Breaking the silence – video exhibition tour

29 May – 9 Jun 2012, NAiM /Bureau Europa Maastricht

This new, unique exhibition of the Israeli organization Breaking The Silence contains 15 video testimonies of Israeli veteran combatants about the time they served in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Unique is that all those giving testimony in this exhibition are recognizable and identified  their full name. In the video testimonies young Israeli men tell what they did and what they witnessed during their military service: Innocent civilians being beaten; children kept from school, and parents kept from work—and from feeding their children—by prolonged curfews; people’s homes invaded on a daily basis and more.

 

Breaking the Silence is an Israeli organization of veteran combatants who have served in the military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The organization was one of the three nominated for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, from the European Parliament in 2010.

 

“We’re breaking the silence because we came to understand that our participation in the occupation corrupted us morally, just as the occupation continues to corrupt Israeli society. We’re breaking the silence because Israelis are unaware of what is being done in their back yards and in their names, and because Israel’s well meaning friends are similarly ignorant of what is unfolding in the occupied territories. We’re breaking the silence because we must”.