Friday, March 18

Is Breaking the Silence going Beyond its Aims?

Israel’s TV Channel 2 has been airing accusations that Breaking the Silence, the left wing NGO has been going beyond its aims of exposing human rights abuses of Palestinians by the IDF. There are reports claiming that it is also divulging military security secrets.
Gilad Ach, director of the right-wing 'Ad Kan' organization, in the West Bank (screen capture: Channel 2/Uvda)
The problem is that Ad Kan, a right wing organization,is involved in vigilante activity funded by the settler movement. Ad Can infiltrated Breaking the Silence to spy on them is sinister and smells of intrigue for political gain of the right wing Israeli Government. If the Shin Bet that is non-political did this acting on suspicion that military secrets were being disclosed to countries or groups hostile to Israel (there are no shortage of them), then this is justifiable. If Breaking the Silence violated security laws by extracting secret military information from soldiers’ testimonies they must be held accountable and charged in a court of law. Extracting military secrets and getting testimony on human rights abuses are not connected. The latter is justifiable while the former is treachery and is against the law.
Israel is faced with many problems that other countries in the western world do not face. Palestinian terrorists infiltrate daily and stab innocent Israelis because of a whim - very often a personal, psychological issue or even a family problem. Their stabbing and ramming innocent people with vehicles are not even connected to the occupation issue. It is connected to hate for Jews that even spills over into stabbing Arabs, who resemble Jews. The hate propaganda of the Hamas and PA leadership is in no way constructive in solving the conflict. It just exacerbates it. The praise for Palestinian terrorists and declaring them shuhada (martyrs) encourages them on the social media to carry on with their murders of innocent people. Apart from periodic Islamic State attacks in Europe, what other country has the security problems and an implacable “partner for peace” that has closed the door for any form of dialogue? The “implacable partners” have no interest in peace - their interest is Israel’s total destruction by their own admission as well as the personal enrichment of its leaders. The hackneyed “occupation” mantra used so much by BDS and other hostile anti-Israel organizations that are also anti-Semitic who are allies of the potential “liberators of Palestine” such as Hamas, Daesh and Salafi Islamists, are being served by those who divulge Israel’s military secrets.
The work of Breaking the Silence in gaining testimony on human rights abuses should not be viewed as treacherous but viewed as a watchdog to prevent human rights abuse by the military against innocent Palestinians if this is done without compromising on Israel’s security. This function should be performed by the IDF that would render this NGO redundant. However, this is not the case at present. The IDF and Breaking the Silence should cooperate with each other and information gleaned by Breaking the Silence should be referred to the legal dept of the IDF before the dirty washing is hung out in the streets in order to denigrate Israel even further.

At this stage an investigation will be undertaken by the legal authority on the issue of divulging military secrets by Breaking the Silence. It is inexcusable that this NGO serves the interest of Israel’s enemies. Most of the enemies wish to see Israel’s destruction and its replacement by an Islamic State that is monolithic and insensitive to human rights is not an option nor is it justifiable on a moral basis.

No comments: