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Gerald Steinberg, 9-5-2015
Breaking the Silence failed to to provide basic details necessary
for corroborating its claims.
On May 4, 2015, Breaking the Silence, a small Israeli non-governmental
organisation, published anonymous allegations from Israel Defence Forces
soldiers who are said to have fought in Gaza during summer 2014, purporting to
"close the yawning gaps between what the IDF and government spokespersons
told the public about the combat scenarios, and the reality described by the
soldiers …" While there are many problems with the claims, many
journalists, including from Australia, repeated the accusation of a few
disgruntled Israelis, without any verification. This, despite the failure of
this organisation to provide basic details necessary for corroborating
claims made in this publication.
Naming sources is a basic prerequisite for making legal claims,
allowing accounts to be verified and witnesses to be questioned. Dates must
be provided and locations cited to understand the broader context in which
events were alleged to have taken place. Without this information, we are left
with a radical political agenda that exploits the language of international
law.
In the 200-plus pages of "testimony", mostly from
low-ranking soldiers, the names and the units in which they served are left
unidentified. Similarly absent are dates of the alleged events, making
verification by competent authorities impossible. In the very difficult war between
Israelis soldiers and Hamas-led terror cells in Gaza firing missiles from
houses, mosques, schools (as recently documented in a rare UN report), and
hospitals, context is indispensable.
The lack of details prevents any understanding of these alleged
incidents. There is no way to verify the accuracy of the testimonies nor
is it possible to view these events in the broader context of the extreme
difficulty of defending Israeli citizens from thousands of Palestinian rocket
and terror attacks – each one a war crime.
Breaking the Silence's "methodology" to obtain the
"testimonies" is also highly problematic. Many of the statements
include very leading questions asked by interviewers, often constructed so as
to elicit answers that falsely magnify the appearance of wrongdoing. In
contrast, the absence of questions that would provide greater context,
clarification or justification for certain actions, is striking.
Moreover, much of the framing of these "testimonies"
enhances their politicised nature such as the use of misleading
titling. In one instance, a soldier's statement carried the sensationalist
header: "I really, really wanted to shoot her in the knees," but the
text, for those who read it, describes the young Israeli's fear that an approaching
woman was sent by Hamas and could potentially be carrying explosives that would
kill him and his friends. IDF soldiers in Gaza have been targeted by
suicide bombers, including women, making the fear of such an attack credible.
The deceiving headline also hides the essential fact that the
soldiers fired near her feet, scaring her off and successfully resolving the
situation in a non-lethal manner.
By not publishing key information, the organisation is
expecting readers – in Israel, but primarily abroad, including Australia, to
blindly trust it and to suspect no agenda other than the documentation of valid
complaints by soldiers. However, as shown by NGO Monitor's systematic research,
there are also important financial dimensions. Breaking the Silence receives
substantial funding from radical Europeans, who link their donations to the
number of statements that are collected. The Dutch church organisation ICCO
demanded at least 90 incriminating interviews, while Oxfam (which claims to
promote a humanitarian agenda) linked funding directly with the provision of
"as many interviews as possible" regarding "immoral
activities". These arrangements highlight the clear financial interest in
presenting as many negative testimonies as possible.
Indeed, the failure to examine the motivations and history of the
donors to this tiny group is of major importance. These funders are involved in
anti-Israel activities from Ireland, Britain and the Netherlands and have
actively supported, funded and partnered with organisations promoting boycotts,
divestment and sanctions (BDS) targeting the Jewish state. The funders are
clearly interested in portraying the actions of IDF soldiers as criminal and
callous, thereby hoping to pave the way for prosecutions targeting Israel at the
International Criminal Court. This is an extension of the long
Arab-Israeli wars by other means.
Of course no army is perfect, and some soldiers may have legitimate
complaints. But as in any democratic society, this must be done through legal
and administrative processes, and not by garnering headlines in the foreign
media. Given the obsession with Israel, the deep hostility, and the large
sums that are available, particularly to NGOs that join in this form of
modern warfare, consumers of such publications, including journalists and
government officials, should exercise caution and a healthy degree of
skepticism.
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