Hasn't it occurred to the United States that its support of Israel may make it complicit in war crimes?

In the midst of the horrifying clash in the Middle East, the Court of Brussels has been working through a war-crimes case brought against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other Israelis and Lebanese.

On March 15, 2002, the Belgian Court of Appeals heard arguments that, due to a recent ruling in the International Court of Justice concerning the immunity from prosecution of a sitting official, Ariel Sharon could, indeed, be brought to trial.

An interesting web-site, www.electronicintifada.net, gives the plaintiff's version of the events that led to the international Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra & Shatila seeking official indictment in the international court. This indictment, in particular, concerns Sharon's part in the Sabra and Shatila massacres at the two joining Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982., Israel had invaded Lebanon and occupied almost all land from Beirut south.

Most of this article contains material gleaned from the site. It will also use a term Amnesty International finds objectionable; massacre. They prefer to look beyond the loaded term and into what really occurred. We concur and will use the word sparingly. Slaughter works just as well.

The Lebanese Christian Phalange militia carried out the Sabra and Shatila Massacres. Allowed into the Israeli-held area by then Israeli Defense Minister Sharon, the carnage started the evening of September 16, 1982. For over 60 hours, Phalangist slaughtered men, women and children. The adjusted total of dead, according to the International Red Cross, was 2,750. During the slaughter, Israelis provided light flares, air support and laid siege to surrounding areas.

But this massacre and the current Palestinian invasion are not the whole story concerning Ariel Sharon. His history goes back a long way. It might be insightful to note Sharon's modus operandi.

In 1953, after commanding an infantry company during the 1948 War of Independence, he founded and led the notorious "Unit 101" which, according to an official biography, carried out "retaliatory operations." One such operation was the October 14, 1953, carnage at the village of Qibya in the West Bank. Forty-five houses were blown up and 69 Palestinians, about half women and children, were killed.

In 1956, Ariel Sharon was one of two commanding officers in the Sinai, at that time a highly volatile area. As commander of the paratroopers, he oversaw operations that killed 273 Egyptian prisoners of war in the Sinai in 3 separate incidents. Some of the dead were lined up and shot in a quarry, others in a closed truck while others were shot as they ran in retreat.

In the 1967 Six-Day War, Sharon was commander of an armored division. In August 1971, according to the Independent newspaper troops under Mr. Sharon's command destroyed 2,000 homes in the Gaza Strip, uprooting 12,000. Hundreds of young Palestinians were arrested and deported. Six hundred relatives of suspected guerrillas were exiled to the Sinai desert, and 104 guerrillas were assassinated.

In 1973, Sharon led the crossing of the Suez Canal in the Yom Kippur War. During the Seventies, Sharon as a member of the Knesset and as security adviser to PM Menachem Begin and Minister of Agriculture.

As Israeli Defense Minister in 1982, Sharon orchestrated the invasion of Lebanon. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed when Israel occupied southern Lebanon to Beirut. The country is still rebuilding. Again Sharon was determined to destroy the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Between July 4, 1982 and August 15, 1982 over 29,500 Palestinians and Lebanese were either killed or wounded. Forty percent were children. It was a month later, September 16, that the Sabra and Shatila massacres took place.

In February 1983, an official Israeli commission of inquiry, chaired by the president of the Israeli Supreme Court, found Ariel Sharon had responsibility for the massacre as Minister of Defense. He "disregarded the danger of acts of vengeance and bloodshed by the Phalangists and for not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre."

From 1977-92, Sharon was "a key player" in the settlement explosion. This period saw more land confiscation and settlement activity in Palestine, occupied territory since 1967, than previously seen in Israeli history. The numbers increased 2000% and reached 110,000 people. In 1996, Sharon was appointed Minister of National Infrastructure, again in charge of settlement construction. Post-Oslo negotiations were in full swing when Sharon established 30 new settlements. The settler population almost doubled in the West Bank and Gaza.

In 1998, Sharon as Foreign Minister negotiated with Benjamin Netanyahu at the Wye River talks. That year Sharon stated, "Everyone has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours. Everything we don't grab will go to them."

The grabbing continues. Sharon knows it is one of the most contentious issues facing the peace process. Sharon has often stated his goal of a greater Israeli state that includes Palestine.

September 28, 2000, the first day of Yom Kipper, Sharon led 1,000 armed guards to the sacred al-Haram ash-Sharif Muslim temple in Jerusalem sparking off the Second Intifada. Many commentators believe the violation was a political act meant to win him the Prime Minister position.

Since his election, he has increased settlements and conducted constant raids into Palestine. As of November of 2001, Bethlehem has been invaded at least three times before the current siege. Other cities have suffered the same abuse. He has ordered the assassination of the officials of another country. Sharon's right wing has a plan to deport Palestinians out of the West Bank.

Article 147 of the Geneva Convention states that grave breaches to "protected persons (war-crimes against civilians) include willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly."