
One day we took of our vests and joined a tour of "Breaking the Silence". I had been on a tour to the South Hebron hills in 2008 and knew it was a must do to go down Shuhada Street with them.
Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers that collects testimonies of soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories during the Second Intifadah. Cases of abuse towards Palestinians, looting, and destruction of property have been the norm for years, but are still excused as military necessities, or explained as extreme and unique cases. The testimonies collected by BTS demonstrate the depth of corruption which is spreading in the Israeli military. Discharged soldiers who return to civilian life discover the gap between the reality which they encountered in the Territories , and the silence which they encounter at home. In order to become a civilian again, soldiers are forced to ignore their past experiences. This is specifically problematic as for many of them the army service is a life changing experience in a traumatic sense.
Until today, Breaking the Silence interviewed hundreds of soldiers who served in the territories, and continues interviewing soldiers daily. These interviews are published on their website, in testimonial booklets, through different media outlets, and also through lectures and tours to Hebron. The testimonies are published with minimal editing and with complete confidentiality, in order to protect the soldiers and to encourage them to speak.
They demand accountability regarding Israel's military actions in the Occupied territories perpetrated by us and in our name.


Committing assaults is not necessarily leaving the perpetrator´s mind untouched.
The soldiers are young, between 18 and 21 yrs of age and not well prepared for the service. They don´t know much about Palestinians, except for "the fact" that they are the enemy. Yehuda and Michael (BTS) told us about military practise like breaking through walls at night from one house to the other,

randomly shooting at furniture and TV sets, sometimes discovering there was a little child sleeping just next to the hole they broke into the wall of a Palestinian home.
They also talked about a common practise in the IDF to take the coat of rubber bullets in order to make them even more dangerous. I remembered that when meeting with New Profile, an Israeli Organisation supporting conscientious objectors of army service, one mother told us how her son learned about the Geneva Conventions when joining the army and how to shoot with dum dum ammunition (actually prohibited under Israeli military law) right afterwards.
Michael and Yehuda had taken us to Hani Abu Haykal´s house,





The name of the man in the picture above is Afwar, he works in the Gotnic Centre (Jewish Community Centre in Hebron, right below the Mosque). I ran into him on another day, when inquiring about Palestinians being detained at a checkpoint leading to Shuhada. He got quite enraged about the soldiers talking to me and when I asked him to speak English and talk to me rather than about me, he left - after a quick verbal abuse.

Indeed I felt save amongst approximately 30 tourists and at least 60 police officers when walking past the settlements and during the short, but intensively agressive encounters with the settlers shown in the pictures.





The settlers have visiting groups of their own. I couldn´t help but wondering about the power of conviction. Otherwise they would be able the inhumanity and injustice in this place.


Palestinian residents on Shuhada Street. They are a necessary protection from stones being thrown at them. The Iron doors of the formerly busy shopping street are welded shut and few Palestinians still living on Shuhada have to enter their homes through the back door.





the grave of Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 men and boys during the Ramadan in 1994.


This photo needs a little attention to detail: while Palestinians are not allowed to carry any weapons, let alone to own regular sized kitchen knifes, the settlers carry arms. The revolver on this settlers belt being the moderate version.
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