The controversy about the campus organization UPZ and its sponsorship of ‘Breaking the Silence’ apparently isn’t over. If you don’t know by now,
Breaking the Silence … is a group of former IDF combat soldiers, many of whom continue to do reserve duty, who give personal testimony of purported human rights violations perpetrated by the IDF in Judea and Samaria.
“We try to explain to audiences on college campuses what it feels like to stand for hours at a checkpoint in the territories telling someone twice our age that he cannot go where he wants to because of a decision by some high-ranking official,” said Mikhael Manekin, administrative director of Breaking the Silence. “Or what an IDF soldier feels after breaking in to a Palestinian family’s house in the middle of the night and arresting the father while his children scream and cry.”
Manekin, 27, an IDF lieutenant who still does reserve duty in Judea and Samaria, said that he has testimony from 400 soldiers who have served in Judea and Samaria. “All of them talk of the ethical and moral dilemmas they faced while on duty.”
What nobody seems to know is that there’s a Palestinian counterpart to ‘Breaking the Silence’: a group of former terrorists militants who still murder Jews Resist the Occupation from time to time. They too struggle with the duties they are required to perform:
“You have to understand that we face difficult moral issues in our work. Think about what it must be like to drive around all day looking for a Zionist to shoot; and then, when we shoot one, he turns out to be an Arab! Arafat himself had to apologize for that one.”
“Consider how it feels, for example, to break down the door of a Jewish home and machine-gun a mother and her children in their beds — only to find that the father was away at Zionist reserve duty that night! Let me tell you, you are not the only ones with ethical concerns.”
We at FresnoZionism had no idea that the other side was as morally conflicted as we are. Therefore, I propose that we send them on a campus tour as well, so that American students can see the thoughtful, tender and poetic nature of the Palestinian Freedom Fighters for themselves.
Technorati Tags: morality, occupation, terrorism