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Last update - 09:20 27/12/2007
Apology in Kafr Qasem
By Tom Segev
Tags: Kafr Qasem

On October 29, 1956, a little after 5 P.M., several dozen Kafr Qasem residents were coming home from work, unaware that a curfew had been declared because of the start of the Sinai Campaign. Border police lined them up and shot them dead: 47 people, Arabs, citizens of Israel.

The monument erected for them also perpetuates the memory of an elderly man who suffered a stroke when he was informed that his son was among those killed, along with the fetus that one of the murdered women was carrying in her womb. People were also wounded. The slaughter was anchored in a contingency plan to expel the village's inhabitants to Jordan.

At first, the authorities tried to suppress the news through the military censor. Shimon Peres, now Israel's president, was the Defense Ministry's director general at the time. Only about a half dozen survivors of the massacre are still alive today. Most of the 18,000 inhabitants of the village were born after the slaughter, about 15 percent of them are related to the victims. They live with the heritage of the massacre as a key element in their identities.
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Last week President Peres went to Kafr Qasem - his office said it was to honor the Id al-Adha holiday. He carefully phrased his words on the massacre as part of a statement praising peace: "I have chosen to visit Kafr Qasem, where in the past a very serious event occurred that we greatly regret, and today in practice there is cooperation and a life of peace between Jews and Arabs." Kafr Qasem Mayor Sami Issa interprets these words as an apology. "'We regret' and 'We apologize' are the same thing," he said. Speaking with local leaders, Peres also used the word apology, according to the president's spokeswoman. Peres is the first sitting president to apologize for the massacre.

Ceremonious apologies for historical injustices and gestures of national reconciliation have become a rather common phenomenon everywhere in recent years, from South Africa to Argentina. To evaluate them correctly we must examine to what degree they express sincere remorse and true recognition of responsibility. We must also examine the extent to which lessons have been learned that have shaped policies on the ground. The Israeli case is not unambiguous.

The Kafr Qasem massacre shocked the country and gave rise to a public debate on basic questions of morality and democracy. Twelve years after the end of World War II this discussion took place against the backdrop of the Holocaust. The murderers were put on public trial. Benjamin Halevi, who was later one of the judges in Adolf Eichmann's trial, asked one of the accused whether he would also justify a Nazi soldier who obeyed orders. The trial gave rise to every Israel Defense Forces soldier's obligation to refuse to obey a "blatantly illegal" order such as one to murder civilians.

However, not long after they were convicted and sentenced to prison, the murderers were released, and a few years later the military government was revoked. The IDF is not doing enough to instill in its soldiers the obligation to refuse to obey a blatantly illegal order; it is acting with determination against conscientious objection.

In the decades since the Kafr Qasem massacre, IDF soldiers have killed thousands of innocent Palestinians, the vast majority of them in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. From time to time they have also killed Arab demonstrators, citizens of Israel. To this day the Arabs of Israel are not citizens with equal rights, and Israel insists that it does not want to be a state of all its citizens but rather a "Jewish and democratic" state. Government representatives do not participate in the annual memorial service for the Kafr Qasem massacre, but the president's apology is likely to be mentioned one day as a first step toward a historic declaration of reconciliation between the Jews and Palestinians.

Most Israelis still find it hard to acknowledge that they bear historical responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. The Zionist vision is based, among other things, on the assumption that its fulfillment need not cause injustice to anyone: If only the Arabs would relinquish their nationalist yearnings and agree to the fulfillment of our dream, it would be good for everyone, including them.

