Drawing the Kafr Qasem massacre

the long version

The massacre that took place on 29th October 1956 in Kafr Qasem was not the only massacre Palestinians have experienced in their long and painful history. After the massacre, Kafr Qasem was subjected to military cordon and media prohibition, which imposed debilitating isolation after the massacre. No one was allowed in or out of the village and a tight gag order was placed on the news. 22 days after the massacre, news finally reached the world. As a visual artist, Samia Halaby always set herself high standards. Her credo is that she wanted through her art to 'support the ambition of Palestinian liberation'. The evocative drawings in this book document the atrocities of Kafr Qasem. To capture these events on paper she gathered data in every form possible: oral testimonials, photographs, media reports, anything she could lay her hands on.