October was a month of halfcculelarics. The 1956 Hungarian uprising and the Suez War, in which Britain and France secretly colluded with Israel to attack Egypt, in order to wrest control of the Suez Canal from the Egyptians received wall to wall coverage.
Another major event of October 1956, however, has been ignored in the British media - the slaughter by Israeli forces of 49 Arab citizens of Israel (including 23 children) in what has become known as the Kufr Qasim Massace
Kufr Qasim is a Palestinian village which fell under Israeli rule during the 1948-9 war. It is about twenty miles from Tel-Aviv, and close to the "Green Line" - the de facto border between Israel and Jordan from 1949 to 1967. Like all the Arab localities in the state of Israel, it was under military government from 1949 to 1966.
When Israel attacked Egypt on 29 October 1956, the government tightened the curfew over Arab villages in Israel, with instructions that people had to be indoors by 5 pm. Although this decision was taken in the morning, the mukhtar of Kufr Qasim was not intormed of this unti 4.30, and his protest that many villagers were away and would not return till later was ignored.
As people returned home from work, they were systematically shot in cold blood by •ronner muare torces in Tne village. By 6 pm, 47 had been killed, and two died later. Eventually, an order was given to cease the slaughter.
Although the government tried to hush up the massacre, and sealed off the village for weeks, news leaked out. Through the OT Communist Knesset member Tewfiq Toubi and the campaigning journalist Uri Avnery, the story was published, leading to pubnc uproar. Such was the anger, that the
Was forced to put several soldiers on trial; but, in order to sweeten the pill, their salaries were increased by 50 per cent, and they were given special prison leave in order to visit the prime minister.
In the course of the trial, one accused, Major Melinki, testified that he had asked his superior Brigadier Shadmi
do with trapped outside the village when the curfew descended. Shadmi replied "That's just too bad. I don't want any sentimentality". Others argued in their defence that they were "merely obeying orders" though, as the court noted, in owner villages these same orders consciously
WCIC ignored.
At the end of the trial, Melinki was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment; Lieutenant Dahan, who lead the death squads, and Sergeant Ofer, who shot most of the victims, to 15 years; and six privates to eight years. hese sentences were condemned as extremely lenient for such deliberate mass murder; but the government viewed them as draconian.
Following a rapid appeal, Melinki's
Was reduced to14 years, Dahan's to ten, and Ofer's to nine. The chief of staff then personally reduced Melinki's sentence to ten years, Dahan's and Ofer's to eight years, and the others to four years.
Then the president granted a partial pardon, reducing Melinki's and Dahan's sentences to five years. Finally, the Parole Committee ordered the remission of one-third of each sentence. Within three and a half years, which they had spent in a sanatorium rather than a prison, the last of the killers was freed.
But the state's gratitude did HOL SLOD there. Following their release, Melinki was appointed head of security for the Israel's nuclear weapons factory in Dimona. Dahan -convicted of the murder of 43 civilians - was appointed head of Arab affairs for the town of Ramle He subsequently became an Israeli representative in Paris.
Meanwhile, Brigadier Shadmi, who had given the initial orders, seemed to enjoy immunity even though Judhe Halevi, in his summing-up, placed most of the responsibility on him, and spoke of a "manifestly illegal order" over which flew "like a The lesson of this massacre, not lost on today's Israeli forces, is that although massacres and atrocities are "officially" forbidden, those who carry them out are indeed carrying out an approved policy. black flag, a warning saying: "Prohibited!'"
Shadmi seems to have threatened to implicate political leaders if he were put on trial. Eventually, however, the government was forced to try him too. The result was a conviction for exceeding his authority, and a fine of a farthing.
During the trial, many of the accused reierrea to lne political COnLeXI of the killings, and their belief that this was part of an official plan to expel Palestinian citizens.
Although the government strenuously denied this, the subsequent release of official papers, and a 1991 investigaTON by The newspaper Hadashot, established the existence of a contingency plan, codenamed Hafarferet Israel's new Minister of Strategic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister is avowed racist Avigdor Lieberman, who advocates extreme policies such as bombing Iran. (Mole), which proposed to embroil Jordan in a war, and in the course of this to annex the West Bank and expel the Palestinian population from
This plan was drawn up for army Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan, at the time involved, alongside his patron Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and his close ally Director General oi the Defence Ministry Shimon Peres, in a struggle for control of the Israel Labour Party. This struggle led to a number of security scandals, including a alsastrous covert operation In Egypt (the "Lavon affair").
