In December 2016 HonestReporting exposed how the New York Times had failed to disclose the links between the author of a major feature article on the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuafat and the radical Breaking the Silence organization. The article was a teaser for a book of essays critical of Israel’s control over the disputed territories, due for release at the end of May 2017.
Complaints from HonestReporting and our readers resulted in a response from the New York Times’s public editor Liz Spayd, who acknowledged:
the wiser choice would have been to make clear the role of Breaking the Silence in the project. Disclosure ahead of time is better than questions afterward.
Now, the Canadian media outlet Macleans has published a lengthy and critical piece by Madeline Thien expressing her thoughts on a visit to the South Hebron Hills – an excerpt from the very same book connected to Breaking the Silence. According to Macleans:
Madeleine Thien joined writer Michael Chabon and other authors in confronting the occupation of the West Bank in a new collection, Kingdom of Olives and Ash. Here, Maclean’s presents Thien’s contribution, entitled The Land in Winter. Read more about Chabon’s collection here.
However, Breaking the Silence is only mentioned in passing, both in Thien’s piece and the one referred to concerning Chabon’s collection. According to Amazon.com‘s own listing for the book (emphasis added):
In Kingdom of Olives and Ash, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, two of today’s most renowned novelists and essayists, have teamed up with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence—an organization comprised of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories and saw firsthand the injustice there—and a host of illustrious writers to tell the stories of the people on the ground in the contested territories.
Yet Thien herself only alludes to Breaking the Silence in her article rather than openly acknowledging that the book is a joint initiative with the organization:
Before leaving Palestine and Israel in mid-July 2016, I made my way to Palestinian friends in Bethlehem, to a Jewish Israeli friend in Akko, and to Tel Aviv for a gathering of former IDF soldiers who had given testimony on the policies and practices of the army.
Breaking the Silence is itself a highly politicized organization that collects anonymous testimonies of Israeli soldiers of alleged and most often unsubstantiated misdemeanors or “war crimes” that it presents to a mainly foreign audience as a means of fighting Israel’s “occupation.”
As journalist Jake Wallis Simons recounted back in 2013 when he conducted interviews with BtS staff:
It was only a hunch at first. But later, the bias of the organisation became clearer. During a break between interviews, I asked Yehuda Shaul, one of the founders of the organisation, how the group is funded. It was with some surprise that I learned that 45 per cent of it is donated by European countries, including Norway and Spain, and the European Union. Other donors include UNICEF, Christian Aid and Oxfam GB. To me this seemed potentially problematic.
As is the case in all democracies, the IDF is an organ of the state, not a political decision-maker. If the goal of Breaking the Silence was simply to clean up the Israeli military, it wouldn’t be such a problem. Instead, the aim is to “end the occupation”, and on this basis it secured its funding.
It appeared, therefore, that these former soldiers, some of whom draw salaries from Breaking the Silence, were motivated by financial and political concerns to further a pro-Palestinian agenda. They weren’t merely telling the truth about their experiences. They were under pressure to perform.
Indeed, I later discovered that there have been many allegations in the past that members of the organisation either fabricated or exaggerated their testimonies.
Macleans is perfectly entitled to publish Thien’s article. But why has it and Madeline Thien failed to disclose the political agenda behind the book and Thien’s own contribution? If the New York Times has admitted that full disclosure is the professional and ethical thing to do, surely Macleans should follow suit.
You can ask Macleans by sending an email to the editor – [email protected]
