People don't understand. When you're in the military you'll blame everything on yourself and not the system. The system has to be right for you to just go about doing your daily thing. So I was sure that it was only me or my company or my platoon that was not behaving properly and it had nothing to do with the system of occupation...but it was really bizarre for me to understand that my story was pretty much the same as everybody else. It's not about a systematic problem, it's about a problematic system.
-Mikhael Manekin
The military cannot make me a nice occupier.
-Yehuda Shaul
Tolstoy wrote a book called "The Kingdom of God is Within You" in which he made the case that it is only because individuals will not refuse to obey that war is possible. But it doesn't take belief in a god to know this is true. Insights that are so powerful in those who have served are not easily conveyed to the recruit. You have to take the damage to gain the wisdom. They who will destroy on command must at least in part destroy themselves. The machine damages the gears on which it runs.
A new film from members of Breaking the Silence -
Showing posts with label Breaking the Silence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breaking the Silence. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
From Russia, of all places
American media have produced some outstanding stories over the years but when it comes to Israel and the occupation, the silence is deafening.
So it's ironic that RT, the Russian satellite TV service in English, has produced an excellent overview of the situation in the occupied territories of Palestine. Featuring some of the Israeli human rights groups that I have dedicated this blog to, such as Machsom Watch and Breaking the Silence, in two parts the viewer will be given an excellent if incomplete picture of the daily oppression suffered by the Palestinians. I say incomplete because there is nothing in this video about the lack of civil law, the theft of resources, the total control of imports and exports and the constant surveillance by drones that the Palestinians know so well.
But for what is covered, the story is well told. If you can only watch one of the two parts, watch the second since it shows the worst situation - that of Hebron - where a tiny number of Israeli settlers torment the overwhelming number of Palestinians protected by the might of the Israeli armed forces - screaming and shouting insults as the soldiers stand idly by.
Thanks to the blog Jews sans frontieres for making me aware of this video.
So it's ironic that RT, the Russian satellite TV service in English, has produced an excellent overview of the situation in the occupied territories of Palestine. Featuring some of the Israeli human rights groups that I have dedicated this blog to, such as Machsom Watch and Breaking the Silence, in two parts the viewer will be given an excellent if incomplete picture of the daily oppression suffered by the Palestinians. I say incomplete because there is nothing in this video about the lack of civil law, the theft of resources, the total control of imports and exports and the constant surveillance by drones that the Palestinians know so well.
But for what is covered, the story is well told. If you can only watch one of the two parts, watch the second since it shows the worst situation - that of Hebron - where a tiny number of Israeli settlers torment the overwhelming number of Palestinians protected by the might of the Israeli armed forces - screaming and shouting insults as the soldiers stand idly by.
Thanks to the blog Jews sans frontieres for making me aware of this video.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Micha Kurz, a former IDF soldier, speaks out
I have been editing the archives of the online radio program Jerusalem Calling, a production of the Council for the National Interest (CNI), an organization that began shortly after the ousting of Illinois Rep. Paul Findlay by Dick Durbin, (now one of Illinois' two senators along with Israel cheerleader Mark Kirk) with the aid of the Israel lobby. Findlay decided to alert the nation to the power of the lobby with CNI. Though he is now retired, the organization continues his mission of spreading the word.
I'm doing my part to help by taking the one hour Jerusalem Calling programs and removing all commercial content while at the same time making folks sound a bit better by removing "you know", "ahhhhhh", "ummmmmmm", "like I said", etc. to make the shows tighter. This process results in a program of just over 30 minutes of solid talk in MP3 format.
Jerusalem Calling aired each week from the fall of 2009 well into 2010 and is a remarkable record of notable voices involved in working to expose the power of the Israel lobby and make up for the lack of coverage of what Israel is doing by major media outlets in the United States. Unfortunately, money ran out and the show came to an end, but not before a great record of important voices was made.
Micha (MEE-kuh) Kurz is a native Israeli, born in Jerusalem. He served in the IDF and was repulsed by what he saw, founding a group of like minded IDF vets called Breaking the Silence. His descriptions of the situation are well worth hearing.
In this program, he is interviewed by Jewish American author and activist Anna Baltzer.
Who spends 30 minutes doing anything these days? I think you will find this half hour worthwhile, I've edited it so that none of your time will be wasted.
Jerusalem Calling with Micha Kurz first aired October 22, 2009
I'm doing my part to help by taking the one hour Jerusalem Calling programs and removing all commercial content while at the same time making folks sound a bit better by removing "you know", "ahhhhhh", "ummmmmmm", "like I said", etc. to make the shows tighter. This process results in a program of just over 30 minutes of solid talk in MP3 format.
Jerusalem Calling aired each week from the fall of 2009 well into 2010 and is a remarkable record of notable voices involved in working to expose the power of the Israel lobby and make up for the lack of coverage of what Israel is doing by major media outlets in the United States. Unfortunately, money ran out and the show came to an end, but not before a great record of important voices was made.
Micha (MEE-kuh) Kurz is a native Israeli, born in Jerusalem. He served in the IDF and was repulsed by what he saw, founding a group of like minded IDF vets called Breaking the Silence. His descriptions of the situation are well worth hearing.
In this program, he is interviewed by Jewish American author and activist Anna Baltzer.
Who spends 30 minutes doing anything these days? I think you will find this half hour worthwhile, I've edited it so that none of your time will be wasted.
Jerusalem Calling with Micha Kurz first aired October 22, 2009
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