Conversations with
an Israeli soldier
He
asked – “Where do
you live?”
We replied – “The
old city.”
He asked – “I
mean, where are you
from?
We replied – “The
U.S.” and “Ireland”.
He was small, with a
tiny face and deep brown
eyes that twinkled in
the street lights at the
checkpoint.
He asked – “What
do you think of the
situation here?”
I replied –
“Will you arrest
me if I tell you
honestly?”
He replied – “No, I
won’t arrest you.”
I replied –
“Your presence here
with checkpoints is
humiliating the
Palestinians.”
His body language
intimated that I had a
point, and as his
partner attempted to try
to defend or to justify
the occupation with its
checkpoints, he gently
cut him off and said –
“From their perspective,
she has a point.”
After some more
conversation about the
occupation and Gaza and
Hamas and rockets coming
from Gaza into Israel
and Israeli settlers in
the West Bank and the
breaching of
international law we
said good-bye and
continued our journey
home.
We reflected on the
conversation as we
walked through the
tunnels of this ancient
beautiful city of Hebron
and we both thought
about how, if things
were different, it would
have been nice to sit
down over coffee and
have a conversation with
this young twinkly eyed
Israeli soldier. And we
wondered what would be
the reaction of his
comrades if he recounted
the conversation we had
back in military
barracks that night?
From reading
testimonials from ex
Israeli soldiers in the
Israeli organisation
called Breaking the
Silence here ,
our guess was that the
conversation would be
shut down very quickly.
These testimonials
are given to Breaking
the Silence by ex
soldiers who want to
talk about the
brutality of the
Israeli occupation in
the West Bank and the
Israeli military siege
and wars on Gaza.
And we wondered what
would be the reaction of
his comrades if he
recounted the
conversation we had back
in military barracks
that night? From
reading testimonials
from ex Israeli soldiers
in the Israeli
organisation called
Breaking the Silence here
, our guess was that
the conversation would
be shut down very
quickly. These
testimonials are given
to Breaking the Silence
by ex soldiers who want
to talk about the
brutality of the Israeli
occupation in the West
Bank and the Israeli
military siege and wars
on Gaza.
Could it be possible
that this soldier could
be a new recruit for
Breaking the Silence in
a couple of years time?
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