AL-QUDS (Middle East Eye) – Declassified documents have revealed fresh details on the planned murder of Palestinian civilians during the Kafr Qasem massacre, when a Zionist commander advised troops that “it was desirable for there to be a number of fatalities”.
Fifty Palestinian civilians, including children, elderly residents and a pregnant woman, were killed by Zionist troops as they returned home from work. They had no knowledge the village had been placed under curfew.
According to the trial transcripts of Chaim Levy, who commanded the Zionist army in Kafr Qasem, the troops knew their victims were unarmed civilians who had not been informed about the curfew.
“The same goes for them as anyone else,” Levy said he was told by a commander regarding the civilians.
In one exchange during his trial, Levy was asked: “Doesn’t your reason tell you that ‘violating a curfew’ means by someone who knows that there is a curfew?” Levy said he agreed.
Later he was asked: “How can you say that someone told you to kill people who don’t know that there is a curfew?” To which he replied: “Because I was given such an order... Today I find this unreasonable. At the time, I thought it was reasonable.”
Kafr Qasem is a Palestinian village that was occupied by the Zionist regime after the Nakba in 1948. Palestinians in the village were subjected to military rule and came under constant pressure by regime authorities to leave their homes.
The massacre sparked international outrage and led to a landmark trial of the Zionist troops. For decades, reigme authorities refused to release transcripts of the court proceedings, saying they jeopardized the Tel Aviv regime’s security.
The documents also disclose a new connection between the massacre and a secret Israeli plan, code-named Hafarperet (Mole), to uproot Palestinians from their homes by force of arms and threat of imminent slaughter.
Levy’s testimony offers a detailed account of how the regime officers appear to have used tensions during the Suez crisis to orchestrate the removal of Palestinians from their villages.
Levy refers to plans of “creating enclosures” and “transporting people”, which could be interpreted to mean the detention of Palestinians in camps or expulsion from their homeland.
He also said he was told by his commander not to station troops along the village’s eastern border facing Jordan, in an effort to push fleeing Palestinians out of the occupied territories.
“I understood that it would be no great calamity if they took this opportunity to go away,” he said.
Levy said he understood there was a direct link between shooting curfew violators and changing the regime’s demographic makeup.
“The connection is that as a result, part of the population would get scared and decide that it’s best to live on the other side. That’s how I interpret it,” he said.
The testimony of district commander Issachar Shadmi appeared to confirm Levy’s understanding of the massacre. Shadmi said it was no secret Zionist officials “heavily encouraged” Palestinians to leave the territories.
“The killing of a few people as an intimidation measure can encourage movement eastward, as long as we hint to them [the Palestinians] about the movement eastward,” he said.