NOVANEWS
by Mariam Barghouti
Israel is colonial state, which mobilizes its youth to protect its exploitation through the oppression and occupation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. It has divided an entire people into clusters of bantustans, as others lay in refugee camps and in the Diaspora speaking of a home they have been kicked out of or never seen.
Breaking The Silence
The Israeli initiative Breaking the Silence, approaches former soldiers that have served in Israel’s army to disclosing the crimes they have committed or witnessed being committed by other soldiers whilst on duty. The aim of this organization according to their website is to “endeavor to stimulate public debate about the price paid for a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population on a daily basis, and are engaged in the control of that population’s everyday life.”
As Israel is one of the most militarized states in the world, with its entire population entrenched with the idea of being levied, groups such as BTS are important to debunk these myths, exclusively to its society.
The effort of this organization is in the proper place, as it is crucial to expose the crimes of the Israeli army and all its wretchedness, especially to an Israeli society that has its jingoism embedded within its military. As clarified by the organization, their aim is to shift Israeli society and the discourse that the Israeli Defense Forces are one of the most moral armies in the world.
Breaking The Silence and Israeli colonialism
Although it serves the Palestinian cause to weaken the stringent beliefs of Israeli youth looking to conscript in the army, by recognizing the crimes and promoting awareness of the IDF’s grotesque maneuvers, BTS ultimately fails to criticize Israeli colonialism. Furthermore, these testimonies by former offenders have been perfidiously aggrandized within international communities and several Palestinian circles, in which these voices are glorified and turned into heroes. Doing so is dangerous when attempting to shatter colonialism as an entire oppressive system. In the aforementioned context, the colonizer’s voice still overrides that of the colonized.
While the Israeli army is only a fraction of Israeli colonialism, without it, Israel would not be able to occupy and oppress millions of indigenous Palestinians. Its army, is responsible for enforcing divisions between Palestinians ensuring that they remain complacent with the Israeli apartheid state. They are the stationed soldiers that execute oppressive orders, and some even evolve to give orders themselves. BTS does not approach the IDF as an entire oppressive structure, rather, than it criticizes its tactics. It’s simply an alteration of the method of colonizing.
Documentation and accountability
There is a discrepancy that must be addressed between speaking out and being held accountable.
The role of BTS is to inform the Israeli public of the macabre crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army. What it fails to do, however, is delegitimize the army in its entirety opposed to explicitly baring its delinquencies. In fact, these speakers are portrayed as heroes for speaking out and although they provide credibility, in the international discourse they take away from the voices of Palestinians.
Israeli colonialism stems deeper than violence from soldiers, and although these members are speaking out, they are still part of a colonial system and have privilege that no Palestinian possesses. They were able to commit horrid acts, present these crimes and get away with them.
In terms of strategy and effectiveness, it is vital to document these violations brought forth by the IDF against the lives of Palestinians. However to neglect the fact that these are still perpetrators and colonizers and to glorify them is insulting and further dehumanizes the Palestinian people.
Palestinian activist and blogger, Rana Nazzal explains “there is some purpose in keeping a record of crimes committed – from the mouth of the offender. There is a space for this in terms of research and record-keeping. For me, it ends there.”
It is essential that Israeli communities that oppose the occupation take it upon themselves to enlighten their own society, and although BTS has adopted this initiative it still plays within the very system it criticizes.
Eran Efriti, former member of BTS, once stated whilst on tour in Denver, Colorado, that the organization is breaking the silence on what Israel, in specific what the IDF allows them to break the silence on. That it remains censored in accordance with the approval of the IDF. Consequently, it is playing within the rules of the very structure it is trying to expose, thus perpetuating an underlying duplicity and simply redeeming guilt.
A Palestinian woman after being attacked by Israeli soldiers in the village of Nabi Saleh, 2011. (Reuters)
A Palestinian woman after being attacked by Israeli soldiers in the village of Nabi Saleh, 2011. (Reuters)
Clearing a colonial subconcious
There is a colonial privilege and redemption in these testimonies. Rajai Abukhalil, Palestinian doctor and activist explains that “it just makes those involved in what is the most organized oppressive system in our modern world feel better about themselves. There is a certain hypocrisy in rejecting the wrongs you did while you are still involved and function under the same system.”
