'We should listen to these soldiers in solidarity, both doves and hawks'
Photo courtesy of Breaking the Silence
A. B. Yehoshua
Photo: Tzvika Tishler
The courage to tell, the need to listen
Op-ed: Soldiers sharing their testimonies about what goes on in Judea and Samaria aim to fix Israeli society's flaws.
Those who will gather at Tel Aviv's Habima Square this Friday and read the testimonies of soldiers and others about what is going on in Judea and Samaria do not aim to weaken the army and the security forces, but rather to strengthen them.
Therefore, both doves and hawks, both members of the peace camp and supporters of a Greater Israel, should encourage this gathering. And maybe by carefully listening to the testimonies, we will all be able – regardless of our political views – to think about how to establish our relations with the Palestinians correctly and for the long run.
They do not wish to stain the IDF, but to create awareness for what takes place in the territories sometimes in order to fix failures and injustices.
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Amir Shilo
Six years after first collection of Breaking the Silence testimonies, organization releases booklet of testimonies from female soldiers who served in territories. Stories include systematic humiliation of Palestinians, reckless and cruel violence, theft, killing of innocent people and cover-up.
Those wishing to separate from the Palestinians peacefully through the "two states for two people" solution know that even in this format an Israeli minority will likely remain in the Palestinian state, just like Israel has a large Palestinian minority.
Even in this format, the two states will be intertwined in extensive ties, and so a final separation from the Palestinian is impossible. They will always remain close and intimate neighbors. This applies all the more so to those seeking to annex Judea and Samaria and create one bi-national state, in which all residents will have equal citizenship.
Our presence in Judea and Samaria is not similar to the presence of an occupation force in distant countries, like the French in Algeria, the Americans in Vietnam, the Brits in Kenya or the Russians in Afghanistan. These armies could afford, knowing that one day they would no longer be in contact with the residents of the occupied territories, to accept acts of cruelty and injustice or ignore them. But not here: The Palestinian boy who saw his father beaten or humiliated for no reason may one day become a laborer or even a citizen in Israel, and will carry the scar of the humiliation in his heart for a long time, and maybe even seek revenge.
I have always denied the sweeping statement "our army is the most moral army in the world." The title "moral," given to a collective or to a private person, can never be permanent unless it passes a daily test. A person can act morally one day and violate the rules of morality the next day. So the IDF too – which is the people's army rather than an army of professionals – should test itself day and night in order to examine its moral norms and how they pass the test of its own values.
Therefore, we must all respect the motivation which led the soldiers to present their testimonies. None of them stand to gain any personal benefit from it. On the contrary. And if they have anyway decided to deliver testimonies about abnormal acts and abuse of the civil population, they are doing it with the faith that the army should know about the injustices and irregularities in order to fix them.
The IDF is certainly not the most moral army in the world, if there even is such a thing, but I believe that most of its commanders and soldiers want to respect moral norms.
And we must remember another truth: The occupation in the Judea and Samaria territories does not remain beyond Israel's borders. It penetrates into Israel itself. Being trigger-happy in Hebron leads to trigger-happy criminal organizations in Israel. Settler violence against the army is reflected in violent protests by haredim and others against the police. Acts of deceit in dispossession and illegal takeover of lands in the West Bank lead to similar acts within the Green Line as well.
Forty-seven years have passed since the Six-Day War. We all thought that our control of the Palestinian population would end with some kind of an agreement or peace treaty. But too many years have passed, and we may be in for more years in which this control will continue.
The great danger to the Israeli society is the danger of weariness and repression. We no longer have the energy and patience to hear about another act of injustice.
The existence of an allegedly independent Palestinian Authority, which controls part of the population, allows us to turned a blind eye to what is happening across Judea and Samaria on a daily basis. The repression mechanism in this context is dangerous, because it also acts on issues of social gaps, local corruptions, youth violence, etc.
So we should thank these young people for not losing hope that flaws in the Israeli society can be changed and fixed. We should listen to them in solidarity, both doves and hawks, with the faith that peace and decency are goals we all share.
