“Breaking the
Silence is an organization of veteran
combatants who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the
Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public
to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories. [They] endeavor to
stimulate public debate about the price paid for a reality in which young
soldiers face a civilian population on a daily basis, and are engaged in the
control of that population’s everyday life.”(From organization website.) They
document the “deterioration of moral standards” in the
name of security.
Milgram, Waller, and Staub provide
psychological factors that lead humans to commit crimes they normally would
not. Many of the testimonials from Breaking the Silence offer first hand
accounts for the theories of Milgram, Waller, and Staub. The following excerpts
are taken from soldiers who served in Hebron—a Palestinian city in the West
Bank with a Jewish settlement in its heart –between 2001 and 2004.
While comparing the soldiers’ testimonials to
the theories in our readings helps illuminate several psychological factors
that were mentioned, there are also many that are not evident in these
testimonials. To name a few: the soldiers feel responsibility for their
actions, even as they do it, so there is no effective diffusion of
responsibility; the occupation started not in response for a motivation to
protect the self concept and assumptions about the world as Staub suggests, but
the identity crisis actually occurred after
the actions were performed; the perpetrator does not blame the victim, but
himself and the IDF; and in contrast to a breaking down of individuality, these
soldiers describe high awareness of their individuality within the system. In
the specific case of Israel, systematic factors like nationalism, a shared
trauma, a mandatory conscription, and socialization of the young play a large
role in perpetuating the occupation. However, it is important to remember that
these soldiers are not engaged in systematic murder, but in maintaining an
occupation.
This excerpt addresses Waller’s point that
while ideology can play a significant role in making people act, their
environment could be easily manipulated and cause them to commit immoral acts:
The
thing about these stories is that they’re a matter of daily routine, and there
are lots more like them. And these stories were an integral part of my daily
routine over a six month period of active assignment which was total, your
whole life. It’s eight-by-eight. No day and night. It’s constant. And even when
you’re sleeping, it’s very likely they’ll call you up, and you really live these
events. I knew that as a soldier there was no… I didn’t agree with all these
things. It really hurt me inside. There were many incidents that hurt even more
than these. And I told myself that… my justification for being there was that
afterwards I would take action to change it. The most serious problem meanwhile
is that as a soldier who has not been there for a month now, notice about
myself that while two months ago that was all I thought about and I was burning
up inside, that is, I really wanted to take action, I couldn’t live in that
situation. It’s not that I was at my house surrounded by grass and
neighborhoods with French streetlights and a car waiting outside… I was living
in poverty, in my daily life… where people dig through the garbage, and there
are mice everywhere, and rats, and it really bothered me. And now, much as I said it would go on burning inside me, I notice that
gradually I’m starting to forget about it. (My emphasis) And if at first I
couldn’t enjoy a show calmly, or be with a girl, I couldn’t relax because I
kept saying, just a minute, there’s someone in the… post now, or someone needs
to do eight hours of duty now and he has someone sick trying to get out of the
Casaba to an ambulance and he has to detain him for an hour. So now I notice
that it feels less urgent to me, like the rest of the people in the country,
who, after all, don’t live this reality, and it’s really easy for them not to
think about it and to detach themselves, but the problem is still there.
This
excerpt addresses Milgram’s point that individuals would obey authority (in
this case, the IDF,) even if they were consciously aware that their actions
would be immoral.
I
personally, sort of had this inner process, which made me kind of confront myself.
I found myself in situations that I didn’t know how to cope with. It had me
checking myself all time to see how I held on to my values, how low I could go,
because once it becomes a routine, you reach a situation where you can’t control
it, it’s your routine, it’s your day-to-day, you just get orders and you carry
them out without giving them a second thought, it’s like, you’re at your post
and you say to yourself, “Shit, today I don’t mind getting killed, like, today
I… don’t mind getting killed, it’s my duty to be here and that’s what I’ll do.”
Q:
Simply burns into your consciousness…
Yes,
exactly, you just become like a robot, I don’t know how to explain it. There’s a stage where… either routine or
fatigue when you no longer have the strength to be patient, you have no
strength to… (My emphasis.) Someone comes and throws a remark which he
shouldn’t like, “What do you want from me?” which is legitimate in his opinion,
and even in my opinion, that person lives there, you know, it not… It’s a
street where they’re allowed to pass, and a soldier comes and stops him and
checks him and searches him and his kids are there and his family is there, and
its humiliating for him, and there’s a stage when you just don’t care anymore,
old man, not old man, you check them all.
