The Journal.ie, an Irish media outlet published an opinion piece by Dean Issacharoff, the spokesperson for Breaking the Silence, a highly politicized organization that collects anonymous testimonies of Israeli soldiers regarding alleged and most often unsubstantiated misdemeanors or “war crimes” that it frequently presents to a foreign audience as a means of fighting Israel’s “occupation.”
'At first, I hated shooting school children with rubber-coated bullets … but after a few months in Hebron, we would high-five each other every time we hit one', writes Dean Issacharoff.https://t.co/QQlupZHt7g
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) February 20, 2019
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.
Issacharoff himself is under suspicion of fabricating his own testimony to have beaten a Palestinian man after his fellow IDF soldiers and commanders publicly challenged his claims. As of now, his account remains unsubstantiated and, like so many Breaking the Silence testimonies cannot be regarded as the truth.
In recent years, Breaking the Silence has been caught telling stories that are unbelievably unlikely, misleading, and in some cases clearly not true.
So when Issacharoff claims in The Journal.ie that he spent his time shooting Palestinian children with rubber bullets for fun, it should certainly be treated with a huge amount of skepticism.
His claim that “The sad truth is that soldiers want to hit the target, regardless of who it is or how old they are,” is an appalling slur meant to dehumanize Israelis in military service by suggesting that IDF soldiers are not bothered about targeting women or children or any other non-combatant.
But it’s not only the question marks over Issacharoff’s personal recollections. He deliberately removes context from his writing. His description of Hebron, Judaism’s second most important city, is highly partial and devoid of crucial context. In describing the place as a “Palestinian city,” the piece omits thousands of years of Jewish history in the city. In fact, the average Irish reader wouldn’t have a clue that Hebron was home to a Jewish population millennia before Islam ever existed, and even longer before Arabs invaded and seized control. Neither would readers know that while the city was under Islamic control, Jews were routinely massacred, discriminated against and prohibited from praying at what had originally been a Jewish prayer site. Only since 1967, when the area came under Israeli control, was the Tomb of the Patriarchs opened up for both Muslims and Jews. Instead, readers are told simply that this is a “segregated city”.
Also false is the claim that “Hebron is no more violent or oppressive than the rest of the West Bank.” In reality, because Hebron is the only place where a Jewish community lives surrounded by Arabs, and is guarded by hundreds of soldiers, unparalleled friction exists in the area. Hebron has seen numerous flash points over the years, and headlines about flareups of violence in the city appear with regularity in the Israeli and Arab media.
Issacharoff moves to discuss his time in Gaza, described thus:
I spent four months in Hebron until we were sent to Gaza. We boarded buses with our combat gear, knowing we were about to take part in a full-fledged ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Of course there’s no mention as to why Israel would need to carry out a military operation in the Gaza Strip at that time. For the reader (and maybe Issacharoff himself) it’s simply an act of Israeli malevolence devoid of any reason.
Our instructions were simple: we were told that pamphlets had been distributed warning people to leave, and so we could assume that all innocent civilians had fled the area.
Therefore, we were told that we should shoot to kill anyone over the age of 15. Whether they were armed or not.
Again, an unsubstantiated accusation that Israeli soldiers dismissed all norms of the rules of engagement. There’s a significant difference between being told that anyone left in an area is likely to be a threat and being ordered to open fire on any person they see moving.
Ultimately, Dean Issacharoff’s opinion piece isn’t meant to improve the behavior of IDF soldiers or to help the IDF deal with abuses if and when they occur. The only reason for publishing an article in an Irish media outlet is to defame the IDF and drag Israel’s name through the mud. The Journal.ie has given a platform for a discredited spokesman from a discredited organization.
Join in the conversation by engaging in the comments section of the article to let uninformed readers know who Dean Issacharoff and Breaking the Silence really are and, just as importantly, what the real IDF stands for.
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