This historical fiction is very harmful because as long as we convince ourselves that we have no part in the responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian tragedy, we have no real reason to try to correct the injustice. This is the importance of acknowledging our responsibility. When the day comes to publish the historic declaration of reconciliation, it will be possible to remember Peres' Kafr Qasem apology and the main lesson that emerges from it: It does not hurt to ask forgiveness.
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  1.   there are no `palestinian` refugees 09:23  |  joe 26/12/07
  2.   Kafr Qasem. 10:11  |  sandra chitayat 26/12/07
  3.   A nice sentiment 10:19  |  RW 26/12/07
  4.   We have acknowledged.. or are you a pinhead? 10:20  |  Yardena 26/12/07
  5.   "The Kafr Qasem massecre shocked the country" 10:29  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 26/12/07
  6.   To joe 10:47  |  Dirk 26/12/07
  7.   Interesting documentary on Jews for Jesus last night 10:53  |  Clickfool 26/12/07
  8.   Well said Tom - Israel`s My Lai massacre 11:08  |  John K 26/12/07
  9.   How about Palestinian acknowledgement of the damage they cause us 11:31  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 26/12/07
  10.   An Israeli Apology and $2.50 will buy you a coffee 11:35  |  Natallie Durson 26/12/07
  11.   Segev your pathetic!! 11:37  |  Suzanne 26/12/07
  12.   STOP APOLIGIZING FOR THINGS YOU didn`t DO!!! 11:39  |  Suzanne 26/12/07
  13.   THE CORRECT APOLOGY - Sorry we let the arab terrorists stay!! 11:41  |  Suzanne 26/12/07
  14.   What Will Be Made Of This By Apologists 11:43  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
  15.   Statistics of Israeli Violations against the Palestinian People 11:52  |  Dav 26/12/07
  16.   More crimes 11:56  |  Dav 26/12/07
  17.   and More crimes 12:00  |  Dav 26/12/07
  18.   intellectually dishonest completely disingenuous 12:03  |  josef cohen 26/12/07
  19.   Clickfool,doped Brit squaddies killed 2 Danish soldiers 12:16  |  Absolute Sweden 26/12/07
  20.   Apologies 12:48  |  Ex-syrian jew 26/12/07
  21.   Aplologize and not do it again 12:55  |  Tzvi 26/12/07
  22.   Pals murdered Jews since the diaspora. Enough apologies 13:04  |  Jason 26/12/07
  23.   What is the root of the problem ? 13:18  |  Altalena 26/12/07
  24.   Have the leftists apologized to the Mizrachim? 13:26  |  Binyamin Dissen 26/12/07
  25.   Tragedy 13:55  |  Ralph 26/12/07
  26.   A GENIUS MOVE, SIMPLY A GENIUS ONE 14:03  |  indrajaya 26/12/07
  27.   P.1You`re wrong Mr Segev: WE DON`T BEAR HISTORICAL RESPONSIBILITY 14:03  |  Max Zinger,P.Chimist 26/12/07
  28.   OK, Suzanne 14:03  |  Murray 26/12/07
  29.   Tom Segev is right 14:09  |  Jacob 26/12/07
  30.   Ouch 14:19  |  jjvanka 26/12/07
  31.   The problem with this article is that it mentions a well known 14:20  |  lakshmi 26/12/07
  32.   When the arabs apologize for the Hebron masacre 14:26  |  Joeseph 26/12/07
  33.   P.2 You`re wrong Mr. Segev "WE DON`T BEAR HISTORICAL RESPONSIBILI 14:28  |  Max Zinger,P.Chimist 26/12/07
  34.   Sorry for what???? 14:29  |  sptz 26/12/07
  35.   P. 3. You`re wrong Mr. Segev"WE DON"T BEAR HISTORICAL RESPONSIBIL 14:44  |  Max Zinger,P.Chimist 26/12/07
  36.   Apologies, King Hussein, and Peace 14:47  |  Reluctant Hawk 26/12/07
  37.   Our part: A refusal to roll over and die 14:54  |  David Teich 26/12/07
  38.   The Loud Mouths with the Empty Heads 14:55  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
  39.   jewish only israel #20 14:58  |  observations of NB 26/12/07
  40.   When do they accept their role in their own tragedy and ours? 15:08  |  Steven 26/12/07
  41.   What then Mr Teich Do You Suggest Be Done? 15:15  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
  42.   #40 Great. Read also "The Jewish Singularity" by Avri Barr 15:21  |  Itzik 26/12/07
  43.   Tom Segev, move to South Africa 15:29  |  Sidney 26/12/07
  44.   Margie from South Africa 15:31  |  Labhras 26/12/07
  45.   to # 38 Yaakov Sullivan; I agree with your post.Never Did .. 15:33  |  Max Zinger,P.Chimist 26/12/07
  46.   Segev is an Arab hater and a racist 15:44  |  Frank 26/12/07
  47.   1956 Tragedy 15:47  |  Yariv 26/12/07
  48.   Actually, the State apologized right away 15:49  |  Tosefta 26/12/07
  49.   For Absolute Sweden # 19 15:50  |  Clickfool 26/12/07
  50.   # 40 Steven, Arabs never accepted 15:53  |  Max Zinger,P.Chimist 26/12/07
  51.   That is what we europeans name 15:53  |  Kris 26/12/07
  52.   may the arabs be so nice as 16:10  |  Kris 26/12/07
  53.   # 46 Frank, No, Segev is not a hater of Jews or Arabs,I read all 16:11  |  Max Zinger,P.Chimist 26/12/07
  54.   apology in Kafr Qasem 16:20  |  I.Barr 26/12/07
  55.   I Barr on the apologies 16:29  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
  56.   Does Tom Segev make the same demands on the Arabs? 16:42  |  Genuine Tosefta 26/12/07
  57.   Cipora... 16:44  |  Teresa-Maria (Tess) 26/12/07
  58.   Genuine Tosefta on Arabs 16:51  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/12/07
  59.   We must also acknowledge santa, the tooth fairy and easter bunny 16:55  |  smarter then olmert 26/12/07
  60.   #56 Genuine Tosfta 16:55  |  tbora 26/12/07
  61.   Doing Something Besides Lending Lip Service 16:57  |  Tzfonit 26/12/07
  62.   Another diatribe by a post sionist 17:00  |  allon 26/12/07
  63.   Another diatribe by a post sionist 17:00  |  Allon 26/12/07
  64.   Palestinian Tragedy or ISRAELI TRAGEDY ?