This
excerpt addresses Staub’s point that many of the members actually wanted to
participate in the evil action, that actions tend to progress along a continuum
of destruction, and Milgram’s observation of a narrowing of moral concerns
during the action,
And
I remember that I fired at car windshields, and one of the soldiers who was
with me fired a rifle with a grenade launcher right into a shop, simply into a
Palestinian shop, to blow up the shop. And all of this, for no good reason, I
mean, deterrence and not one of us asked himself what he was doing in order to,
actually, you know, by way of a response. I think… I remember myself that
night, I really meant it when I said that it was me who fired at the
streetlights, me who fired at the cars, because it was me, I mean, among all
those soldiers, I was shooting. And I remember that not one of us, that night…
all of us were happy that we got the opportunity to shoot at streetlights and
cars, because there’s nothing so cool. Nothing like hearing a streetlight blow
to bits after you’ve taken aim at it. And
you know, I remember us doing it with such determination and with such a smile,
and, I don’t know, I consider myself someone who actually did think of what he
was doing during his army service, and tried to avoid doing such things, and, like,
I remember where this reality managed to… how it managed to sweep me into doing
those things without any… without conscience, without any thought, maybe, yes,
afterwards, but what good is that. (My emphasis) Simply with a shit eating
grin on my face.
This
excerpt address Milgram’s point that while in battle, soldiers obey orders
because disorganization during a war means threat to life, and the process he
outlines a perpetrator goes through in considering disobedience.
It’s
hard to say what I felt at that moment. On the one hand, I was stationed there,
I didn’t choose to be there. On the other hand, I wanted to get the hell out of
there. As an individual who considers himself a nice guy, a moral kind of
guy... I said to myself, damn I’m really doing something here that I don’t believe
in. I don’t believe in it 100%, and I’m putting myself in a position where
someone wants to kill me because of it. The
question is, where am I? Do I have no choice in the matter? In other words,
should I refuse? Is refusal the answer? So there I was torn by the dilemma,
pondering. I had lots of time eight by eight [eight hours on-duty eight hours
off-duty] to think about it. The point is that I was faced with a crazy dilemma
where I was torn between personal
freedom and personal choice. Here lies the contradiction between the military,
which is undemocratic and the state, which is supposed to be democratic. (My
emphasis) When you see that you are doing things which in your own home could
not possibly happen and must never be allowed to happen, this is where you
cross a certain line. Okay, so here you’re in a different state. That is to
say, everything you have known until now, all the rules by which you and your own
family conduct your lives, all that does not seem to count here.
This
excerpt addresses the idea of a diffusion of responsibility, nationalism, and
the social consequences of disobedience.
As
part of the house to house searches, there were lots of Border Police in the
street. One of them overhears some guy insulting a sergeant from my unit. So
they came and said, “No problem,” took the Palestinian and brought him back
about 20 minutes later. He’s trembling in fear. They tell him, “Okay, now start
singing ‘Carnival in the Nahal’ [name of an army unit].”
Q:
How did you feel then?
I
didn’t like it. It looked like everybody there thought it was funny, so okay, I
just sat there and kept quiet. I won’t
start fighting with my comrades. (My emphasis)”
Q:
Why did you keep quiet?
I
don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t important enough for me to say anything… I don’t know. You just take a deep breath and keep doing what you’re doing. It’s the
duty with which I’ve been entrusted. Right now I’m just a little cog in the
wheel. I do my job and live from one furlough to the next, until my service is
over. That’s how it was all the time
This
final excerpt discusses the actions of the soldier as derived simply from having
(il)legitimate power.
The
crazy thing is that you stand there, an IDF soldier, okay? You’ve got a machine
gun and it’s loaded and the safety catch is off. So what, are you an idiot? How
dare you not listen to me? I can shoot
you at any given moment. (My emphasis) I
can split your head open with the butt of my gun and chances are my commander
will give me a pat on the back and say: “That’s showing them. Finally you got
it right.” Where do you get the nerve? How come you don’t understand? How
come you don’t see the total control I have over you? Like, it’s crazy! I’m just a kid. I was born yesterday. I
derive my power from my uniform and my machine gun, its what gives me the right
to decide everything. And I do what I’m told to. That’s the power I have and I
use it. I can be the most enlightened and considerate person in the world
but when I say: “mamnu` tajawul, ruh `al beit” [there’s a curfew, go home]
there is a period and four exclamation marks at the end of that sentence. It’s
nonnegotiable. I don’t care if I’m 18 or 17 or 21. I’m a soldier. I’ve got a
gun. and I’m from the IDF. I’ve got orders, and they better follow them. They’d
better follow the orders I give them. I give the orders here. In fact, they’re
civilians unrelated to me, and I’m giving them orders all the time… and they’ll
follow them whether they like it or not. And if they don’t like it, if they
make trouble, then I’ll force them to follow them. Why? Good question. A very good question. I really don’t know… just
because. Because it’s shit. That’s what it is.
The
complete testimonials: http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Soldiers_Testimonies_from_Hebron_2001_2004_Eng.pdf
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