This morning, (Sunday, 25 June 2017), 18 Israeli human rights and peace organizations issued a statement of solidarity with Breaking the Silence, following the police questioning of the organization’s spokesperson last week.
“Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, and State Attorney Shai Nitzan,” read the statement which was run as an ad in Israeli daily Haaretz, “your newfound determination to address instances of violence towards Palestinians is impressive, but Palestinians have been living for fifty years under systemic, institutionalized violence that is at the core of the occupation – a regime of military control over civilians. The civil and military systems of law enforcement, along with the courts, lend a veneer of lawfulness to killing, injury, torture, collective punishment, land grabs, movement restrictions, administrative detentions, and other like actions. Even investigations of suspected grave violations of international law are skillfully whitewashed or left to fizzle out.”
“It was not as part of a move to promote accountability that the spokesperson for Breaking the Silence was brought in for questioning. On the contrary – it was meant to intimidate and silence critics of the occupation. We stand with our friends at Breaking the Silence. We, too, will keep speaking out – until the occupation and its injustices are brought to an end”.
Signed by the following organizations:
Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research; Amnesty International – Israel; Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights; B’Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories; Coalition of Women for Peace; Combatants for Peace; Emek Shaveh; Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement; HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual; Human Rights Defenders Fund; Ir Amim; Israel-Palestine: Creative Regional Initiatives (IPCRI); MachsomWatch; Peace Now; Physicians for Human Rights – Israel; The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel; Standing Together; Zazim – Community Action
