Summary
The open-air Israeli military prison outside Nabatieh (spelled “Nabitiyeh” in the text copy at PDF p.83) where the IDF detained thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese inmates in tents between June 1982 and May 1985, and which Parkinson treats as a case where internment, counterintuitively, fostered factional survival rather than new cross-faction networks (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.83, p.104-107).
Details
- Laleh Khalili’s estimate, as cited, puts the total number of individual inmates imprisoned at Ansar between June 1982 and May 1985 at 12,000 to 15,000 people; in November 1982 Israel announced 9,064 persons taken prisoner during the invasion, about two thirds Palestinian (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.83).
- Former guerrillas from al-Buss and Burj al-Shamali separately estimated approximately 1,500 to 2,000 men from each of their camps were sent to Ansar, against registered camp populations of 5,133 and 10,644 respectively (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.84).
- The prison was divided into Ansar I and Ansar II and fifteen pens, called mu’askarat, each holding between 250 and 300 prisoners in ten to twelve tents sleeping twenty-five each; inmates were mixed across factions, separated from their subunits and family members, and political discussion was nearly impossible under surveillance and punishment for violating communication rules (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.103-104).
- Prisoners organized public acts of resistance linked to conditions and to religious or political holidays, drawing flags on paper on Lebanese Independence Day and forming a scout team with a drum made from an empty gas canister; during one Eid al-Adha, in the “Eid Uprising”, Israeli guards fatally shot seven prisoners; seventy-three inmates escaped through a tunnel, after which some 2,000 prisoners were transferred to a new camp in Wadi Jahannam (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.104).
- The IDF deployed informants and collaborators within Ansar, and detainees uniformly saw the Israeli-appointed inmates’ leadership as collaborators, which disincentivized strong new ties; an AFSC report noted detainees cleared for release who asked to remain in protective custody for fear of reprisals or vengeance killings in South Lebanon (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.105-106).
- On release, members usually returned to their old organizations and regions rather than coordinating anew with co-detainees, and most former prisoners interviewed returned to militant work, often in more high-risk positions (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.104, p.107).
Related pages
Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, Lebanon invasion 1982, Ain al-Hilweh, Backstage labor