[Quotes from the original article]
Israel’s seemingly never-ending drive to uproot Palestinians from their homes by force of arms and threat of imminent slaughter resulted in one of its bloodiest massacres on 29 October 1956 in the village of Kafr Qasem, on the Israeli side of the 1949 Armistice (“Green”) Line.
In one of the worst massacres in Palestinian history, Israeli border police killed forty-nine residents of Kafr Qasem, including women and children
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[ □ comment: Read this and realise how Zionist butchers cloak their killing project to give it the appearance of ‘legality’!]
Already living under military rule following Israel’s first wave of ethnic cleansing when it was created in Palestine in 1948, a curfew was imposed by the occupation state at 4:30pm on twelve Palestinian villages, including Kafr Qasem. Hundreds of villagers who had left home in the morning to go to work had no way of knowing that a curfew was in place. Soldiers tasked with enforcing the curfew were ordered to shoot and kill anyone seen outside after 5pm, making no distinction between men, women, children and those returning from outside the village.
Predictably, Palestinian residents returning to their homes after the 5pm deadline were stopped by the border police on the western side of the village. Soldiers forced them out of their vehicles and ordered them to dismount from their bicycles before shooting them at close range. In just under an hour 49 people were killed, including women and children.
According to Palestinian historians, the massacre at Kafr Qasem mirrored the typical Israeli blueprint of terrorising Palestinians into fleeing. In his book Atlas of Palestine, 1917-1966, Dr Salman Abu Sitta lists at least 232 places where atrocities, massacres, destruction, plunder and looting were carried out by the Zionists between 1947 and 1956. Almost every one of thirty military operations were accompanied by one or two massacres of civilians. There were at least seventy-seven reported massacres, half of which took place before any Arab regular soldier set foot in Palestine during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war.
The pattern of expulsion was consistent, regardless of the region, date or the particular battalion involved in attacking a town or village. The imposition of a curfew was common practice prior to a massacre. Villagers would be gathered in the main square or nearby field in separate groups, while the village itself was surrounded on three sides, leaving the fourth open for escape or expulsion. The gap left open for Palestinians to flee in the Galilee region pointed towards Lebanon and Syria; towards the West Bank and Jordan in central Palestine; and towards Gaza and Egypt in the south.
.Remembering Israel’s Brutal massacre of Palestinian Civilians in Kafr Qasem
Last updated on 2021-10-30 by w3admin
