Breaking the Silence

Soldiers’ Testimonies from Operation Cast Lead, Gaza 2009

Breaking the Silence is an organization of veterans who served in the Israeli military during the Second Intifada (since September 2000) and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public to the routine situations of everyday life in the Occupied Territories, a reality that is not reflected in the media. This alternative information conduit makes the daily goings-on in Israel’s back yard accessible to the public at large. Breaking the Silence came into being in March 2004, and has since acquired a special standing for the public and in the media, bringing forth the voices of soldiers who had previously remained silent.

Breaking the Silence aims ultimately to stimulate public debate about the moral price that Israeli society as a whole has been paying for a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population on an everyday basis and control its life. All the testimonies we publish undergo meticulous research, including cross-checking facts with additional eye-witnesses and/or the archives of other human rights organizations which are also active in the field. True to our journalistic effort, the identity of our sources is not exposed and remains confidential. The testimonies published here are unedited and presented in their original form, except for details that are withheld in order to conceal the identity of specific testimony-bearers, and/or clarifications of military jargon.

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