Education Minister orders schools to commemorate Kafr Qasem massacre

[Englander]

By Yulie Khromchenko and Yoav Stern

Education Minister Yuli Tamir has ordered schools to commemorate the Kafr Qasem massacre, in which border policemen killed 47 Arab civilians some 50 years ago as they were returning home from work.

Tamir has instructed schools to dedicate time this coming Sunday to a discussion on both the massacre and the court's subsequent ruling - that the order to shoot was "a clearly illegal order over which a black flag flew," and that the border policeman should have disobeyed it.

"The massacre and the subsequent trial have become a cornerstone of Israeli society's national consciousness, and have inculcated into generations of Israel Defense Forces officers and soldiers the moral limits according to which they must act," Tamir wrote in her directive.

>snip

The incident occurred on October 29, 1956, the first day of the Sinai Campaign, when three border policemen were ordered to shoot anyone found violating the curfew that had been imposed on Kafr Qasem. Pursuant to these orders, the soldiers opened fire on 47 laborers, including women and children, who were returning home from work unaware that a curfew had been imposed. The soldiers were sentenced to lengthy prison terms, but received presidential pardons. The brigade commander received a purely symbolic penalty - a fine of 10 prutot (a coin equal to 1/1000 of an old Israeli pound).

Kafr Qasem Mayor Sami Issa said that a museum commemorating the massacre would also open in the town on October 29. Various other memorial events are also planned, including a conference in Kafr Qasem on Friday and a march on Sunday.

More at;
Haaretz

[Ken Burch]

1. I commend the minister for this decision

(Hope the keep Avigdor Lieberman away from their that day.)

[Scurrilous]

2. Kafr Qasem residents mark 50th anniversary of massacre

<snip>

"Residents of the Arab Israeli village of Kafr Qasem held memorial ceremonies in recent days marking the 50th anniversary of the 1956 massacre in which Border Police killed 47 Arab citizens who were returning to their village from work.

On Sunday, the official anniversary, residents marched and visited the cemetery where the massacre's victims are buried, laying wreaths in their memory.

Kafr Qasem council head Sami Issa criticized during the ceremony the addition of Yisrael Beiteinu to the coalition.

"This is not the way to achieve peace," said Issa."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/780898.html



'If the eye is not blind nor the heart closed'

<snip>

"Latif Dori came to Kafr Qasem this week and could barely make it down the street. The 72-year-old peace activist is considered a local hero. Whenever he comes here, passersby recognize him and want to stop him and shake his hand warmly. Passing drivers honk their horns and wave. The local council bestowed honorary citizenship upon him. He is part of the history of this village, and of the state: In 1956, Dori was the first one to record the horror stories told by survivors of the massacre perpetrated by Border Police troops."

<snip>

"It happened on Monday, October 29, 1956, a little after 5 P.M. The Sinai Campaign began at about the same time. For several days, there had been talk that the Israel Defense Forces might stage an incursion into Jordan, apparently in order to disguise the true intent to invade Egypt. As part of the preparations, the army planned to evacuate the Arab villages in the "Triangle" area and transfer their residents to holding facilities in the center of the country.

The plan was given the code name "Mole." The Border Police had thought of an alternative plan: to block passage from the Triangle villages to deeper inside the state, and expel their residents across the Jordan. Both plans were cancelled when it became evident that the war was going to take place in Sinai. But according to writer Rubik Rosenthal, who exposed this story many years later, the expulsion plans "remained in the air."

A curfew was imposed on the villages of the Triangle; violators were to be shot on sight. Several dozen residents, including women and children, unaware of the curfew, were late in returning to Kafr Qasem. They came in groups, on foot, by truck or riding bicycles. Following their orders, Border Police troops stood them in rows and shot them to death, as they continued to arrive in group after group. The official count says that 47 people were killed that day; the monument erected in the village adds an old man who died of a heart attack upon hearing that his son was among the dead, and the unborn baby in the womb of his mother, who was killed."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/779833.html

[Englander]

3. The last para of that Haaretz article;

'In Kafr Qasem, they feel that the state still needs to take moral responsibility for the massacre. Here is an opportunity for a historic gesture of decency and reconciliation, in the form of a statement by the president, the Knesset Speaker, or the prime minister. But no such statement has been forthcoming. Council head Issa isn't surprised: "Israel missed out on the country's Arabs," he says. Up until a few years ago, the council used to invite government representatives to take part in the yearly memorial ceremony; usually, they didn't come. This year, they were not invited.

[breakaleg]

4. On the surface they are saying that Israel needs to make some statement

or apology or responsibility.

But if you look at the wording at the beginning "they feel that the state still needs to take moral responsibility", in terms of linguistics, there seems to be a littl dig in there. It kind of takes the punch out of the rest of the statement for me.

It's like they are implying we've already aplogized enough and they STILL think we should accept responsiblity.