Heartbreaking, powerful words via Sue Beardon from #Israel.
"Last night I shared a moment with an Israeli that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I stayed in an Airbnb in Haifa, Israel with a Zen Buddhist couple. I sat with one of the hosts on arrival and we chatted for a while.
Usually I am cautious about sharing what I'm doing here when I meet Israelis, but we had made a connection so I found myself being open with him. We began to discuss his mandatory military service, which he had served some years before.
He told me how the army tried to disrupt the lives of #Palestinians everyday, and how he used to receive calls from the General instructing him to block certain roads at random times to delay or stop Palestinians going about their day. There was no logic to this he pondered, "the General wasn't even in the area. He had no idea about the reality on the ground."
He went on to recall a time when he was sent to a #Palestinian village, where there were clashes every Friday between the locals and the military. The army tanks arrived with heavy armour for him and the other soldiers to put on. They gave him a tear gas launcher and his colleague a gun full of rubber bullets. He was a young soldier heading to his first combat situation... He braced himself as a large gate opened and he was guided to stand at the top of a hill.
To his surprise though, when he got there, it was silent. The village was quiet and peaceful. He and the other soldiers were instructed to stand for a while and eventually some Palestinian children spotted them and began to throw rocks up the hill. Then more children came and did the same.
He had a realisation at that moment, turned to his commander and said "We are provoking them. They would not come if we were not here." As he told me this part of the story, his voice cracked and he began to cry. I did too. He went on to share with me the commanders response; "Palestinians are not human in the way we are human. Don't try and apply the same logic to them."
We sat in silence together, our eyes still full of tears, for several minutes.'
Shared from someone who is in the West Bank as an Ecumenical Accompanier: please spread this. little stories matter. Thanks."
AND YET HE AND HIS COMRADES CARRIED OUT THEIR ORDERS...CRYING AFTER THE FACT
"Last night I shared a moment with an Israeli that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I stayed in an Airbnb in Haifa, Israel with a Zen Buddhist couple. I sat with one of the hosts on arrival and we chatted for a while.
Usually I am cautious about sharing what I'm doing here when I meet Israelis, but we had made a connection so I found myself being open with him. We began to discuss his mandatory military service, which he had served some years before.
He told me how the army tried to disrupt the lives of #Palestinians everyday, and how he used to receive calls from the General instructing him to block certain roads at random times to delay or stop Palestinians going about their day. There was no logic to this he pondered, "the General wasn't even in the area. He had no idea about the reality on the ground."
He went on to recall a time when he was sent to a #Palestinian village, where there were clashes every Friday between the locals and the military. The army tanks arrived with heavy armour for him and the other soldiers to put on. They gave him a tear gas launcher and his colleague a gun full of rubber bullets. He was a young soldier heading to his first combat situation... He braced himself as a large gate opened and he was guided to stand at the top of a hill.
To his surprise though, when he got there, it was silent. The village was quiet and peaceful. He and the other soldiers were instructed to stand for a while and eventually some Palestinian children spotted them and began to throw rocks up the hill. Then more children came and did the same.
He had a realisation at that moment, turned to his commander and said "We are provoking them. They would not come if we were not here." As he told me this part of the story, his voice cracked and he began to cry. I did too. He went on to share with me the commanders response; "Palestinians are not human in the way we are human. Don't try and apply the same logic to them."
We sat in silence together, our eyes still full of tears, for several minutes.'
Shared from someone who is in the West Bank as an Ecumenical Accompanier: please spread this. little stories matter. Thanks."
AND YET HE AND HIS COMRADES CARRIED OUT THEIR ORDERS...CRYING AFTER THE FACT
--- It is a psychopathology, a kind of group one. Psychopaths also dehumanize their victims. Remember Silence of the Lambs, "It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it's told."
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