While right-wing officials in Israel are trying to prevent human rights' seminars for Israeli army, "Breaking the Silence" will publish a new pamphlet containing testimonies of officers and soldiers who admit that during their military service they abused and tortured Palestinians and violated Palestinian human rights.
Former officer Ram Cohen admitted in his testimony that violence is an integral part of the daily and humiliating occupation.
"Taking control of the other means feeling what I felt during my reserve service when I stopped a Palestinian bus that was returning after a day's work in Israel. They were sleepy, tired and exhausted, and wanted to just go home. I stood there with my M16 rifle in my hand and my ammunition ready ordering them all to step down from the bus. I aligned them in a long queue," he narrated.
Cohen went on to say how he ordered the Palestinians to present their IDs, and then he searched their belongings "hoping to find something there."
"Finally, I ordered them back to the bus. "Stop!" I shout, "Why did you move?!" They obeyed, went down, walked, stood, came back, and returned to the bus. I felt strong. I have a rifle with a full ammunition of live bullets, my finger ready on the trigger. I thought at the time that Palestinians were not human beings. Enemies. Potential terrorists," he added.
The officer felt that Palestinians lacked any human trait that could make him feel sympathetic or like them.
"The soldiers feel free and blow violence inside them like poison. This is not only practiced against Palestinians, but also against Ethiopian refugees, even gay and left-wing Jews," he added.
Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev's official Facebook page: "It is unnecessary to point out to you that Breaking the Silence works to tarnish the image of Israel, presenting it as an immoral state and its army and soldiers as an immoral army." Cohen believes that by writing this, the minister is seeking to defend the country as a Jewish democratic state, but rather the occupied territories.
"What should we do with the territories we occupied in 1967?" wondered Cohen, adding: "if we want it, we must include it in accordance with the law and grant equal rights to its two and a half million Palestinian residents. By doing so, we will undermine the entire Zionist project and endanger the identity of Israel as a Jewish state. If we are not willing to pay this price, we must plan for a smart and organized separation of regions and authority that fascinate us."
Cohen then concluded: "There is one thing we should not forget: with pikes we can achieve everything, but sit on it. "
It is worth mentioning that Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'Tselem, organizes several seminars and sessions for the Israeli army, in which legal experts talk about "human rights in the occupied territories".
The director-general of B'Tselem, Shai Glick, sent a letter to Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, warning him not to concede to the demands of the right-wing parties and cancel the sessions.
