Sari Blog

Sari
In this last section of Waltz with Bashir, we had just finished watching the scene with the waltz, and discussed the irony of dancing such a calm, peaceful dance, during such crude, and ugly times. At this point, Ari still can’t remember anything. He is continuing to have the same halucination of himself, and the other young soldiers on the beach, and is even more frustrated after Carmi refuses to believe that he was ever on the beach, claiming Ari’s vision to be false. Ari now feels like he has reached a dead end, since nobody is giving him the answers that he wants. We are soon introduced to the Phalangists, a Christian militia, that stems from Lebanon, who have sided with the Israeli government.

Their leader Bashir Gemayel, was elected President of Lebanon, but while giving a speech at the Phalangist headquarters in East Beirut, chaos broke out, and Gemayel was killed by a massive explosive charge. The group or person behind the murder is still unknown, but without any evidence, Phalangist troops entered Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila, and simply shot everyone, for a number of days, until the Israeli army finally stepped in, and put a stop to the horrors that were going on. In the movie we see powerful images of bodies, of men, women, and even children, lying lifeless in the streets, some alone, while in some areas, bodies were piled high.

After the Israeli army stopped the shootings, Bashir finally remembers the massacre, and being surrounded by crying women in the streets. The video ends with real clips, of the camps after the massacre, to better illustrate the terror and make everything seem more legitimate, and real. It is still not known how many victims were killed, but there is a count of an estimated 3000 deaths.

When the final scene of the movie arrived, we were taken on an emotional ride through the camp, after the massacre had ended. The images of bodies in the streets, reminded me a lot images from the Holocaust. It amazed me that after we as Jews had been through such a terrible genocide that the Israeli army could have such allies, and not be putting a stop to everything that they were doing. Though they finally did put a stop to all that was going on in the camps, it left me confused about why they could not have done anything sooner.