Middle East Monitor / August 11, 2022
Israel has disclosed recently some of the details surrounding the 1956 Kafr Qasem massacre committed by occupation troops, in which 49 Palestinian civilians were killed.
In response, right-wing Zionists appear to be challenging the release of hundreds of pages of transcripts from the trials of the soldiers who participated in the massacre. Although the trials took place in Israeli courts with Jewish Israeli judges, and the criminals received short sentences, the far right rejects and condemns them.
“The right-wing campaign against the disclosure of the protocols for prosecuting the perpetrators of the massacre will not change anything from the bloody truth,” explained Israeli historian Adam Raz, “which is that a bad and bloody event occurred in Kafr Qasem, despite the efforts made by state representatives over the past decades and years to keep these documents secret, because they include new information that shows the involvement of the Israeli army and its senior leadership in this massacre, not only the execution by the junior soldiers or field officers.”
He added in an article published by Israel’s Maariv newspaper and translated by Arabi 21 that, “The legal articles that the Israeli right object to revealing removes the difference between the official story issued by the army and the historical truth about what happened in Kafr Qasem in October 1956, and while the official Israeli narrative revolves around a number of soldiers who carried out a clearly illegal order, the protocols that were revealed show us what was behind the scenes of the day. Hundreds of pages of protocols that were revealed talked about a plan agreed upon within the army command against the residents of the Palestinian villages that were identified as hostile.”
While the Zionist right seeks to continue covering up the barbaric massacre of Palestinians in Kafr Qasem, the testimonies that were revealed confirm that the occupation soldiers left the eastern side of the village open so that residents of the village could escape towards Jordan. This alone confirms the existence of a clear Zionist plan to get rid of what the occupying power considered to be “minorities” at the time. Orders were given to shoot some Palestinians to cause the others to panic.
Israeli soldiers and officers mentioned similar events throughout the trials, and they may be news to the average Israeli. Their testimonies shed light on the official version circulated by the Israeli authorities, and what the vast majority of Kafr Qasem survivors have been saying for many years, especially about the advance plans prepared for their expulsion.
This has never been taught in Israeli schools so as not to reveal Israel’s guilt for the premeditated massacre. It should be now.
