ya’alon was shielded by Israel’s
immunity.

While those efforts have been unsuccessful in obtaining
justice and compensation, Haidar Bitar said that he greatly appreciated the
ceremony in remembrance of his sons and other victims and is happy to see it
continue as a Dearborn tradition in memory of its sister city.

“You feel good when people listen to you about the
situation, and now we have more people and a growing community here who will
never forget,” he said.

“We must do this to prevent this from happening another
time, to resist and to prevent any other massacre happening in the future…to
fight everywhere in politics to prevent another massacre happening to our
children.”