Incident at Kfar Kassem
(October 29, 1956)
On October 29, 1956, on the
eve of the Sinai
Campaign, the Israeli army ordered all Israeli
Arab villages near the Jordanian border placed
under a wartime curfew that was to apply from
5 p.m. until 6 a.m. the next day. Any Arab on
the streets was to be shot. The order was given
to the Israeli border police at 3:30 before most
of the Arabs from the villages could be notified.
Many of them were at work at the time. Villagers
began to arrive from work to their homes in Kfar
Kassem and Israeli troops opened fire on them.
A total of 47 Israeli Arabs were killed. The
news of the killings was censored and the general
Israeli public did not learn what happened until
several weeks later when Prime Minister David
Ben-Gurion announced the findings of a secret
inquiry. Eleven border policemen were eventually
charged with crimes and eight were convicted.
Those who were imprisoned had their terms reduced;
no one served more than three and a half years
in jail. The brigade commander received a symbolic
penalty — a fine of 10 prutot (a
coin equal to 1/1000 of an old Israeli pound).
In 2006, Israel’s Edcuation
Minister, Yuli
Tamir, ordered schools to commemorate
the event. In addition, the mayor of Kfar Kassem
announced plans to open a museum commemorating
the massacre.
Sources: Shipler, David. Arab
and Jew. NY: Penguin Books, 1987; Haaretz,
(October 25, 2006) |