On Tuesday May 17, 2022, a gag order imposed by the Military Court of Appeals was amended, allowing us to disclose that a decision was made on 31 March 2022 by the Court’s outgoing chief Justice, Brig.-Gen. Doron Feiles, regarding Akevot’s researcher Adam Raz’s request to open still-closed hundreds of court transcript pages and a several documents presented as evidence at the Kafr Qasim Massacre trial, that took place in the late 1950s. The decision was a result of proceedings initiated by Akevot’s Adam Raz some 4.5 years ago. Several hearings were held at the Military Court of Appeals in 2018, but its decision was not taken until recently.
The Military Court placed a gag order on the decision itself – but also on the fact that it was made. In recent days the gag order was amended to allow us to announce that the decision was indeed made. The gag order still does not allow us to share the content of the decision itself and certain extraordinary events that took place the day it was signed.
In December 2021, the Military Prosecution changed its long-standing objection to open most of the still-closed court transcripts (PDF, Hebrew). Responding the Prosecution’s updated position, Akevot’s Adam Raz insisted on the importance of opening the full scope of the still-closed records from the Kafr Qasim Massacre trial (PDF, Hebrew).
Akevot’s Adam Raz and Kafr Qasim’s Saed Issa discuss the struggle for opening the records and its importance to the Kafr Qasim community in this short video:
We continue to work to lift the gag order and to open all the still-closed records of the Kafr Qasim Massacre Trial. We will provide updates on developments through our website and social media channels. Meanwhile, please browse the thousands of pages we have uploaded to our online document library of the Kafr Qasim Massacre (English, Hebrew, Arabic): courtroom transcripts, evidence submitted, investigation records, and other primary sources from the case.