Haidar Bitar, the father of the two Dearborn children who died in the massacre

DEARBORN — Qana is an ever-bleeding wound in the collective Arab consciousness. It has been 20 years since Israel shelled a United Nations compound that housed civilians in the southern Lebanese town. Two children from Dearborn were among the 106 dead.

Arab Americans commemorated the massacre in a ceremony at the Islamic Center of America on Sunday. 

The event, which was organized by the Congress of Arab American Organizations and the Qana Al-Jalil Committee, paid tribute to Hadi and Abdulmohsen Bitar, the two local children who were killed in the 1996 massacre while visiting their grandmother in Lebanon.

Speakers stressed the importance of keeping the memory of the tragedy alive.

Qana was targeted again, a decade after the first massacre, during the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006. 

The 1996 massacre came under international scrutiny by rights organizations that accused Israel of deliberately targeting the compound. 

Amnesty International’s investigation of the Qana Massacre revealed that the Israeli army “intentionally attacked the U.N. compound, although the motives for doing so remain unclear.” A U.N. investigation concluded that the shelling was “unlikely…a technical or procedural error.” And Human Rights Watch described the massacre as a “violation of a key principle of international humanitarian law.”

ICA Imam Ibrahim Kazerooni said international law was unable to protect the victims of Qana because the United Nations was established by powerful nations to take their side. 

He praised the resistance, adding that strength is the only way to deter Israeli attacks. Kazerooni said now Israel questions any move against Lebanon because of possible retaliation.

“The balance of power has changed,” he said.

The Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani said passing the memory of Qana to the next generation is crucial.

Siblani slammed Saudi Arabia. He said those who promote fundamentalism and destruction have killed more civilians in Syria and Yemen than Israel. 

He urged civic engagement, saying Arabs in the diaspora can best help the suffering people in the Middle East by voting.

“If we put our votes together, we can change the equation, we can force elected officials to respect us because we deserve respect,” he said. “You don’t just get respect; you earn it.”

The Qana Al-Jalil Committee presented Siblani with an award at the end of his speech. 

Yemeni American activist Walid Fidama emphasized Arab unity and rejecting sectarianism.

“Before we came here, we grew up learning that we are one Arab nation; these divisions have only emerged in the few past years,” he said. “This is a Shi’a, this is an Alawite, this is a Sunni — we were not familiar with any of this. All we knew is that we are Arab.”

Referring to the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen, Fidama said unfortunately, the most dangerous enemy of Arabs and Muslims claim to represent Islam.

“I salute you, and I salute Qana and its resilience,” he said. “In Yemen we will continue to stand against those who try to divide us in the name of sectarianism.”

Haidar Bitar, the father of the brothers who were killed in Qana, spoke at the end of the event, thanking the audience for attending the memorial.

Osama Siblini speaking at the Qana memorial, April 17