Breaking the Silence is one of the myriad groupings in Israeli civic society that offers a thread of hope in the current impasse in the Middle East.
I say civic because although it is made up of Israeli soldiers, they are all either conscripts or reservists.
Today they have published a report into Israel’s recent military operation in Gaza. describing what they call “fifty-four testimonies of Israeli combat soldiers who participated in Operation Cast Lead“.
The testimonies, which are attributed to anonymous soldiers, reportedly describe Israeli forces using civilians as human shields to enter buildings ahead of troops; the wanton destruction of homes and buildings; the vandalism of Palestinian property; soldiers firing at water tanks and puncturing them – despite the severe water shortage the motivation was mere boredom, the use of white phosphorous in civilian areas in a way some soldiers describe in the testimonies as “gratuitous” and “reckless”.
It seems from this report that many of the soldiers saw almost no direct engagement with Palestinian militants. The Israeli authorities dismissed the document as “hearsay and word-of-mouth”.
Coming on the heels of the UN’s report which described more than 50,000 homes damaged together with 800 factories, 200 schools, 39 mosques and 2 churches, this is further evidence of something beyond the norm as having taken place and that’s putting it lightly.
In the documentary which I made at the time “Gaza Unseen” on Channel 4, we described elements of what these soldiers are talking about but this is much worse than we knew.
Six months on, there is still very little mainstream coverage of what is happening in Gaza. The Middle East envoy representing the quarter (the UN, the EU, Russia and the United States), Tony Blair, has finally made his first visit to Gaza some weeks ago but to no obvious effect.
Indeed I have made a formal Freedom of Information request to try to find out just how many days Mr Blair has spent in the region per month since he got the job.
I’ll keep you posted on that but despite the high hopes centred on President Obama’s recent statements, it seems that in practical terms the festering sore of Gaza and significant parts of the West Bank remain largely unaddressed and no-one thus far has been taken to task for the worst of what happened in Gaza in January.
Commentsoldest first
I am surprise how much media saying forget it it is wrong and blah blah that tells you how Gaza was get going when only three Israeli’s killed and 1800 hundred were killed and thousands wounded. and still Israelis are victim take a good look because God is watching and your on evil side.
Why would you give Tony Blair such a job,what job does he do? the man is a menace to the planet? Maybe those who agreed to give him the job were thinking of “atonement”.
I viewed so much of the footage, aware of the limited access that was permitted by the Israeli Government Forces.
I am a distant observer with loaded preconceptions that I suspect have no relevance to either Israeli or Palestinian.
I am concerned to express the limited value of my observations and would clearly be more confident in making comments……were I to have access to high value information..
I have no ‘high value information’ HVI .
I am reluctant to make further comment without more HVI .
Additionally the reality of the conflict is corrupted and trammelled by the dearth of HVI .
I note Jon’s decision to request information by means of an FOI request.
However many of us out there will know that FOI does not shine a powerful light beam on ‘ what happened on the ground’ .
I detect the journalistic frustration that such intense conflict, oppression and destruction within Gaza, is not being reflected in Obama’s retoric .
Without accurate reporting…no light shines and… no truth revealed….
I await you posting Jon.
Gaza still remains the ignored and forgotten land. Thanks for writing this blog.
What was exhibited in Gaza is the end product of this never ending conflict which, as is the case with other Middle East conflicts, is alien to Western thought,,,,the idea that being kind to your enemy, showing him mercy, will make him less aggressive towards you
The Israelis have long held to the premise that anything other than raw force responses to provocation will be seen as a sign of weakness, signalling more provocations…almost standard operating procedure in the Middle East.
There are no intifadas in the Muslim world, just massacres designed to scare populations into line if they do rise up. Since the Israelis don’t do this, and the Palestinians know they won’t, they are met with endless provocations.
However, now, rather than risking the lives of troops, the Israelis have resorted to answering these provocations with long range devastating weapons, just as America did in Iraq.
So what’s answer? It’s been on the table for 60 years…Peace! Israel says its ready to make peace…it did so with Egypt and Jordan. So why not the Palestinians? Ask Hamas. If you were living in the desolate Gaza Strip, the only place Egypt didn’t want back, and were on the receiving end of Israeli reprisals, wouldn’t you want peace?
But Hamas and other groups like it, bolstered up after Israel’s disastrous Lebanon occupation, want to get rid of Israel, They want it to vanish. This isn’t going to happen…not for a long time, at least.
So, its either unconditional peace or endless limited warfare. Yet, for some endless warfare is their only option. This, as is the West’s other Islamic confrontations, isn’t about land or human rights. It;s about religion, tribalism and lifestyle.
Hi Dan…
I wrote….
‘ I am a distant observer with loaded preconceptions that I suspect have no relevance to either Israeli or Palestinian. ‘
Your comments appear to be those of a closer, more informed observer than I..
As you say Egypt closed iots border to the Gaza population…Why..?
Anonymised accounts…where is the justice in that?!
I doubt Binyamin Natnyahu will encourage any of these soldiers to be identified.
The siege continues…and now information is being blockaded.
Jon
Why why why is there this conspiracy of silence around what goes on in Gaza and the West Bank? It is plainly obvious that terrible atrocities have been committed but the media won’t report or investigate. Where is the power being exercised that suppresses the reporting? The greatest injustices are being perpetrated here why is it not front page news? PLEASE could you give some insight about this????
Justin….please revisit your comment..
Did we really expect someone as superficial and vacuous
as Tony Blair to make any difference? besides Gaza did not have a safe 5 star hotel and cheque waiting for him.
Jon , are you really expecting the man who went to make a war in Iraq to be nice to the people of Gaza ??????????
I think Gaza’s future is bleak ,no one really cares about Gaza, I maen govermnts, International community etc etc
Leave a comment
* Required field.