Judge Who Headed Probe Into Beirut Massacre Dies

Yitzhak Kahan, the chief justice of Israel’s Supreme Court who headed the committee that investigated the massacre of Palestinian refugees near Beirut in 1982 and which recommended the ouster of Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, died Wednesday at the age of 72.

Cause Not Announced

The cause of his death was not announced.

The Polish-born Kahan, a bible scholar as well as a judge, was thrust into prominence by his appointment to head a judicial commission investigating the killings in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps near Beirut.

The massacre by Israel’s Christian militia allies occurred after the Israeli army moved into the area in September, 1982. It raised a storm of protest that brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators into the streets of Tel Aviv.

The outcry forced then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin to launch an investigation. He appointed Kahan to set up a commission which Kahan decided to chair himself, flanked by Supreme Court colleague Aharon Barak and retired Maj. Gen. Yonah Afrat. Kahan, who throughout his life resisted the limelight, was reticent to accept the post as he had been when named chief justice in 1982, but eventually acquiesced.

The results of his inquiry, published in February, 1983, shook the Begin government and underlined controversy over Israel’s war in Lebanon.

The Kahan Commission charged Sharon, then the defense minister, with failing to prevent the militiamen from entering the camps after the murder of Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel.

Forced to Resign

Sharon was forced to resign the defense post but remained in Begin’s Cabinet as a minister-without-portfolio.

Begin, the premier who launched Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in June, 1982, stepped down seven months later in September, 1983.

Kahan was only a temporary president of the Supreme Court and stepped down when Meir Shamgar accepted the post in late 1983.

In contrast to his predecessor, Chaim Cohen, Kahan’s rulings tended to support the prerogative of the state over the individual, but none of his decisions was at any great variance with his predecessors.

Kahan was born in Lwow, Poland, in 1913. He studied law and economics before immigrating to Israel in 1935.

His replacement by the Israeli-educated Shamgar made Kahan the last of the European-educated judges on the bench.