http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/06/26/idf-captain-breaks-the-silence-on-smear-campaign/
JUNE 26, 2013 1:32 AM 2 COMMENTS
Author: Anav Silverman / Tazpit News Agency
An Israeli IDF spokesperson recently blasted Breaking the Silence, an Israeli NGO that claims to expose alleged wrong-doings of the IDF, in a Facebook post this past Friday, June 21.
IDF Captain Barak Raz, the spokesman for the Judea and Samaria Division, wrote that Breaking the Silence, which receives significant funding from several European government agencies and foundations such as the Norwegian embassy and Christian Aid, “engages in nothing, but NOTHING, other than a smear campaign targeting the IDF.”
In an exclusive interview with Tazpit News Agency, Raz explained that he had had “enough with the nonsense that this organization [Breaking the Silence] represents.”
“Breaking the Silence is an immature and unprofessional organization,” he told Tazpit News Agency. “At the IDF we deal with many organizations that hold counter views, but they communicate with us – there is an open e-mail and phone exchange, and verification of issues that come up. Breaking the Silence does not engage in any of that and prevents the IDF from properly addressing any of their claims.”
Founded in 2004, Breaking the Silence collects and publishes testimonies by former Israeli soldiers who served in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem while also conducting monthly tours of Hebron and the South Hebron Hills. Many of the participants who join the tours are university students visiting from abroad including a number of Europeans.
On their website, Breaking the Silence states that the soldiers’ testimonies are intended to show a “much more grimmer picture in which deterioration of moral standards finds expression in the character of orders and rules of engagement, and are justified in the name of Israel’s security.” These testimonies and reports are directed to and often carried by international media.
One video testimony shows a former female IDF soldier describing herself acting as a monster while serving in Hebron, adding that she was not the only soldier to act in such a manner.
According to Raz, there are several problems with these testimonies. On his Facebook post, he states that the IDF has standing orders, regulations, and an ethical code that soldiers must abide by. “These not only require soldiers to act according to the law, but also to report instances when things were otherwise,” he writes. “Instead of taking responsibility for their mistakes, these soldiers simply blame the army for what they did wrong,” he elaborated to Tazpit News Agency.
Furthermore, he continues: “The information used by Breaking the Silence by and large seems to derive from two sources – unverifiable hearsay or accounts from anonymous former soldiers who, sometimes, they themselves deserve to be behind bars in military prison for what they did!”
Breaking the Silence could not be reached for comment at the time of this article’s publication.
Raz said that his response to Breaking the Silence came from a more personal vantage point, although nothing that he said in his Facebook post hadn’t been formally stated by the IDF Spokesperson’s Office.
“The social media platform gave me the opportunity to express my view more personally, from my gut – and to stimulate a different kind of discussion between people across the political spectrum. I have many different followers on my Facebook and Twitter accounts, from the right and left and it’s important that they meet and communicate,” Raz explained. “Social media is a means of accomplishing that kind of discourse.”
“For me open dialogue is important, and that is exactly what Breaking the Silence does not engage in. The organization is counter-productive; it offers no solutions and misconstrues reality to fit its own political agenda – smearing the IDF.”
IDF Commander: Average Arab Attacker is 12-14 Years Old http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/news.php?Itemid=9934
Date Posted: 2013-05-27 06:35:26
The fight against terrorism in Judea and Samaria is complicated by the young age of the attackers, IDF Colonel Yaniv Alaluf said Saturday evening.
Alaluf, commander for the Etzion region, spoke at a meeting with Israeli residents of the area. Israelis in Judea and Samaria have expressed strong concern over the recent increase in rock and firebomb attacks on drivers.
The attacks have caused serious injury in several instances, and have caused multiple deaths as well.
The average attacker is just 12-14 years old, Alaluf said. Many beg soldiers not to arrest them because they have tests in school the next day, he related.
Israeli officials have warned that PA textbooks and television programs are inciting children to terrorism.
Alaluf had some good news for residents. Israel is building a road that is further from Arab villages than the existing highways, which will hopefully make attacks less frequent, he said.
He also noted that a terrorism suspect who soldiers have been seeking for years was recently apprehended.
In addition, he said, "We aren't seeing organized terrorist groups organizing attacks like they did in the past. Of course, in our region we're trying to get back to the quiet we had in 2012."
via israelnn.com
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