breaking the silence

Israeli soldiers violently drag Rabbi Arik Ascherman while he and a group of activists attempt to repair an access road for a cluster of Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills on May 3, 2019. (Ahmad al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

In the Hebron Hills, the settlers are the lords and the IDF does their bidding

A new booklet by Breaking the Silence compiles dozens of accounts by former Israeli combat soldiers who served in the South Hebron Hills of the occupied West Bank. Text by Rachel Shenhav-Goldberg In 2012, two Israeli residents of Mitzpe Yair, an unauthorized settlement in the Hebron Hills, spontaneously attacked an elderly, unarmed Palestinian man, beating him so…

By +972 Resources November 12, 2019

Palestinian boys dressed up as prisoners protest for the release of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails, Gaza City, 21 April 2007. (Ahmad Khateib/Flash90)

Palestinian kids are arrested every day. This time it’s my friend’s son

All my friend’s son wanted to do was pass his high school exit exams and go on to study at a university. Now, like thousands of other Palestinians before and after him, he is behind bars. No one knows why. Several days ago, a dear friend who lives in the West Bank city of Jenin…

By Orly Noy June 26, 2019

Israeli animal rights activists take part in a protest against animal cruelty, central Tel Aviv, August 24, 2013. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

By going vegan, Israelis can avoid talking about human rights

By choosing an ‘easier’ cause to fight for, some Israelis have decided they can have it all. By showing compassion to animals and their suffering, we can live with the continued blindness to the pain of the humans among us. By Rachel Shenhav-Goldberg Israelis have taken to vegetarianism and veganism perhaps more than any country in…

By +972 Magazine May 22, 2019

Latest

An Israeli settler (left) films a member of Breaking the Silence group during a tour in Hebron, West Bank, February 24, 2016. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

How to turn human rights activists into ‘traitors’ in a few easy steps

The Israeli right’s years-long effort to portray Breaking the Silence as traitors fell flat on its face this last week. Will the media or the politicians who incited against them apologize? One day in the future, when high school students learn about the transformation of Israel from a nationalistic fortress state into a fascistic one, an entire chapter…

By Orly Noy February 6, 2019

Handout photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, June 4, 2018. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Israeli gov’t is trying to defund +972 Magazine, report says

Israel has been working to curtail critical voices in recent years, often by portraying them as foreign agents and seeking to dry up their funding. By +972 Magazine Staff Israel asked the German government to pressure two left-leaning political foundations to stop funding +972 Magazine, according to a report in the German media Thursday. +972…

By +972 Magazine December 6, 2018

Israeli soldiers detaining Avner Gvaryahu, director of Breaking the Silence, on a tour of the South Hebron Hills, August 31, 2018. (Nasser Nawaja, B'Tselem)

IDF detains South Hebron Hills tour organizers, days after settler attack there

Israeli soldiers detained senior members of Breaking the Silence and a human rights attorney in an attempt to block a tour of the South Hebron Hills, where settlers attacked six left-wing activists last week. By Orly Noy Breaking the Silence planned a tour in the South Hebron Hills on Friday, as a token of solidarity with the…

By Orly Noy August 31, 2018

A Palestinian woman and children pass the slogan "Gas the Arabs! JDL" spray-painted on an exterior wall of the Cordoba School for Palestinian children near Shuhada Street, Hebron, October 22, 2012. "JDL" stands for Jewish Defense League, an extremist group founded by Meir Kahane and designated as a terrorist group by the FBI. Baruch Goldstein was a charter member of the JDL, which has designated him "a martyr in Judaism's protracted struggle against Arab terrorism."

A rotten system, not just rotten apples

Settler violence against human rights activists is not the work of a few ‘rotten apples,’ but rather a government-backed strategy that could have dangerous consequences. We should be taking it deathly seriously. By Libby Lenkinski Over the last few weeks, the settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron have ramped up their harassment of…

By +972 Magazine August 1, 2018

Breaking the Silence staffer Frima (Murphie) Bubis is seen speaking with Israeli police after a settler child threw paint on her head during a tour in Hebron, July 16, 2018. (Mairav Zonszein)

Birthright walk-offs get a taste of settler violence in Hebron

Eight Birthright participants who walked off of their trip earlier this week to learn about the occupation were on a tour with Breaking the Silence when settlers began harassing them, culminating with paint thrown on their guide’s head. If the settlers of Hebron were trying to show a group of Birthright participants who had walked…

By Mairav Zonszein July 16, 2018

Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian boy during a protest in the West Bank city of Hebron, following US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, on December 7, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Hiding the occupation doesn’t make it go away

A proposed law, said to be supported by Netanyahu’s government, would criminalize videotaping Israeli soldiers doing the dirty work of the occupation. But hiding something from sight doesn’t make it go away. Or does it? If an Israeli soldier beats a Palestinian and no one is there to catch it on video, did it really…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man June 16, 2018

Female soldiers at the Shuafat refugee camp checkpoint, East Jerusalem, December 22, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

As a woman and ex-soldier, my struggle isn’t just against occupation

The boys club that excludes me for my criticism of Israel’s occupation is the same boys club that ignores me because of my gender. By Frima (Merphie) Bubis Women who break the silence simultaneously struggle on two fronts of the same battle: the racism that drives the occupation, like the sexism that drives patriarchy, necessitate…

By +972 Magazine April 29, 2018

Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian boy during a protest in the West Bank city of Hebron, following US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, on December 7, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

The Right doesn’t want you to know about the violence of occupation

What disturbs the Right is not the occupation, but those who attempt to expose the violence that maintaining military rule over a civilian population requires. By Frima (Merphie) Bubis “Thousands of videos won’t change the fact – Breaking the Silence is an organization that slanders IDF soldiers around the world and is based on the distortion of…

By +972 Magazine March 11, 2018

Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian youth during a protest against Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Hebron, West Bank, December 7, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

For Gaza youth, IDF testimonies feel more like confessions

Palestinian youth respond to a play based on testimonies by Israeli soldiers, which portrays the brutality of the occupation from the point of view of the occupiers. By Pam Bailey The video above is a production called “It’s What We Do: A Play About the Occupation.” Although it is a drama, the soldiers’ reflections in…

By +972 Magazine February 23, 2018

Palestinians clash with Israeli soldiers in Al-Fawwar refugee camp, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, December 31, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

As long as occupation exists, soldiers will continue to speak out

We must make our voices heard sharply and clearly, so that every person who served in the occupied territories will know that speaking out is not merely an option — it is a moral duty. By Avner Gvaryahu Like many who served alongside me, I preferred to remain silent. I preferred to forget, not to speak…

By +972 Magazine January 26, 2018