breaking the silence

The world could use a little more of this. Breaking the Silence, an exhibition of images and impressions of life in Hebron seen through the eyes of Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers, appears to be a frank expose of the reality of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Such an open expression of these soldier's reflections can only lead to healing. Lip service is so often the only thing offered when talking about honesty. Calculations get in the way of the truth, "what will keep me in power?". Meanwhile things are falling apart, or at the least they aren't improving.

There is no such thing as a sanitized war or occupation. Combatants and innocents alike die, homes are destroyed and families are uprooted, divided or simply disappear in a pile of rubble. Every one is a victim including the young men and women of the IDF serving in the occupied territories. Their unvarnished accounts of events step beyond a narrative of details and in to deep observations of what goes through their minds.

In video for the exhibit, soldiers talk about the gradual change that overtakes them during their compulsory service, describing a process by which some say they stop seeing Palestinians as human.

see photo gallery link

In Nazi Germany, Jews were tagged as sub-humans, lesser beings not worthy of protection or respect, and a half century later some apply that same label to the Palestinian people who's lands they now occupy.

The Irony is agonizing.
  posted by jmd ¶ Thursday, July 08, 2004