A 1956 Israeli border patrol massacred 43 Arab villagers under a curfew order

Evidence

On 29 October, 1956, with the opening of Operation Kadesh [the 1956 war between Israel and Egypt], a curfew was imposed in the Arab villages in the “triangle,” among these Kafir Kasem. The border patrol forces were responsible for enforcing the curfew in Kafir Kasem. The operational command that was given on that day stated that anyone disobeying the curfew should be shot with the aim to kill. The leader of the border patrol unit asked the commander of the decree what to do in the case of field workers who were unaware of the curfew and had not heard about it in the meantime. The commander replied in Arabic, “Allah yerachmo” [may God have mercy on them]. In a series of orders, the leader of the border patrol unit clarified that Arabs sitting in their homes were not to be injured, but that any person found outside of their home was to be shot dead. He said, “If there are a few casualties, it will only make enforcing the curfew easier in the coming days.” Towards evening, when the residents of the village returned home from their jobs, they were stopped, lined up, and shot by the border patrol soldiers. — Sonia Roccas and Yechiel Klar and Ido Liviatan, The Paradox of Group-Based Guilt, 60

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds directly into the reading purpose — this is an actual-historical-persecution event that presumably correlates differently with glorification than mere perceived threat would.