Israeli Ex Soldiers Break the Silence in Sweden

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A group of Israeli soldiers felt the need after their military service to speak out about what they had been through in the occupied territories. This became the start of "Breaking the Silence." Our correspondents in Sweden have more.

The exhibition "Breaking the Silence" is now on display at the Army museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

Itamar Shapira, an Israeli ex-soldier, talks to a Swedish high school class. He explains the daily life of an Israeli soldier stationed in the occupied territories.

[Itamar Shapira, Ex-soldier, Volunteer, "Breaking the Silence"]:
"With a cry to the Israeli society that sent us. Look what we have done; look at the world price that we are paying for holding the occupied territories - basically holding millions of Palestinians, with no rights, within military occupation. Look at what we have become on a personal level, look at what we have become as a society and we expose those practices. Palestinian civilian society is in front of us soldiers. What comes out of that rage we have? Because we are the law there, someone is refusing to stop, refusing not to go, refusing to stay inside his home, inside his village. [He] wants to go to work. What we do with any sort of this disobedience to this population. It's important for us to expose that. We are the oppressors, we are the ones that are violating human rights on a daily basis. We are creating the terror against us, basically."

"Breaking the Silence" was born in 2004 when a group of people wanted to speak out about what they experienced and saw during their military service at the West bank and Gaza.

Today it's a human rights organization that collects testimonies from Israeli soldiers and ex-soldiers to bring to the Israeli public.

Shapira says it is important for the Israeli people, and the world's people, to know that there are missions whose sole purpose is to provoke.

[Itamar Shapira, Ex-soldier, Volunteer, "Breaking the Silence"]:
"Going in to civilian areas to look for the people that will be violent against you. Places that you are controlling. With people that have no rights. Oppressing them. This is a war against civilians, a war against society."

Dotan Greenvald, ex-soldier and volunteer for Breaking the Silence, thinks that criticism is something that all democratic civilians must do in order to make their societies better.

[Dotan Greenvald, Ex-soldier, Volunteer, "Breaking the Silence"]:
"To question the army and to criticize the army (is) considered to be very a big taboo in Israel and we have the legitimacy to hold a gun at age 18 so we have all the rights to criticize what we did in words."

One of the high school students attending gave a suggestion for what Israel and Palestine should do to be able to live together in the future.

[Visitor, High School Student]:
"Maybe to start all over again and not to belong anywhere, just start from scratch."

NTD News, Stockholm, Sweden

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[237Michael]

Israel has become a Lunatic State... I boycott Israel.

[cHaOsTw3nTy4]

@FreedomResistance you are an idiot. We lived with Jewish people for so many years in north Africa and span before Christians started to kick both the Jews and Muslims out. If Jews and Muslims stayed in Spain, it is said that the world would be somewhere around 1000 years ahead... 1000 years... think about that. Most of the BIG inventions came from muso-jewish coop groups. It is the zionists that are ruining the Jewish name.. they arent even really Jewish. just by name. thumb up so people know.

[scorpian8king]

i boycott israel

[bobur1980]

Some people claim that Israel is only democratic state in the ME.

I say,Israel is only racist state in the world

[InternetXS]

@cHaOsTw3nTy4 "Zionists"?? "Zionists" is the people called who wants jews to have a own homeland and support it. Is a jewish homeland a bad thing? Is you a bad human for supporting a religius people to have their own homeland? Christians have their own countrys, muslims have their own countrys, almost all religions have their own countrys, but when jews want their homeland back, thats a crime? And bad? And evil?

[aron7527]

very nive 

[Jeansschwimmer]

@FreedomResistance The very strange thing is that Israel takes over the land of those it has to defend against- very, very strange.

Maybe I should go out at night were I can expect to be attacked by some gangs, shoot them and take their purses and keys, then get into their homes, evict their families and settle there.

[AbuAvital]

Trust Sweeden to hold an anti Israel event. Even their dumb puppet thinks that their is a "Palestinian" people who are being oppresed.

[theofkills]

@FreedomResistance LOL nice lie bro Hamas was there first then you guys came terrorist? what you talking about 10 years ago in 9/11 bro hamas is pretecting them self from them and pretecting there COUNTRY from these stealer bastards. dont think everything you hear is true only americans and jews say that if you look around the world and if your not a jew your hearing this from american tv and your thinking its true

[armourdaddy805]

what is this world human rights doing in all this.watching from a bino.