Breaking the Silence / Israel
- Checkpoint in the old town of Hebron
The Israeli organization Breaking the Silence was founded by veteran Israeli soldiers, who used to serve in the occupied territories. This organization voices the traumatic experiences of young soldiers serving in the occupied territories of Palestine. By addressing formerly concealed topics, Breaking the Silence breaks discursive taboos and facilitates an open debate about the psycho-social effects of the occupation on Israeli soldiers. The committed work of Breaking the Silence serves as an eye-opener and shows, also to the Israeli public, how rewarding open discussions with the “opponents” can be and that adherence to human rights and a cessation of the violent occupation can provide a viable future for Israel.
Members of “Breaking the Silence” gather testimonies, which are presented in publications, exhibitions and films. They organize tours through the Palestinian city of Hebron and explain the devastating effects that the occupation of the old town by Israeli settlers and army has on the lives of Palestinians. The organization has conducted more than 5000 such tours in the last few years for various groups, including Knesset-members, foreign diplomats and journalists.
Since last year the Hebron-tours organized by Breaking the Silence are facing increasing opposition from the Israeli Forces. The army consistently prevents the tours-groups from entering the old town under the pretext, the tours aim to provoke and destroy public peace. At the same time, neither the army nor the “security police” prevented radical Israeli settlers from denouncing and attacking tour participants with eggs and stones. A video of the assaults from Israeli Television (Channel 10) can be watched here.
These incidents lead Breaking the Silence to file a case to the Supreme Court in order to get their right to freedom of movement in general and free access to Hebron in particular. The Court basically decided in favor of Breaking the Silence: their tours are legal and it is the duty of the Israeli army to protect the tours. Until now, the situation has not improved and only a small percentage of the scheduled tours can actually been carried out. Further court hearings on this are still pending.
For further information on Breaking the Silence please visit this website: www.shovrimshtika.org
- Soldiers patrolling in front of abandoned houses in the old town of Hebron