When I saw on Facebook that Breaking The Silence was hosting a group of international authors, I was curious. It announced: “The second delegation of authors has arrived! The authors are here to see and understand firsthand what Israeli military control over a Palestinian civilian population looks like, so that they may write pieces for a compilation ahead of the unfortunate 50th anniversary of the occupation. Among them are Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon who will be editing the compilation to be released next year. We wish them an enlightening journey full of eye-opening understanding.”
I asked to join their activities in Hebron, and when we got there last Friday Yehuda Shaul, the founder of the organization, was already hard at work explaining to the writers about the history and the daily life under occupation. He also read to them excerpts from soldiers' testimonies.
There is no one who is better equipped to talk about the reality in Hebron than Yehuda. His background is very similar to that of the settlers in Hebron. He comes from an American ultra-Orthodox family and spent his high school years at a Yeshiva in the occupied territories. Unlike many Haredi men who don’t serve in the army, he did and was a combatant in Hebron. Upon his release in 2004, he founded Breaking The Silence with several comrades from his regiment.
Breaking The Silence is an organization of veteran combatants who served in the occupied territories. The purpose of the organization is to shed light on Israel’s operational methods in the territories and to encourage debate about the nature of the occupation (from the book Our Harsh Logic compiled by the organization Breaking the Silence)
Please keep reading in the Times of Israel
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