Breaking the silence: Children and Youth – Soldiers’ Testimonies 2005-2011

Breaking the Silence, an organisation of Israeli veterans who served during the Second Intifada in 2000, has released a booklet of soldier testimonies of the everyday life routine in the oPt – Israel’s “backyard”. The report attests to the mistreatment of Palestinian children, still taking place, years after the peak of the Second Intifada.The testimonies and stories in this booklet portray the harsh realities of everyday life for Palestinian children and youth who live under Israeli occupation, and depict the brutality and flagrant disregard displayed by the Israeli armed forces for human – and in this instance – children’s right. The report shows that since these children are perceived by the Israeli military as adults, they are subjected to physical violence, harassment, humiliation, arrests, cruel and indifferent treatment, serious injury and even death. The main purpose of “Breaking the Silence” is to arouse public discussion of the moral price that Israeli society pays for a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population and dominate it on a daily basis.