25 Feb
Latest

Breaking the Silence

By Symi Rom-Rymer Three thin little black books have been creating a firestorm of controversy in Israel recently.  No, they have nothing to do sex scandals.  Rather, they are publications from Breaking the Silence (BTS), an Israeli human rights group founded by four former Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers.  Their objective is to collect and publish testimony from soldiers who served in the Palestinian Territories between 2001 and 2004.  So far, they have recorded the experiences of 700 soldiers, documenting many harsh, even brutal actions taken by the IDF in the Palestinian Territories. On the eve of her first US tour, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dana Golan, the 27 year-old Executive Director of Breaking the Silence.  Below is an excerpt from our discussion. Symi Rom-Rymer: How did Breaking the Silence get started? Dana Golan: There...

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04 Dec
Latest, Religion

The Settlers' Intifada

by Jeremy Gillick Much of the West Bank is in turmoil following this morning's highly anticipated evacuation of the Orwellian "House of Peace" in Hebron. Though the evacuation itself was a success, as Israel's security forces took several hundred settlers holed up in the controversial house by surprise, removing them all within half an hour, it didn't take long for things to get ugly. According to Ynet, "Sources in the settler public announced the launching of a 'price tag' policy that will be implemented through stone throwing and attacks on Palestinian houses." Associated with a growing fringe of Jewish settlers known as the "hilltop youth," the "price tag" policy mandates acts of low-level violence against Palestinians and Israeli security forces in response to the dismantling of settlements and outposts in the West Bank. According to a recent...

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20 Nov
Latest, Religion

Could an Evacuation of the Jewish Settlement in Hebron Spark an Israeli Civil War?

By Jeremy Gillick There is an interesting drama developing around one of the West Bank’s most radical and controversial Jewish settlements. Home to the Ma’arat HaMachpelah—the Tomb of the Patriarchs—Hebron is a sacred cow for Israel’s religious right. Unlike most settlements, which stand on hills above Palestinian cities, the Jewish settlement in Hebron exists in the city’s very heart, protected vigilantly by the Israeli army. Although there’s no talk of dismembering the settlement altogether, much less of dismantling all the settlements, which, as both Shimon Peres and Shin Bet security chief Yuval Diskin have recently warned, could precipitate a civil war, Israeli security forces are threatening to evacuate a group of settlers from a building they occupied illegally in Hebron over a year ago. The settlers are fighting back. On March 19, 2007, hundreds of settlers from...

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