Besieged: A Doctor's Story of Life and Death in Beirut

Rudolf Carl Nassar is Co-ordinator of the Humanities Department at
Champlain Regional College in Lennoxville, Quebec, and teaches courses
in journalism and international politics.

Besieged is the extraordinary story of Giannou’s life and work in the
Palestinian refugee district of Shatila in south-west Beirut, during the
long siege and bombardment of that camp from October 1985 to January
1988.

Probably better known for the horrendous massacre it shared with the
adjacent camp of Sabra in 1982, Shatila became a prime target of
Lebanese pro-Syrian factions in their 30-month-long offensive to overrun
a number of key Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and, in effect,
give Syria preeminent influence in the country and tutelage of the
Palestinian national movement there. For more than two years the
powerful Syrian-backed Amal militia—reinforced by the pro-Syrian Sixth
Brigade of the Lebanese Army—battered the camp with everything from
heavy artillery to small arms fire, and effectively cut off its 3500
inhabitants. But Shatila refused to surrender. For its residents, as
well as for other Palestinians, Shatila had become a symbol of endurance
and determination, and they were convinced that if the district fell, so
would Palestinian resistance in the rest of Lebanon.

When Syrian troops finally intervened and, under a brokered agreement,
entered Shatila in January 1988, there was nothing much left. Yet,
amidst all the carnage, Giannou, a Canadian surgeon, and his medical
team of two general practitioners and a handful of nurses, managed to
set up and maintain a small makeshift hospital in a building’s
basement. There, under extremely difficult conditions and with few
supplies, they performed hundreds of operations.

Giannou’s story reflects his understanding of Middle East culture,
society and politics, and especially of Lebanon’s turbulent recent
history as well as the plight of the Palestinian refugees. His account
of his work among Shatila’s Palestinians is a vivid, moving, and
compassionate portrait of “ordinary people doing extraordinary
things” in order to survive. And, in the final analysis, it is also a
plea for a just and lasting peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.