Press Release
Embassy of the State of Palestine – New Delhi
On the 69th Anniversary of the Kafr Qasim Massacre
October 29, 2025
The Embassy of the State of Palestine in India solemnly marks the 69th anniversary of the Kafr Qasim Massacre, one of the darkest chapters in the long history of oppression endured by the Palestinian people.
On the evening of October 29, 1956, as the world’s attention turned to the Suez crisis, Israeli forces imposed a sudden curfew on the Palestinian village of Kafr Qasim while most residents were still working in the fields harvesting olives. As they returned home, unaware of the curfew, they were stopped, lined up, and executed. Forty-nine innocent civilians, including 23 children, 13 women, and 13 men, were killed in cold blood.
The Israeli authorities, under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, initially attempted to conceal the crime. Only after public pressure did the press report the incident, stripped of detail and context. The subsequent military trial did not seek justice but aimed to silence criticism. The commanding officer was fined a symbolic one piaster, later admitting to Haaretz that he had simply followed “higher orders” to “mow them down.”
The Kafr Qasim Massacre stands as a lasting reminder of the systematic Zionist terror that has accompanied the Palestinian tragedy, a pattern that began long before the establishment of Israel in 1948 and continues to this day. Zionist militias such as the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi, officially classified as terrorist organizations by the British Mandate authorities, carried out organized acts of terror, from Deir Yassin to Al-Tantura and beyond, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their ancestral homes.
For decades, Palestinians have been denied the right to speak for ourselves and to tell our own story. The global narrative surrounding our struggle has been systematically distorted, or, in truth, Zionized, through powerful influence over media, financial institutions, and the exploitation of Islamophobia. This has served to erase our history, justify occupation, and delegitimize our suffering.
Remembering Kafr Qasim is not merely an act of mourning; it is a moral and historical duty. Memory is resistance, a refusal to allow truth to be buried or rewritten by the oppressor. Just as India remembers Jallianwala Bagh, we remember Kafr Qasim, not out of vengeance, but out of faith in justice and the belief that humanity must never accept impunity for crimes committed against the innocent.
On this solemn day, the Embassy of the State of Palestine in India pays tribute to the victims of Kafr Qasim and all martyrs of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity.
We call upon the international community to confront historical denial, uphold international law, and ensure accountability for all crimes committed against the Palestinian people, past and present.
Justice and truth are indivisible. Remembering Kafr Qasim is remembering our shared humanity and our unwavering right to live free, equal, and dignified in our homeland.
