MK wants moment of silence for Kfar Kassem victims

United Arab List-Ta'al Chairman Knesset Member Ibrahim Sarsur plans to read out before the Knesset plenum on Wednesday the names of 49 Kfar Kassem residents who were shot to death by Israel Defense Forces soldiers for breaking curfew on October 29, 1956. The MK will later request to honor the victims' memory with a moment of silence.

The Arab sector is marking 53 years to the Kfar Kassem massacre this week. MK Sarsur sent a letter to all 120 MKs ahead of the Knesset session, in which he urged them to press the government to take responsibility for the incident.

Sarsur believes that such recognition from Israel will help heal the wound and convey a message to the Arab population in Israel that the State does not take lightly the blood of its Arab citizens. "I expect the Knesset members to take part in this exercise of justice, as part of the reconciliation we hope to achieve."

The MK stressed that the culprits have never been prosecuted. "Israel refuses to acknowledge its responsibility to what had occurred on that bitter and fatal night, in the same way it fails to recognize the occurrences of Land Day in 1976 and the murder of our sons in October 2000. Neither one of these incidents was ever probed, nor dealt with in a thorough manner and those who were interrogated only caused greater humiliation to the victims' families."

Message to the Arab population

Sarsur, himself a resident of Kfar Kassem, further added, "On Thursday we will mark 53 years to the massacre. I was born two years later and lived in an air of sadness and sorrow…This kind of recognition would have conveyed a message to the entire Arab population that Israel has the courage to take responsibility for its soldiers' actions."

In a letter sent to the MKs via e-mail, Sarsur noted that the wound continues to bleed. "We, as the families of the murdered and the wounded, long for the moment in which the State of Israel would declare that it takes responsibility over what happened."

A response to the letter has yet to be voiced, excluding a plenum hearing in which MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) referred to the contents of the letter.

Sarsur commented on Ben Ari's statements and said, "He was belittling the incident and the number of victims. I didn’t expect the likes of him to be respectful, but I do expect other MKs to honor the request and assist in the effort to receive State recognition.

"Just as the State of Israel demands the nations of the world to acknowledge crimes committed against the Jews, without starting to compare the two, Israel needs to demand responsibility of itself."