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.
