Breaking the Silence ·
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“I've never been good at staying silent in the face of injustice, but here I was being asked to do PR for it.”
I grew up in the ultra-Orthodox community, and I enlisted to take part in what I believed at the time was defending my country. I never imagined that after completing my military service, instead of going on a big post-army trip or starting university, I would break my silence. I certainly never imagined that I would choose to become even more deeply involved in Breaking the Silence and start working there.
During my service in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, I was exposed not only to the reality in the West Bank and Gaza, but also to the way the IDF chooses to present that reality to the public. I saw how much control the IDF Spokesperson has over shaping our perception of reality, and how it operates more like a PR agency than a public institution meant to be accountable to the public. We were told that the goal of the IDF Spokesperson's work with the Israeli public was to strengthen public trust in the military.
The public's right to know was secondary, at best. Vis-a-vis the international community, the stated goal was to strengthen and expand the legitimacy of the IDF’s actions. Here, too, we paid the price in truth.
I saw how the label “terrorist” was applied to civilians, how statements were carefully tailored to suit the target audience and serve the objectives we were trying to achieve, and how easily details could be manipulated.
I've never been good at staying silent in the face of injustice, but here I was being asked to do PR for it. I learned how to craft statements about dozens of people killed in a single strike, automatically adding that we regretted any harm to uninvolved civilians. This was routine.
So I'm not staying silent.
If you served during the war, don't stay silent either.
I saw how the label “terrorist” was applied to civilians, how statements were carefully tailored to suit the target audience and serve the objectives we were trying to achieve, and how easily details could be manipulated.
I've never been good at staying silent in the face of injustice, but here I was being asked to do PR for it. I learned how to craft statements about dozens of people killed in a single strike, automatically adding that we regretted any harm to uninvolved civilians. This was routine.
So I'm not staying silent.
If you served during the war, don't stay silent either.
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