Kafr Qasim massacre

The Kafr Qasim massacre (Arabic: مذبحة كفر قاسم, Hebrew: טבח כפר קאסם) was the killing by the Israel Border Police of 49 Palestinian civilians, including 19 men, 6 women and 23 children, in the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Qasim on 29 October 1956, the eve of the Sinai War. Israeli forces had imposed a curfew on the village in the morning of October 29th, and when a number of villagers who had been away and were unaware of the curfew returned, they were massacred.

From 1949 to 1966, Arab citizens were regarded by Israel as a hostile population. On 29 October 1956, the Israeli army ordered that all Arab villages near the Green Line, at that time, the de facto border between Israel and the Jordanian West Bank, to be placed under a wartime curfew. The border policemen who were involved in the shooting were brought to trial and found guilty and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 7 to 17 years. The brigade commander was sentenced to pay the symbolic fine of 10 prutot (old Israeli cents).

The Israeli court found that the command to kill civilians was "blatantly illegal". However, all of the sentences were later reduced, with some of those convicted receiving presidential pardons. All of those convicted had been released by November 1959. Two of those convicted later received promotions: Shmuel Malinksi was put in charge of the Negev Nuclear Research Center, while Gabriel Dahan was placed in charge of "Arab Affairs" of the city of Ramla.

Issachar (Yissachar) "Yiska" Shadmi—the highest-ranking official prosecuted for the massacre—stated, shortly before his death, that he believed that his trial was staged to protect members of the Israeli political and military elite, including Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, from taking responsibility for the massacre. The purpose was to portray the perpetrators as a group of rogue soldiers, rather than people acting under higher orders.

In December 2007, President of Israel Shimon Peres formally apologised for the massacre. In October 2021, a Joint List bill to have the massacre officially recognized was rejected in the Knesset.