Say again, who is the dangerous criminal?

For the past couple of months, Breaking the Silence has not been able to enter Hebron with their weekly tours of Israelis and foreigners. The reason stated is that the organisation is dangerous and the members, especially Yehuda Shaul, the director, are criminals.

Says who?

The settlers in Hebron. Who are among the most violent and fundamental persons in this conflict. Just watch the documentary "Inside God's bunker" and you'll understand what I mean. The filmer meet and interview the settlers, thus, whatever is said in that film are their words, not propaganda against them. Period.

So the settlers in Hebron claims that Yehuda Shaul is a dangerous criminal. What's so problematic about that? Couldn't he just avoid the place and in that way be safe?

This is not about him being safe, this is more than anything else a propaganda war, where the peaceniks, the good guys, the solution oriented (call them whatever you want) are seen as the enemy, as anti-Israeli, as, at the best, naive. It somehow reminds me about 1984 and the reconstruction of language....

The settlers in Hebron are approximately 600 people, at least half of them children. Why bother about them? OK, they're fanatics, but so what? They're so few, and Israel is a democracy so therefore the state can and wants to control these fanatic elements in order to protect the civilian population.

Or so I'd like to believe. The police based in Hebron now quotes the settlers and use their arguments to block the Breaking the Silence tours. The attorney general in Israel said, off the record, that even if the Supreme court rules against the behaviour of the settlers and the police in Hebron, they will be ignored. OK, that was at least partly commonly known, but stated that directly....?

More people need to join the tours to Hebron. And to give Yehuda and the rest of the guys support. I hope they'll be safe. I hope they'll not be discouraged to continue working for change. Go to http://www.breakingthesilence.org/, for more information about their work.