Meretz MK slams Zionist Union on Kafr Kassem bill

Meretz MK Issawi Freij says Zionist Union, the party leading the opposition, is trying “to masquerade as Likud.”

He refers to the party’s decision to vote against a bill he submitted that would create an official state memorial for the victims of the Kafr Kassem massacre.

“In days like these, they vote against a proposal so important for promoting understanding and recognition of the suffering and [historical] memory of the other,” says Freij.

The event he refers to took place on May 29, 1956, when a Border Police unit shot and killed 43 residents of Kafr Kassem, including women and children. Other people were shot outside the village and one elderly man died from a stroke when he learned that his son was killed. The total death toll was 49 people.

The incident occurred when one of the Border Police commanders, Shmuel Malinki, interpreted his orders regarding a curfew then in place on several Arab villages, that said “God have mercy” on those who broke curfew, to mean they should be killed.

The Israeli government at the time immediately made efforts to cover up the incident, one of the most disgraceful events in the early history of the Jewish state. Eventually, 11 officers and soldiers served long prison sentences for the crime.

The Kafr Kassem massacre was a watershed event in the creation of the IDF’s ethical code. Today a stone memorial in the village marks the event and is inscribed with the names of the victims.