Press: Battling over a Paragraph

Ariel Sharon's libel suit against Time Inc. goes to trial

It was the second day of Federal Case 83 Civ. 4660, Ariel Sharon vs. Time Inc. The wood-paneled courtroom in lower Manhattan was crowded but hushed as the plaintiff took the stand. "My parents were people who fought for the truth that they believed," said Sharon, the former Defense Minister of Israel. "And defending the truth, defending your truth, your people's truth, that was also what brought me here, 6,000 miles away from home, to this American court." Earlier, Time Inc.'s lawyers had presented the case differently. Sharon's lawsuit, they argued, "is part of an attempt by a foreign politician to justify his conduct of war by his state and enhance his political reputation."

So began Sharon's $50 million lawsuit against Time Inc. last week. Sharon has charged that TIME magazine libeled him in a February 1983 cover story about an official Israeli report on the 1982 massacre of some 700 Arabs in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps outside Beirut. The killings, which followed the assassination of Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel, were done by Christian Phalangist militiamen. The article extensively quoted the published report, which, among other things, found that then Defense Minister Sharon bore "indirect" responsibility for what had happened in the camps.

At the heart of Sharon's suit is a paragraph in the TIME story that described a condolence call that Sharon paid to the Gemayel family the day after Bashir's death. According to the passage, a classified appendix to the report contained information about the visit. TIME went on to say that Sharon "reportedly discussed with the Gemayels the need for the Phalangists to take revenge" for Bashir's assassination, but added that "the details of the conversation are not known."

Sharon, who resigned his Defense post two days after the release of the report, says that he did meet with the Gemayel family. But he denies that they discussed revenge. He contends, moreover, that the secret appendix, which remains classified, does not say he talked about revenge with the Gemayels. Sharon insists that the TIME statements suggest that he encouraged or condoned the murders, and that the magazine has injured his political reputation and committed a "blood libel" against Israel. Sharon currently serves as his country's Minister of Industry and Trade.

Time Inc. argues that Sharon's interpretation of the paragraph distorts its intended meaning. It contends that the magazine's account of the meeting is correct, and did not damage Sharon's reputation. In a motion filed last month to dismiss the case, Time Inc.'s attorneys invoked the act of state doctrine, which holds that a U.S. court is not the proper place to debate the actions of a foreign government. They added that the refusal of the Israeli government to release key documents, including the disputed appendix, made a fair trial impossible. U.S. District Court Judge Abraham Sofaer denied Time Inc.'s motion. He ruled, however, that one of Sharon's claims, that TIME has a "vicious bias" against Jews or Israel, "is so unsubstantiated that no evidence will be allowed."