BillCosby

Tags: massacre, Shimon Peres

President Shimon Peres apologized on Friday for the Kafr Qasem massacre of 1956, in which Border Police officers killed over 50 residents of the Arab village.

During a reception in the village for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, Peres said that he deliberately chose the holiday for a visit Kafr Qasem to ask the villagers for forgiveness. "A terrible event happened here in the past, and we are very sorry for it," he said.

The victims of the massacre were residents of Kafr Qasem, who returned to the village from the day's work, oblivious to the curfew that had been imposed by the Defense Ministry. They were rounded up and shot. The commander of the unit was later court-martialed and fined one agora (one penny).


Cabinet ministers have expressed remorse several times in the past. Former education minister Yossi Sarid publicly apologized for the event and worked to add it to the national history curriculum in the 1990s. Former tourism minister Moshe Katsav, who was later appointed president, also said that the families of the victims deserve an apology.

President Peres also said: "The Arab citizens do not need charity, but opportunity. The link between religion and violence should be severed. We are all children of the same god, who has not given us permission to kill, oppress and humiliate others."

The founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish, also spoke at the ceremony and called on religious leaders on both sides to build bridges between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror