From the New Israel Fund: “Who should be classified as anti-Israel?”
Message From Larry Garber, Executive Director
Who should be classified as anti-Israel?
Do the veteran Israeli soldiers who formed Breaking the Silence (BTS) in 2004 qualify? BTS collects testimonies of soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories during the Second Intifadah. The testimonies are then presented in public exhibits, publications and on the BTS web site as part of the soldiers’ demand for “accountability regarding Israel’s military actions in the Occupied Territories perpetrated by us and in our name.”
The BTS testimonies document not only cases of abuse towards Palestinians by individual soldiers, but a “grim picture of questionable orders in many areas regarding Palestinian civilians.” BTS seeks to combat the inevitable “corruption which is spreading in the Israeli military” as a result of this state of affairs. Not surprisingly, given our role as venture philanthropists, NIF was among the initial donors providing the funds necessary to launch BTS as a unique and valuable voice within the Israeli political and societal discourse.
BTS is now displaying an exhibit in Philadelphia, with a subsequent showing in Boston later this month [information regarding the exhibits can be found here. The purpose of the US exhibition is to bring rarely-heard voices –, those of young men forced into difficult or impossible choices — to the attention of all those who care about the health and cohesion of Israeli society.
Last week, Yehuda Shaul, one of BTS’ founders, spoke in our Washington, DC offices. Shaul reaffirmed my belief that American audiences deserve the opportunity to hear BTS’ message regarding the damage to Israeli democracy caused by the continuation of the occupation regime. Not everyone exposed to the wrenching pictorials or the organization’s articulate and passionate spokespersons will be convinced by the logic of the BTS argument. But we should not pretend that the anguished cry of these soldiers is absent from Israeli society or that purposely ignoring the presence of such voices strengthens Israel’s status among the American public.
My friend Rob Malley, a former senior Clinton Administration official, has also been deemed “anti-Israel” by no less an authority than Martin Peretz, former publisher of The New Republic. Rob’s crime, apparently, is to have offered an alternative perspective regarding the failure of the July 2000 Camp David talks, assigning blame not just to Arafat and the Palestinians, as the conventional narrative is presented, but also to Israeli and American negotiators.
Thankfully, five former senior US Government officials (Sandy Berger, Dan Kurtzer, Martin Indyk, Aaron Miller and Dennis Ross), all of whom worked with Rob and all of whom happen to be Jewish, rebutted Peretz’s calumny in a public statement, which reads in part:
Over the past several weeks, a series of vicious, personal attacks have been launched against one of our colleagues, Robert Malley, who served as President Clinton’s Special Assistant for Arab-Israeli affairs. They claim that he harbours an anti-Israeli agenda and has sought to undermine Israel’s security. These attacks are unfair, inappropriate and wrong. They are an effort to undermine the credibility of a talented public servant who has worked tirelessly over the years to promote Arab-Israeli peace and US national interests. They must stop.
We must move beyond senseless name-calling exercises and provide a hearing to creative and first-hand voices that seek to resolve the conflict or point out the consequences of allowing the occupation to continue. Given the tragedies of the past seven years, not to speak of the previous 60 years and even further back in history, the search for peace and justice is not for the fainthearted. Yet, no nobler cause exists and we should honor, rather than condemn, those who dedicate their energies to such an important objective.
In this week’s NIF News, we report from the Supreme Court about an ad-hoc organization of Jewish and Arab neighbors, supported by NIF grantees, struggling against the division of an East Jerusalem Arab village. We also highlight a Supreme Court victory ordering police to remove East Jerusalem tax barriers. SHATIL highlights recent efforts by the Conflict Transformation and Management Center to teach non-violent conflict resolution.
