Kufr Qasim Massacre

Kufr Qasim Massacre:

• In its preparation for the tripartite aggression against Egypt in 1956, Israel undertook very comprehensive restrictive measures against its Arab citizens, under the pretext of ensuring internal security during that aggression.
• On October 28, 1956, a battalion of the Border Guards was joined to one of the Israeli army divisions.
• Early in the morning of October 29, the commander of the Israeli army in the central region acquainted all aids in his jurisdiction of the policy that should be pursued with the Arab citizens of Israel.

He stressed that the implementation of the military operations in the south (i.e. attacks on the Gaza Strip and the Sinai) requires full stability and calm in the Arab concentrated areas inside Israel. A Lt. Colonel asked for authorization to impose curfew on the Arab villages. The demand was okayed, and immediately implemented in the villages of Kufr Qasim, Kufr Barra, Jaljulya, Tierah, Taibeh, Qalansua, Beir Al Sikka, Abton … etc.

• The military order concerned said that no citizen is allowed to leave his home during the curfew. Whoever violates the order will be shot. No one to be jailed—in other words, take no prisoners.

The Lt. Colonel said the curfew would be very restrictive, and strictly implemented, not by imprisonment, but by shooting. When asked about the case of a citizen returning home from the nearby work location, and uninformed of the curfew, the Lt. Colonel replied: “I don’t want any emotions.. God bless his soul.”

In a special meeting dedicated to the instruction of these military orders and regulations, major Milinki told his staff that they should shoot anybody emerging outside his home; no one should be taken prisoner. If it happened, and some people were killed, then that would be a relief of the curfew in the following nights.

• Israeli military squads were then deployed in the Arab villages of the triangle region (in the Galilee). A distinctive force was directed to Kufr Qasim under the command of Lt. Jabriel Dahhan. He divided it into four groups. The groups took their positions at the village’s entrances and inside its territory, too.
• At 16:00 hours of that date, and only 30 minutes before the curfew was to be declared, a sergeant of the Border Guards summoned the village mayor, Qasim Wade’e Ahmed Sarsour, and informed him of the curfew order. The mayor informed the sergeant of the 400 workers still in their fields and work outside the village, saying that it would be impossible to acquaint them with this order in half an hour. The Sergeant promised to allow these workers to return to their homes, and that he and the government would be accountable for that.
• At 17:00 hours, and as the workers and farmers were coming back home from their work and fields, the massacre started. The Israeli soldiers stopped the returning Palestinian workers, who were coming back in-groups and individually, at the entrance of the village, and asked them where they were from. When the answer came ‘from Kufr Qasim’, they were ordered to stand in one line, then the Israeli commander ordered his squad to shoot them by saying: ‘finish them’. In this manner, about 50 Palestinian workers from this village were killed in a period of one hour, including 31 young men, 9 women and 7 kids. The Israeli soldiers then shoved the corpses of the dead and wounded to the roadside.

3-11-1- Field Accounts

• In her description of the massacre a week after its perpetration, an elderly woman from Kufr Qasim, who was called to identify the corpse of her slain husband, said that the Israeli soldiers brought people from Jaljulia to bury the dead haphazardly. Hands, legs and heads actually emerged from under earth.
• Abdul Raheem Easa, who was 15 years old at that time, said in his account of what he had seen of the massacre, that exactly at 17:00 hours as he could remember, the Israeli forces imposed curfew in the triangle region. That was only one minute before aggression was launched against Egypt. The overall atmosphere was tense, and the Arab and Palestinian ‘fedaiyeen’ were taking up military operations against the Israeli army. So Arab villages were subjected to Israel’s military and emergency rule. Even the curfew schedule was deliberately precipitated for some time, though the Israeli authorities knew very well there were many Arab workers and farmers still outside their villages.
• Khader Mahmoud Bader said in his account that he had stopped at the roadside with other three stone crushing laborers when an Israeli soldier asked them where they were from. As he got the answer that they were from Kufr Qasim, he stepped back a little and ordered the Israeli soldiers: ‘finish them’. So they were hailed with fire from all sides, and suddenly some people fell down on him. The soldiers drew nearer, and shot at the Palestinian workers from over the wall. Khader’s cousin appealed to the soldiers to leave him for the sake of his children, but one of them swiftly crushed his head. Khader didn’t feel anything around him, neither could he manage to move forward. He was shot in the legs, two other workers were instantly killed, while the third pretended to be dead. He hid himself among a herd, and managed to reach the village by stealth.

Khader went on to say that he tried to crawl with the help of his hands, but he heard horrible cries all the time. Unexpectedly, he took hold of an olive branch and covered himself with it. The whizzing of bullets and the shouts of the injured continued. The radios in the hands of the Israeli soldiers repeatedly reporting: “We killed 10 Arabs, we killed .. we killed ..”

