UAE to build stadium in Israel town where Palestinians were massacred

The United Arab Emirates is to build a new football stadium in the town of Kafr Qasim within Israel’s 1948 borders, according to reports in Israeli media.

The town was the site of an infamous massacre of Palestinians committed by the Israeli army in 1956.

The plans were announced by Issawi Freij, Israel’s regional cooperation minister, who is of Palestinian origin and from Kafr Qasim.

“Freij received the green light to construct the stadium from Emirati officials, and this led to plans which are expected to be implemented in the coming months. The stadium will have capacity for 8,000 people,” the Israeli news website Ynet News reported.

Freij also said that he was mediating negotiations for businessmen from the UAE to buy the Hapoel Tel Aviv football club, but these had so far stalled due to “political considerations”.

He said, however, that there were no economic impediments to the sale of the club and predicted that it would be sold “before next season”.

The decision to build the stadium was sharply criticised by Palestinian social media users.

Al-Jazeera journalist Tamer Almisshal, who is from Gaza, tweeted: “The fall is bottomless! The UAE is funding the construction of an Israeli stadium on the ruins of the Palestinian village of Kafr Qasim, which witnessed the massacre committed by the occupation against 51 Palestinians.”

السقوط لا قاع له !
الإمارات تموّل إنشاء ملعب إسرائيلي على أنقاض قرية كفر قاسم الفلسطينية التي شهدت مذبحة ارتكبها الاحتلال بحق 51 فلسطينياً بالتزامن مع شرائها نادي هبوعيل الإسرائيلي pic.twitter.com/1nOfUELLk7

— Tamer Almisshal تامر المسحال (@TamerMisshal) July 26, 2022

Kafr Qasim is located about 20 kilometres east of Tel Aviv and is part of an area of Palestinian towns and villages known as the “Little Triangle”, which was captured by Israel in 1948. It has a population of approximately 25,000 people.

On October 29 1956, Israeli border guards massacred 49 residents of the town after imposing a curfew. The townspeople were killed as they returned from work, and were unaware that a curfew had been imposed.

Some of the officers involved in the massacre were found guilty of murder but later pardoned by Israeli authorities.

Issawi Freij’s grandfather was among the victims.