"Breaking the Silence: IDF Soldiers Share Their Stories"
"We always hear someone saying that we’re the most moral army in the world and the chosen people and so on. I think that the argument about the most moral army in the world is a fig leaf, hiding what’s really happening. I understand that our situation isn’t amazing, and it’s not all rainbows and unicorns and we have to protect ourselves, but protection isn’t aggression, and it doesn’t mean being an occupying nation, and maybe being the occupier is what demands all this protection." Former IDF Major in the Artillery Corps, 2015 #584258
I know, you are tired of hearing about it, tired of seeing it.... tired of all of it.
Me too.
Just imagine how tired they are of living it.
After watching the release of child prisoners last week, my eyes were opened even further to the systematic oppression being imposed on Palestinian kids living in the West Bank. These kids are tried in military court, jailed for minor offenses, and beaten and tortured while in prison. This has been happening for many years and the world is ignoring it.
An investigation by journalists and lawyers from ABC Australia (link is in the comments), about three years ago began to open the cracks in the Israeli judicial system for Palestinian kids. It really pulled the top off of what was happening in the West Bank and how children and youth are treated in the occupied territories. A few years ago, a UNICEF report came out that stated Palestinian children in the West Bank have been threatened with death, solitary confinement, sexual assault, beatings and torture against them or a family member in order to make kids confess to certain crimes---most commonly stone throwing. Sometimes when these kids are imprisoned, those as young as age 12 are put into shackles.
As I have mentioned before, IDF soldiers generally raid Palestinian homes in the middle of the night. This is part of the fear and intimidation methods they use. Imagine, you are a Palestinian family living in the West Bank. Would you sleep at night knowing this is always a possibility? Often, they will raid a home, and beat the child they are arresting right in front of the family. There are so many kids and families who have been witnesses to this, it would be impossible to cover all of them, but you can hear some of the stories in the ABC documentary.
Kids have also reported soldiers beating them with a water hose, administering electric shock, and being forced to sign papers in Hebrew they can't read. These are generally statements of confession and so when they are forced to sign, it holds up in the court of law.
We also have IDF soldiers themselves who have witnessed and enacted these atrocities that are now speaking out against it. Yehuda Shaull is the founder of a non-profit called Breaking the Silence. He used to serve in Hebron, one of the largest cities in the occupied West Bank and he speaks boldly about what is happening there. Probably no other city shows the vast number of injustices taking place quite like Hebron does. There are around 800 illegal Jewish settlers in Hebron and 180,000 Palestinians. Palestinian school kids are often sprayed with tear gas while walking to school, sometimes on a suspected "stone thrown" and other times just to keep them fearful.
Israel has two different legal systems, one if you are Israeli and one if you are Palestinian. Israeli kids living only 500 meters away from Palestinians will be tried in an international justice system which meets international standards and requirements. Meanwhile Palestinian kids of the same age will be tried in military court. This right here......this has been so eye-opening for me.
Yehuda described an incident that took place about 6 years ago in Hebron. A 5-year-old was picked up by IDF soldiers because the boy was accused by a settler of throwing a stone at his car. The boy was taken by the IDF and released many hours later. Any adults trying to help the 5-year-old boy were shoved and when his father tried to intervene, soldiers blindfolded him.
Yehuda says he grew up believing it was his job to protect the security of Israel and that Palestinians were all terrorists. He said the entire point of the military is to maintain absolute complete control over Palestinian citizens. They were always ordered not to intervene when they see settlers attacking Palestinians. I encourage you to visit Breaking the Silence website to read more stories just like Yehuda.
Here is the full story from the soldier quoted at the beginning of this article:
Why break the silence?
I simply think that a lot of times people just don’t know, and always accuse the Palestinians that their educational system incites and educates to hate the other. Ours is the same, even if it’s not formally in the books, even though it sometimes is formally in the books. Yes, we are taught that the other side is the enemy and we should fear him and so forth. You understand at some stage that you’re the one who creates this resistance, you create friction, you behave improperly, you humiliate and so forth. I always used to say, during debates: you’ve never seen a Palestinians in your lives, you don’t know how they live. And beyond that, I suddenly understood that some of the things I did there are illegitimate, what seemed fine at the time, even needed and “that’s the only way to restore order.” Suddenly I thought: what gives me the right to do it? I think I wasn’t always pure as snow, I had soldiers who did things that were much worse and we didn’t say anything to them because that was the general atmosphere that all in all, that’s how we behave. Even the exceptional cases, even if they were punished, it was never adequate punishment, it was: okay, nu, nu, nu, don’t do that again. Someone who abandoned the radio connection and shut the jeep and went to eat lunch without saying anything to anyone was punished more severely than someone who threw a remark to some Palestinian woman or beat someone up at the checkpoint.
And if people knew, how would it change the situation?
We always hear someone saying that we’re the most moral army in the world and the chosen people and so on. I think that the argument about the most moral army in the world is a fig leaf, hiding what’s really happening. I understand that our situation isn’t amazing, and it’s not all rainbows and unicorns and we have to protect ourselves, but protection isn’t aggression and it doesn’t mean being an occupying nation, and maybe being the occupier is what demands all this protection. People say: hey, we’re moral, we’re not doing anything. I know, I have stories, I’ve seen soldiers do things that if you heard them, you’d be shocked. We created a sort of smoke screen, we’re not looking, and you say: okay, there are Arabs who shoot at us and beat us, they’re the bad guys, we have soldiers protecting us, what they’re doing is probably fine, they’re the most moral army in the world. So probably everything I hear in the news is true and if, unfortunately, there’s a deviation from the norm, it’s either a lie, or B’tzelem or it’s a misleading clip. And I was there, I know it’s all true, and seems like a crime I’m taking part in. I don’t want to be part of it, I believe we should somehow stop it. Stop it by making things known, stop it by persuading people, by explaining to them. But in order to explain and to do it efficiently, they have to hear the truth, they have to hear stories by people who were there and know what really happened, not just guesswork. I still believe that somehow, the moment you’re a Jewish soldier – and I feel that during arguments – then suddenly you’re respected, and so forth, and then there’s a little more attention and maybe you can clarify your point.
-Former IDF Major in the Artillery Corps, 2015 #584258
www.breakingthesilence.org.il