134 Between Private and Public
massacres, have been probed several times in feature articles and pub-
lications.^42 Elias Khoury has played a particular role in the attempt to
integrate the Palestinian war experience into Lebanese collective mem-
ory, both through activism^43 and in his literary work, which includes the
novel Bab al-Shams [Gate of the Sun] about the Palestinian experience in
Lebanon, released in a popular screen version in 2004.^44
nother significant example of Christian strife over the past was A
the release of Robert “Cobra” Hatem’s book From Israel to Damascus in
1999.^45 The memoirs of this former bodyguard of Elie Hubayqa were
intended to indict Hubayqa, widely regarded as a traitor in the anti-Syrian
camp of the LF. Apparently, the stir caused by the book did succeed in
alienating Hubayqa from the political elite, and some have even specu-
lated that the disclosures in the book started a downward spiral culmi-
nating with his assassination in January 2002. Hubayqa’s past was indeed
uncommonly criminal, and as political support gradually fell away, so
did the political protection which had kept him in power and, perhaps,
kept him alive through the 1990s. In TV interviews he repeatedly denied
any responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982. As part
of a series of articles about former militiamen, the al-Nahar newspaper
in 1998 published a rare and candid interview with Hubayqa tracing his
personal history. When the discussion turned to the war, the interviewer
began to focus on his memories and guilt:
Q: Do you know how many people you killed?
A: No. I don’t want to think about it, and if I do, I don’t want
to talk about it.
Q: How do you look at your former enemies?
A: We decided slowly to fight them, and so did they about us.
And he [the Muslim or Leftist] also has right on his side, he
considered me a danger to his presence and his principles.
Q: Do you have any regrets?
A: I regret that I belonged to a party and not to the army, that I
belonged to a splinter-group, not to a public institution.
Q: Are there any pictures coming back to you?