Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Sembra interessante

Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies from the Occupied 
Territories, 2000-2010
Details
November 21, 2013 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Stanford Law School
Crown Quadrangle
559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
 
Lunchtime talk with Yehuda Shaul, co-founder of Breaking the Silence.
Date: Thursday, November 21
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 pm, casual lunch served
Location: Building 200, Room 017
RSVP: 
sc...@law.stanford.edu
 
 
This event is co-sponsored by the Stanford Center on International 
Conflict and Negotiation and the Stanford Human Rights Center.
 
About the speaker:
Yehuda Shaul was born and raised in Jerusalem in an ultra-Orthodox 
family. After graduating from a yeshiva high school in a Jewish 
settlement on the West Bank, Yehuda served in the Israeli Defense Force 
achieving the rank of commander and platoon sergeant and was posted in 
the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah on the West Bank.
 
In 2004, Yehuda founded Breaking the Silence with a group of fellow 
veterans; he serves as the organization’s Co-Director and Foreign 
Relations Officer.  BTS is "an organization of veteran combatants who 
have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second 
Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public 
to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories."  The 
organization works to "stimulate public debate about the price paid for 
a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population on a daily 
basis, and are engaged in the control of that population’s everyday life."
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il
 
 
At this event, Yehuda will be presenting the organization's new book, 
Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies from the Occupied 
Territories, 2000-2010.  In Our Harsh Logic soldiers have gone on the 
record with their personal experiences to break what they call a 
conspiracy of silence across Israeli society and to fulfill a moral 
obligation.
-- 
Namib
.....
Земля - колыбель человечества, но нельзя вечно жить в колыбели
(Константи́н Эдуа́рдович Циолко́вский)

 veterans;
 
qualche informazione sulla organizzazione:
 
Funders in 2012 include Open Society Institute, Broederlijk Delen, Christian Aid, DanChurchAid, EU, Ford Israel Fund (New Israel Fund), ICCO, Medico International, Spain, Trocaire, Norway.
Direct and indirect government funding in 2011 included the European Union (via Yesh Din, NIS 124,589), UK (NIS 105,178), Spain (NIS 1,223,003); Trocaire (Ireland, NIS 74,683); DanChurchAid (Denmark, NIS 241,061) OXFAM GB (UK, NIS 25,000), MISEREOR (Germany, NIS 245,713), Broederlijk Delen (Belgium, NIS 258,605), CCFD (France, NIS 22,268).
 
The NGO was active in promoting “war crimes” charges against Israel after the Gaza fighting in January 2009. These charges were based on anonymous and unverifiable hearsay “testimonies.”
 
In 2010 BtS published a highly tendentious book titled Occupation of the Territories - Israeli Soldier testimonies 2000-2010, which claimed to provide a counter to the “official Israeli position” on IDF actions in the territories. NGO Monitor analysis has revealed that this book was rife with methodological problems and appeared to tailor the testimonies to predetermined “analyses” that falsely claimed that Israeli actions are not aimed at self-defense but at “terrorizing the civilian population.”
This book was later re-published under the title Our Harsh Logic and translated into Swedish, German, and Dutch. The launching of the book in the various languages served as a platform for further demonization and delegitmization of Israel, including accusations of “racism” and alleged “political assassinations” of Palestinians, claims that Gaza is still “occupied,” and implying that Israel is ethnically cleansing “area C.”
 
Analysis by Amos Harel in Ha’aretz: “Breaking the Silence...has a clear political agenda, and can no longer be classed as a ‘human rights organization.’ Any organization whose website includes the claim by members to expose the ‘corruption which permeates the military system’ is not a neutral observer. The organization has a clear agenda: to expose the consequences of IDF troops serving in the West Bank and Gaza. This seems more of interest to its members than seeking justice for specific injustices.” (July 17, 2009)
 
Although claiming to address Israeli society, the NGO’s lobbying and media advocacy focus on international audiences, including presentations in Europe and the United States. Yehuda Shaul, BtS co-founder, defended this practice: “Sometimes, when you want to deliver messages to the inside, you must go outside.”
 
BtS members and anti-Israel activists Yonatan and Itamar Shapira were on the “Jews for Justice for Palestinians” boat “Irene,” which sought to violate Israel’s security-based policies regarding naval traffic into Gaza (September 2010).
 
During a BtS event at a museum in Sweden (March 2011), Itamar Shapira stated that “We [Israelis] are creating the terror against us.”
Conducts tours to Hebron and the South Hebron Hills to “witness first hand the dire situation.” Criticized by Israeli police officials for “antagoniz[ing]...settlers in the hope that the settlers will attack them.”
 
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/breaking_the_silence_shovirm_shtika_