Knesset observers could be excused this week if they found themselves confused over the political jockeying taking place over a bill calling for Israel to officially recognize a massacre carried out against its Arab citizens 65 years ago. The 48 victims of the Kafr Qasem massacre were Arab citizens who were shot to death by soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces and Border Police because they were violating a curfew that most of them probably weren’t aware of.
There is no dispute in Israel that such a mass killing took place, but the question of official “recognition,” and especially whether it should be taught in schools as an example of a “manifestly illegal order” that soldiers are obligated to disobey, is a perennial political football that remains in play more than six decades later, depending on the attitude that the government of the moment is manifesting toward the Arab population. What’s novel this year, as the October 29 anniversary of the Kafr Qasem massacre looms, is that a bill about it could actually pass in the Knesset. What’s not clear is whether, if it does pass, it will be with the support of the opposition, led by Likud’s Benjamin
— source Jews For Justice For Palestinians | David B, Green | Oct 26, 2021