To its own citizens and to the world at large, the Israeli
state projects itself as the only democracy in the Middle East,
perpetually endangered by hostile Arab neighbours in general and
Palestinian “terrorists” in particular. It is a myth that much of the
world readily buys: most of the time, especially so since 9/11. Apart from
the myth-makers residing in Israel, there are others located
elsewhere. Among the most potent of these is the Israeli lobby in the
United States, which has, over decades, browbeaten, blackmailed, bribed
and terrorised not just the American media and academia but also
Congressmen, senators and presidents into singing the Zionist song. Not
surprisingly, anyone of consequence from any part of the world who
expresses any doubt or seeks to puncture this meticulously constructed
mythology is greeted with extreme hostility and disdain.
Notwithstanding this, and because myths are just that –
myths, they do get punctured or exploded every now and then. Recently,
without realising that she was talking to a Middle East correspondent –
Jason Koutsoukis – at a dinner, a member of the Israel Defence
Forces (IDF) public relations unit revealed how the IDF reluctantly plays
host to foreign journalists, “Whom, of course, internally, I despise”. A
report by Koutsoukis in the Sydney Morning Herald discloses that
“Among the ‘despised’ journalists... were Charles Levinson of The Wall
Street Journal and Sheera Frenkel, who writes for The Times of
London. Both are American-born Jews and neither they nor their
Murdoch-owned mastheads are what you would call typically rabid haters of
Israel”.
But, for the brutal, inhuman Israeli state, it is simple:
adore us uncritically or we despise you passionately, especially so if you
are a Jew yourself. By this simple logic it must despise very many Israeli
citizens, men and women of conscience who refuse to remain silent
spectators to the daily harassment, humiliation and worse treatment meted
out to helpless, unarmed, innocent-of-any-crime Palestinian men, women and
children living in the Occupied Territories.
Undoubtedly, the hate targets of the apartheid state must
include an organisation of former veterans of the Israeli army, ‘Breaking
the Silence’. Among other things, under its “Soldiers Speak Out” Project,
the five-year-old body has been meticulously collecting testimonies of
“the best of the sons and daughters of Israeli society, sent by that
society each and every day to control a civilian population”. The aim of
the project: “To expose the Israeli public to everyday life in the
Occupied Territories, a routine situation that is never reflected in the
media.”
The recent and latest publication to emerge from this
laudable project is a booklet titled ‘Breaking the Silence: Women
Soldiers’ Testimonies’. Having accessed the booklet on the World Wide Web,
we are stunned, horrified and revolted by what “the best of the sons and
daughters of Israeli society” are doing to fellow humans in the Occupied
Territories. Communalism Combat is grateful to ‘Breaking the
Silence’ for permission to reproduce the booklet. For reasons of space, we
have reluctantly had to drop some of the testimonies and edit out portions
from some others. Other than that, we have left the testimonies untouched.
We leave it to the readers of Communalism Combat to draw their own
conclusions from these testimonials and look forward to your feedback.