• Salah Khaleel Easa was 18 years old at that time. In his recollection he said that a truck loaded with many Arab workers came to a military checkpoint. The Israeli soldiers allowed it to pass along. But after few seconds, it was struck with bullets. Salah was monitoring the event from a nearby field. Thirteen Palestinians were killed; many others were injured. Salah himself was hit in the arm and leg. Soon, another group of Arab workers arrived. Salah heard one of the Israeli soldiers shouting the command: ‘finish them’. Some of them fell on the ground. A quarter an hour later, another truck carrying 19 Arab workers came up. They were asked to get off the truck and stand in one line. Then the Israeli soldiers mercilessly shot them down, and removed the corpses. Salah pretended to be dead, so one of the soldiers threw him among the other dead. Calmly and silently, Salah crept to a nearby olive tree, climbed up its huge branch and stayed there until morning. As for Khader Bader, he stayed hidden in an olive tree in that place for three days, then feebly fell down to the ground.
• Citizen Abdul Raheem spoke of the massacre saying he was 17 years old then and used to work on their land. In the evening of that day, he heard firing. Together with others, they all thought it could be border clashes with Jordan. None of them knew of the curfew. Abdul Raheem’s father sent one of his brothers after him. We both came back on that truck which stopped at the military checkpoint that was set up at the village Some Israeli soldiers came up to the truck and started shooting at them. They threw themselves on the ground while the Israelis pelted them with questions about their original villages and where they came from. The soldiers didn’t wait for answers. They immediately ordered the Arab workers to get down from the truck and stand in one line. Suddenly, the commander of the checkpoint ordered his soldiers to ‘Finish them’. Abdul Raheem’s brother was standing behind him, the latter punched the former in the belly. When the Israeli soldiers started shooting, both brothers fell to the ground. The brother continued punching on the belly of Abdul Raheem who was hit in the left leg. The Israeli soldiers passed to check the dead from the living. Abdul Raheem pretended to be dead as one of the soldiers reached him. His injured leg moved a bit, and his brother tried to calm him down, whereas Abdul Raheem wanted, with a hand gesture, to stop him from speaking. The Israeli soldier fired at Abdul Raheem’s hands, and his brother began shouting. They shot him in the head. The bullets went out of the other side. Abdul Raheem’s brother was silent, his hands which were punching his brother’s belly became loose and eventually fell down.
• Half an hour later, a car loaded with Palestinian women arrived. One of them said: “Look, they are there on the ground”. The Israeli soldiers stopped the women at a distance of about 50 meters, and shot them down. As Abdul Raheem awoke, he found himself in the hospital.

3-11-2- A Mock Trial

The on–the-spot-accounts of the Arab citizens who had narrowly escaped the massacre, shook the entire Palestinian and Arab public opinion.

As for Israel, the then Prime Minister David Ben Gurion set up an superficial investigation committee intended to absorb the indignation of the Arab population and public opinion in general. Though late, and only on November 12, 1956,

the Israeli authorities issued a statement that didn’t even mention how many Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli soldiers. The investigation committee recommended, in conclusion of its formal examination of the case, the due trial of the massacre perpetrators, but didn’t publish their names. Moshe Dayan requested that the trial be conducted behind closed sessions. In January 1957, the Kufr Qasim trial was held for 11 Israeli officers and soldiers from the Border Guards, and lasted for two years.

Finally, this theatrical trial issued decisions which were pretentiously tough, and meant to satisfy Arab and world public opinion. It ruled that :

• Major Samuel Milinki be jailed for 17 years for killing 43 Arab citizens from Kufr Qasim;
• Dahhan to be jailed for 15 years for killing 22 Arab citizens;
• soldier Shalom Ofer to be jailed for 15 years for killing 22 Arabs;
• and soldiers Makhloof Harroush and Elyaho Abraham to be jailed for 7 years for killing 22 Arabs each.
• As for Colonel Shadmi, the court fined him 10 Israeli Agors (something like one piaster).

Very shortly afterwards, the convicted Israeli soldiers appealed their sentences to the Supreme Court.

The latter reduced Milinki’s sentence to 14 years, Dahhan’s to 10 years and that of the rest to 3 years in prison.

Then the Israeli armychief of staff, Haim Laskov, slashed the sentences further, and after serving only one year, they were all set free.

Ironically, and exactly three months after his release from jail, Lt Dahhan was appointed by Al Ramleh municipality as an official responsible for Arab issues there.

3-11-3– Memorialization

On the Arab side however, the citizens of Kufr Qasim and all other Palestinian cities, towns and villages, memorialize the martyrs of this horrible massacre annually.