Breaking the Facade of Breaking the Silence
In the past, we have noted that the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence proclaims that it ” demands accountability regarding Israel’s military actions in the Occupied territories perpetrated by us and in our name,” and yet it refuses “to report the alleged incidents to the proper authorities, and hide[s] behind a cloak of anonymity, withholding their own identities, the identities of other individuals involved, and the specifics that would enable authorities to corroborate their testimonies.”
A Ha’aretz article last week unwittingly made painfully obvious yet another contradiction between Breaking the Silence’s stated goals and its actual activity. About a lecture given by two Breaking the Silence members at Harvard Law School, Dina Kraft reported:
. . . two young men, Avner Gvaryahu and Dotan Greenvald, members of Breaking the Silence, veterans who served in combat units of the Israeli army who have now taken on a new mission: to expose the Israeli public to the ugly underside of what their service as soldiers in the Israeli army interacting with Palestinians looks like, in hopes of sparking a public debate and change.
The pair were speaking towards the end of the East Coast leg of a North American tour to promote the group’s book of soldier testimonies, “Our Harsh Logic,” a plainspoken but often harrowing recounting of their experiences as soldiers. A West Coast tour starts next week. (Emphases added.)
The pair hope to spark debate in the Israeli public, so they visit American college campuses? Israelis hoping to find the pairs’ book in Hebrew should not waste their time. If the book, Our Harsh Logic, published by the American publisher Picador, exists in Hebrew, it has not left so much as a trace on the Internet. So much for sparking public debate among the Israeli public.
More from SNAPSHOTS
CNN’s Amanpour Condemns “power grab” By Israel’s Prime Minister and Others
April 1, 2020
We’ve said it often, but it’s worth repeating: Anyone interested in reasonably unbiased information about Israel (at least) should avoid the broadcasts of CNN’s Chief International Correspondent and Anchor, Christiane Amanpour. In characterizing responses to [...]
Seattle Media Oblivious To Imam’s Hateful Indoctrination Condemning Jews
January 7, 2020
The Masjid Ar-Rahmah mosque teaching – that Allah transformed Jews into apes and pigs for disobeying him – delivered by Imam (prayer leader) Mohamad Joban – was posted online by mosque personnel. This December 2019 [...]
AP Distorts: Bethlehem ‘Almost Completely Surrounded’
December 10, 2019
Over two years after improving inaccurate language falsely citing Israel's security "barrier surrounding the biblical city" of Bethlehem, the Associated Press once again misrepresents. AP's Joseph Krauss and Mohammad Daraghmeh wrote yesterday ("Palestinians in Bethlehem [...]
Reuters Errs on Administrative Detention For ‘Anti-Israel Activity’
November 5, 2019
The Ofer Prison, near Ramallah (Photo by Tamar Sternthal) A Reuters article today egregiously misrepresents administrative detention, erroneously asserting that it is mainly applied to "Palestinians suspected of anti-Israeli activities," when in fact the Israeli [...]