President Yitzhak Herzog visited Kafr Qassem today (Friday) and spoke at a memorial event for the victims of the massacre in which 49 people were killed.
President Yitzhak Herzog said at the memorial service: "The killing and injury of innocent people is strictly forbidden.
They must remain above all political controversy.
I bow my head to the memory of the forty-nine dead, bow my head to you, their families, and to the residents of Kfar Qassem for generations, and ask, in my name and in the name of the State of Israel - forgiveness.
"This is our opportunity, as a public, to say no to prejudice, this is our opportunity as a human society, to empower us as citizens and as neighbors. This is not a fate, this is a partnership of fate. This is our opportunity to uproot discrimination and hatred. On this day, 65 years after the disaster "We pray and wish that the memory of the victims will accompany us as a lesson and a compass, and that from the depths of the pain we will grow together a common and hopeful future."
The Kafr Qassem massacre took place on October 29, 1956, on the first day of Operation Kadesh, in which 49 people were killed.
