Breaking the Silence Exhibit: The Combatant’s Story

Zehra Hijri, Harvard undergrad, volunteered in the West Bank and encountered the experience described by the soldiers of Breaking the Silence. Understandably, she was furious and nurtured a deep confusion (to say the least) about Israel, Israelis and IDF soldiers.

Which makes her post on the Harvard International Review all the more phenomenal as she says about Oded Naaman and Dotan Greenvald: “they ‘rehumanized’ this dehumanizing occupation, and helped me to overcome my hatred.”

Read the highlights of her inspiring post here:

The volunteers from “Breaking the Silence” changed everything. First of all, they validate the truth of so many of the things that I witnessed by sharing them with people here and in Israel. Second of all, they let people know what really goes on so that more steps can be taken to fix this, and thirdly, which is overwhelmingly of the most importance to me, they helped me understand so much why the IDF does what they do in the territories and demystified those seemingly incomprehensible factors which compel normal, good human beings to commit such acts. By providing these explanations and insights they “rehumanized” this dehumanizing occupation, and helped me to overcome my hatred.

We’ve always believed that this kind of content — in which Israeli soldiers are neither heroes nor monsters, but young people in impossible situations — is helpful to neither “pro-Palestinian” nor “pro-Israeli” traditional dichotomies.

There is a huge confusion on the part of Jews, Israeli and American lovers of Israel that any such stories of abuse could emerge from their lovable friends and families in Israel. It has to be a lie, it has to be an exaggeration, it has to be the work of “Israel haters.” But life is more complicated than that.

Zehra continues:

This exhibit and these soldiers truly helped me restore my faith in humanity again and brought this conflict down to its essential components. At the end of the day we are dealing with humanity, not politics and not land. No governments are present at these checkpoints, its just people and how circumstances affect their interactions. This exhibit is something that everyone needs to see regardless of their political or personal biases, because it’s a way to understand at its basic form, what war and conflict does to the individual.

Bingo: “its just people and how circumstances affect their interactions.” The milieu of occupation duty is a slippery slope of absolute power, little accountability, a context of violence, and a very real security threat that leads ordinary people to do appalling things.

Zehra we think is an inspiration for how this exhibit is received by all kinds of people — and a testament against the concerns of people who fear this exhibit harms Israel’s image. We think it helps.

The central message of Breaking the Silence is “it can’t be done differently.”

A humane occupation is not possible in the experiences of these soldiers and if someone is committed to the settlement project, wherein a small number of Jews live amidst and must be protected from a greater number of Palestinians, then the result will be these ugly pictures.

Said veteran Arnon Degani, 25, today in a guided tour to a half dozen UPenn Hillel students, “It’s a slippery slope. You begin doing everything by the book. But then you realize that you can get away with everything. And that’s when enforcing curfew or guarding a checkpoint turns into abuse. You have so much power for an 18 year old. Shooting your gun becomes the most exciting part of the day.”

A very agitated participant, brought in by his son today, confronted Arnon on whether the territories were safer for Israeli citizens as occupied. Claiming the Arabs would kill all the Jews if Israel ended the occupation, he clearly represented a mainstream American Jewish understanding of the conflict.

Arnon said, “If you believe the occupation is necessary for Israel’s security, then you must accept that all of this will continue to happen. For all of the world to see. All of this must happen if we are to keep the settlements. And that’s fine if you think that. But if you think the settlements are for Israel’s security, then you legitimize settlers are military targets by terrorists. They are no longer civilians. I am there to protect civilians from attacks. That’s my job.”

To me, the most enlightening testimonies given by the soldiers are those which explain the realities of military operations.

“How can you tell if a detainee is a terrorist?” asked on student.

“Easy,” Arnon replied. “You radio the secret service and they tell you. You have the man’s ID. There are two kinds of detainees: terrorists and everybody else. I do everything necessary to capture terrorists. But I’m talking about what I have to do to civilians. I know these people are not terrorists. And far more numerous than terrorists. And yet I have to humiliate them to keep order. Every day. It can’t be done differently.”

This is what occupation looks like — not just the Occupation, but occupation in general. This bears an important relevance to Americans rightly concerned about Iraq today. And the message Breaking the Silence is bringing to the States is not how to end the occupation or even whether it should be.

This exhibit poses the question directly to you, asking, “This is what occupation looks like. It can’t be done differently. Are you willing to pay this price?” And the answer is up to you.

(X-posted to Jewschool, official media sponsor of the Breaking the Silence exhibit.)