Israel’s President Isaac Herzog apologizes for the 1956 massacre of Arab citizens of Israel by border police officers, who appeared at an annual memorial to apologize on behalf of the state.
“I stand here in front of you today with my head bowed and heartbroken on the sixty-fifth anniversary of one of the most tragic events in the history of our country,” Herzog said at the ceremony in Kafr Qasim. Place.
Herzog is the second Israeli president to address the event. His predecessor, Reuven Rivlin, took part in 2014 and condemned the massacre, in which border police killed 48 billion Israeli men, women and children for violating a wartime curfew near the central city of Kafr Qasim. The unborn child of a pregnant woman is considered the 49th victim.
In 2007, then-president Shimon Peres broke ground when he formally regretted the massacre, but was not at the memorial.
Israel has not claimed formal responsibility for the massacre, and a bill proposing the state to do so was voted heavily on Wednesday. Arab Israeli lawmakers regularly propose bills near the 29 October anniversary, but the Knesset has repeatedly rejected proposals to accept state responsibility.
Nonetheless, the president said the seriousness of the incident “has never been in question.”
“Because it is clear to all of us: the killing and injury of the innocent is strictly prohibited. They must live beyond all political reasoning!” They said.
“I bow my head in memory of the forty-nine victims. I bow my head before you, their families and the inhabitants of Kafr Qasim for centuries, and on behalf of myself and the State of Israel, I ask for forgiveness,” Herzog said in Hebrew And said both in Arabic.
“I extend a helping and embracing hand to you, and I pray from the bottom of my heart that the merciful and merciful God will be with you,” he added in both languages.
A monument marking the 1956 massacre in the village of Kafr Qasim in central Israel, where 49 villagers were massacred by border police officers. (Avishai Tisher/Public Domain/Wikipedia)
The Kafr Qasim massacre was a significant event in the relationship between the Arab citizens of Israel and the young Israeli state. On October 29, 1956, the first day of the Suez Crisis, a curfew was imposed in Arab villages near the Green Line, which served as the effective border with Jordan, due to fears of unrest. The Border Police officers have been instructed to shoot the violators of the curfew.
Many locals had not heard of the curfew, and later that evening, 48 men, women and children were shot dead by border police stationed near Kafr Qasim, an Arab city northeast of Tel Aviv, who were outside.
The Supreme Court later convicted and sentenced several members of the Border Police for the murders. While they were following the orders, the court ruled, it should have been clear to the authorities that the orders were wholly illegal. Ultimately, the officers’ sentences were commuted and no one spent more than a few years in prison.
President Isaac Herzog addressing the memorial to the victims of the 1956 massacre in Kafr Qasim, October 29, 2021. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
The memories of those killed in this massacre in Kafr Qasim are very much alive. A monument in the city center commemorates the dead, and an annual march of mourning has been a ritual for decades.
“This is our opportunity, as a society, to say no to prejudice. This is our opportunity, as a human society, to empower what we have as citizens and neighbors,” Herzog said on Friday. “This is not a decree of fate, but a sharing of fate. This is our opportunity to root out discrimination and hatred.”
Aaron Boxerman contributed to this report.
