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Blessed Unrest: Breaking the Silence Exhibit
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by Polly Mann, W A M M
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DThe widely diverse network of organizations proliferating in the world today may be a better defense against injustice than F-16 fighter jets,” says Paul Hawken in his book Blessed Unrest. He writes about the myriad of small organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, working on problems that beset the world and how the concepts upon which they are founded often become the basis for the birth of similar organizations all over the world.
One such example might be the influence that the exhibition of hundreds of boots of dead U.S. soldiers has had upon Israeli veterans, demoralized because of their military experiences. Another example that might have affected the Israelis could have been the “Winter Soldier Hearing” recently held in Washington, D.C., with U.S. veterans of the Iraq War testifying as to their painful war experiences. These Winter Hearings, I suspect, grew out of similar hearings held by U.S. veterans of the Vietnam War in Detroit, Michigan, in 1971. (www.warcomeshome.org)
Israeli veterans have created their own version of a “Winter Soldier Hearing” combining visual images with accompanying testimonies from soldiers, entitled “Breaking the Silence.” The photography exhibit is composed of scenes of injustice and cruelty inflicted upon the Palestinians.
The first exhibit was shown between June 2004 and April 2005 in the Geographical Photography College in Tel Aviv, the Pyramid Gallery in Haifa, Kibbutzim Seminar in Tel Aviv, and Tel Aviv University. A total of 11,000 Israelis have visited the exhibition, including members of parliament, media representatives, and soldiers still serving in the Palestinian territories occupied by the Israelis. In 2006 the exhibition was held in Geneva, Amsterdam, Philadelphia, and Boston.
In a June 2004 article written by Molly Moore of the Washington Post Foreign Service, she describes several of the pictures from the exhibition showing: 1) Israeli soldiers lounging on a coffee break while a 15-year-old Palestinian sits blindfolded and handcuffed on a nearby chair, a position he was forced to endure for 16 hours. The youth was accused of throwing stones at soldiers. 2) Two stick-wielding Palestinian boys play a game of “hands up” pretending they are Israeli soldiers lining up four other Palestinian children, including a female toddler in a pink suit against a wall. 3) A Palestinian wedding party where the bride and groom are not being permitted to go through the checkpoint.
In Moore’s article she states that the soldiers aim some of their starkest criticism at the Jewish settlers who live in central Hebron, closer to Palestinian neighborhoods than any other settlement in the West Bank. In one photo, a smiling red-bearded settler grips a gun in one hand and guitar in the other. The guitar is plastered with stickers. One reads, “Either us or them. Arab enemy.” She reports an incident where a settler spontaneously shot out the tires of several Palestinians’ cars.
The exhibit is the brainchild of the Israeli veteran Yehuda Shaul, who is at present living in New York and is the agent for the exhibit. The following is from a website he was planning to publish in order to describe the content: “. . . the disturbing testimonies of 39 Israelis who served in the army in Hebron between 2005 and 2007. They cover a range of experiences, from anger and powerlessness in the face of often violent abuse of Arabs by hard-line Jewish settlers, through petty harassment by soldiers, to soldiers beating up Palestinian residents without provocation, looting homes and shops, and opening fire on unarmed demonstrators.”
As could be predicted, the exhibit has met with opposition. At Harvard University, where it was provided a venue by Harvard Hillel, a Jewish organization, the Zionist Organization of America attempted to prevent the exhibit from being held. A most compelling letter from Dr. Bernie Steinberg, president and director of Harvard Hillel to Morton Klein, national president, Zionist Organization of America, explains why Hillel thought it beneficial to host the exhibit.
A comparison of testimonies from the veterans of the Vietnam War, the veterans of the Iraqi war, and the Israeli veterans who served in the occupied territories of Palestine shows remarkable similarities: the illegal confiscation of property, the casual oppression and humiliation of civilians, the despair of the soldiers, the use of children as hostages, and the thoughtless killings.
If he knows about “Breaking the Silence,” I’m sure author Paul Hawken would laud it as yet another sign of hope. Mikhael Manekin, one of the Israeli soldiers testifying, said of the Israeli occupation of Palestine: “While there is definitely a moral price Israel is paying, Israel is the one deciding to pay that moral price. We were not the victims. We were, and our society still is, a victimizing society.” Nevertheless, these soldiers are victims of a system, the same system that makes victims of U.S. soldiers who commit acts that literally “make them sick.”
Keep reading the WAMM newsletter to stay tuned. The Middle East Committee of WAMM is writing Yehuda Shaul to see if the Twin Cities could be included in any future tour the group is planning. |
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© 2008 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete June 2008 Index - click here
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