Pressured by Arab MKs, Israel Knesset to discuss Kafr Qasem massacre

For the first time since 1956, under pressure from Arab Members of the Knesset Issawi Frej and Aida Touma-Suleiman, Israel yesterday agreed to discuss the massacre carried out against Palestinians in Kafr Qasem, Al-Wattan Voice reported.

Frej and Touma-Suleiman proposed two bills about the massacre and agreed that their proposals be discussed by the education committee before they were posed to the Knesset plenum.

Since 2013, when he became an MK, Frej, who is a deputy speaker, has been proposing a bill to honour the martyrs and those wounded in the Kafr Qasem massacre.

The Arab MK compared the sensitivity of revealing the facts about the massacre to that related to the facts about the issue of the lost Yemeni children.

He quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying: “The Yemeni children are a deep wound that remained bleeding for the families who did not know what happened to their children.” He said that this pushed Netanyahu to open this issue for discussion. “I do not understand why all this secrecy. We will look into and treat this issue,” he reported Netanyahu saying.

Read: Palestinians commemorate 62nd anniversary of Kafr Qasem massacre 

“Yes,” Frej said, “this is what I am saying to Netanyahu: The families of the martyrs and the wounded, who were shot, want to know why they were shot.”

He exclaimed: “Me too, I do not know why all this secrecy regarding the massacre which aimed to expel the [Palestinian] residents of Al-Muthalath.”

The massacre took place in the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Qasim on 29 October 1956. Some 49 Palestinians were killed after they made their way home not knowing that a military curfew was in place.