Although eventually not implemented, unit commanders had been briefed about this plan, and the Kufr Qasim killers clearly thought that they were implementing government policy.
In the north of Israel, some 5000 Villagers were indeed expelled to Syria, by forces under the direct command of Yitzhak Rabin.
The lesson of this massacre, MOTOS On Today stael forces, is that although massacres and atrocities are "officially" forbidden, those who carry them out are indeed carrying out an approved policy.
If the scandal becomes too great, they may be symbolically punished - but they will also be rewarded.
Indeed, it is appropriate that on 30 October 2006 - just one day after the fiftieth anniversary of the Kufr Vasim massacre - the Knesse1 approved the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister.
Liebermann, an immigrant from Moldova, is the foremost advocate in Israeli politics of what is euphemistically called "transfer" the forcible expulsion of all Arabs from the state. His appointment makes him responsible for Israel's relations with Iran, a country which he has publicly aovocated bombing.
are his views that former PM Sharon sacked him from the cabinet, stating "We regard Israeli Arabs as part of the State of Israel".
Lieberman has called for the execution of Arab Knesset members who meet members of the elected Palestinian Hamas government. He proposed bombing the Aswan dam and flooding Egypt in response to Egyptian support for the Palestinian Authority, and he has argued in cabinet that Israel should act in Gaza "like Russia operates Chechnya".
He calls for the establishment of a strong presidential system in Israel, posing himself as the strong man to save
Writing in Ha'Aretz, Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar argues that "The prevalent compariSUI between Avigdor Lieberman and Joerg Haider does an injustice to lne Austrian nationalist", while Hebrew University professor Zeev Sternhell, a historian of fascism, has described him as "perhaps the most dangerous politician in the history of the state of Israel".
In the last elections, Lieberman's party made huge gains, receiving 11 of the 120
Knesset. and opinion polls suggest that he would now win 20, and head the second-largest party.
His views are an accurate reflection of Israel's current politics, and Gideon Levy is surely rignt to state Ha'Aretz that "Lieberman, the declared racist, is preferable to the self-righteous and hypocritical ones who may speak of peace but wage war".
It was Israel's Labour Party that prepared, enabled and attempted to cover up the 1956 Kufr Qasim massacre, just as it was a Peace Nowsupporting Labour Defence Minister who ran the murderous 2006 war against Lebanon, and who now agrees
cabinet with Lieberman.
Such is the nature of the party, and its "Labour Zionist" politics. They will play no part in preventing the resistible rise of Avigdor Lieberman.
page 19 of the scan
Despite severe setbacks for London and Washington's war drive, the violence in Irag and Afghanistan looks set to continue, leaving the anti-war movement with more work to do, reports PIERS MOSTYN. George Bush hoped that Saddam Hussein's death sentence would boost his domestic fortunes. This turned out to be forlorn.
So he threw in the scalp of his reviled defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But neither event is likelv to be much more than a footnote in the unravelling of his war aims.
The occupation of Iraq, like the invasion of Afghanistan, is in crisis mode. The search is on for a face-saving formula to manage the debacle as the country slides into chaos and deepening division.
Several factors have combined to produce this situation.
With Bush's election setback and the hiatus over Blair's departure, Prime minister and President are impotently eking out their final periods in office. Support is dwindling and erstwhile colleagues, faced with massive loss of on the invasion, have turned against Bush like rats jumping ship.
Senior figures such as Blair advisor on Iraq and former British UN ambassador Jeremy Greenstock chimed in, describing the invasion as a failure and a mess. Even Foreign Secretar Margaret Beckett admitted that historians ma view Iraq as a foreign policy disaster.
Such deep divisions among the military and political top ranks reflect the pressure of mass opposition. Polls in Iraq in September showed 71 per cent want coalition troops out.
In Britain 61 per cent polled in October wanted unconditional troop withdrawal this year and 45 per cent wanted troops out now. Similarly in the US, for the first time, a majority no longer have confidence in the war.
Hardly surprising that Bush and Blair are now talking of a timetable for withdrawal in 12 to 18 months. That this might be due to a strengthened capability of the Iraqi forces is patently risible.
But the barely concealed euphoria of some, suggesting the anti-war movement has won, is