Some of these soldiers speak out, and go around the world speaking out about these crimes they have committed and yet still continue to live in an oppressive society and partake in the daily practices within this colonial society.
Some have spoken about the sacrifice these former soldiers face in regards to being shunned out by their communities following their choice to speak out. Compared to the pain that soldiers and Israeli colonialism inflicts upon the Palestinian population, the rejection by a colonial society is the least of worries, it should not be viewed as a sacrifice. One should not aim to be accepted by an oppressive society especially if you acknowledge that it is one that perpetuates agony.
Nazzal, who has been within Israeli jails describes the redemption through her personal experience, explaining, “Speaking out doesn’t mean anything on its own. During an arrest, there is always that one soldier who tries to give me an explanation of how he’s ‘not the same as the others’, how he is ‘just following orders’, how he ‘would rather be at home’. And I sit there, with my hands and feet cuffed, sometimes blindfolded, bruised, and cold, and try not to get angry. I will not be complacent with a soldier alleviating his guilt while at the same time literally enforcing my military detention”
The participants transfer the guilt into words that do not take back the pain they have enacted upon Palestinians, and still none are held accountable for their crimes. A criminal is a criminal. A murderer is not acquitted for pleading guilty, and they are guilty of crimes imposed on the Palestinian people and their direct role in the theft and exploitation of Palestinian resources.
For Palestinians that endure this suppression that is perpetuated through Israeli soldiers, it is not enough to speak out. Nazzal adds, “there is no excuse that will convince me that they do not sense that what they are doing is wrong. You can see it in their eyes that they know, and it is such a deep weakness in them that they fail to do anything more than speak about it.”
Destroying the Zionist narrative and the voice of Palestinians
This initiative serves to expose Israeli crimes which have already been exposed and documented by Palestinians themselves as well as, other journalists and researchers. BTS does not delegitimize the Zionism Israel clings to, nor does it approach the colonialism of Palestine as a whole.
Abukhalil elaborates further on the initiative explaining that “even though their testimonies embarrass the spokesmen of the alleged most moral army it is to be noted that many journalists did that. Therefore, breaking the silence doesn’t add more to the Palestinian cause. Instead, it takes away from the voices of Palestinians. People should listen to the victim’s side not the oppressors.”
Reham Ibrahim, active against Israeli colonialism proclaims that “whilst it is crucial to document Israeli crimes, we must be careful in what voices we amplify, the Palestinians have been speaking out and presenting Israeli crimes. Their voice becomes further interiorized by the very perpetrators that have oppressed them, as they become labelled as heroes and admired for their bravery. What bravery? If any of the soldiers that took part in my oppression decide to speak out, it is only to redeem their conscious that is drowning in screams and the silence of those they have oppressed and killed. I will not accept that. It does not acquit them of their crimes.”
To destroy a colonial power is to actively address its colonialism and to mobilize others to not partake in it. It is crucial to hold Israel accountable for all its crimes, and all those that partake in those crimes. Whilst it is important to document and uncover the crimes of the IDF, this cannot happen without also forming a critique of Israeli colonialism and apartheid. Thus, although, the work of such organizations is important for shifting the ideologies within Israeli societies it should be understood that it is only relevant in that context.
If the world wants to talk about Palestinian oppression, let them use the voice of Palestinians, the ones directly affected by this oppression. It is vital that we do not exalt former perpetrators because they used their tongues after they pulled on their triggers. Their role is in documenting and presenting to their own communities, in order to shift the thought there, pushing for cognitive dissonance. However, in regards to the international community, it cannot be allowed to have a colonizer’s voice dominate that of the colonized whilst attempting to break the colonial narrative.
Therefore, although documentation is crucial and important, holding perpetrators accountable for their crimes is even more vital for the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people.
