CPTnet
June 25, 2004

HEBRON/TEL AVIV: "Breaking the silence" about Israeli soldiers' experiences
in Hebron

On June 22, 2004 Israeli Military Police raided the "Breaking the Silence"
photo exhibit in Tel Aviv, confiscating video clips of statements by
soldiers serving in Hebron and a folder of articles about the exhibit. Over
the last several years, members of CPT's Hebron team have had contacts with
some of the soldiers participating in the exhibit.

"The exhibit has two goals: For the Israeli public to know what we're really
doing in Hebron and what it's doing to us" according to former soldier
Yehuda Shaul, now serving as a reservist in the Nahal Brigade currently
stationed in Hebron. Shaul is an organizer of the "Breaking the Silence"
exhibit, which portrays life in Hebron from an Israeli soldier's
perspective. The photos include pictures taken through the scope of a gun
(including one of a Palestinian boy feeding his pigeons), of soldiers on
patrol, of detained and blindfolded Palestinian men, of Palestinian shops
with the Star of David painted on them, and of settler graffiti such as
"Arabs to the gas chambers!" The exhibit also contains a display of keys
that Israeli soldiers confiscated from Palestinian drivers, which serve as a
mute contradiction to statements from official Israeli military spokespeople
that soldiers do not confiscate keys.

Several CPTers visited the exhibit on June 15. One Israeli reservist told
them that sending 18 year-olds into Hebron is a bad idea. "It isn't long
after a young soldier gets there," he explained, "that he learns he can't
think if he wants to survive." Israeli soldiers work eight hours on and
eight hours off, and within the eight hours off there are four hours of work
to do. "All one can think of is sleep," another reservist said, "or just
wanting to have a laugh with friends." Referring to pictures of Palestinian
men being detained, one reservist concluded it was easy not to see the men
sitting there. The men could be sitting there for ten minutes or for six
hours -- in the soldiers' experience, there is always someone sitting there.

The reservists running the exhibit said that many soldiers had brought their
families to visit it. The soldiers hoped their family members might better
understand what it is like to do military service in Hebron. The exhibitors
also want the Israeli public to know that military service is demoralizing
to their young men and women.

Three of the reservists who organized the exhibit were questioned for over
six hours on June 22, ostensibly because the military police suspected them
of committing the abuses they are trying to make public. In speaking with
the Israeli newspaper of record, Ha'aretz, the reservists who were
interrogated said this treatment was a move to punish those soldiers who had
given evidence about what had happened in Hebron and to intimidate others
who are thinking of breaking their own silence as well.