Kafr Qasim
KAFR QASIM
Arab village in Israel, site of 1956 massacre.
On the eve of the 1956 Arab–Israel War, 29 October 1956, Israeli border police deliberately shot and killed forty-nine Israeli Arabs—workmen, women, and children—who were returning to Kafr Qasim, for the violation of a curfew of which they were not aware. A commission of inquiry was formed on 1 November 1956, which established the extent of responsibility and compensation.
Eight of the eleven military personnel brought to trial were convicted of murder and given sentences of up to seventeen years. All were released by 1960 through a partial pardon.
see also arab–israel war (1956).
Bibliography
Hirst, David. The Gun and the Olive Branch. London: Faber and Faber, 1977.
Rolef, Susan Hattis, ed. Political Dictionary of the State of Israel, 2nd edition. New York: Macmillan, 1993.
elizabeth thompson