Don’t be fooled by Breaking the Silence

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Benayahu Carmi

BREAKING the Silence says that it is telling the truth about what goes on inside the Israeli army and that it speaks out against injustice.

Avner Gvaryahu, its executive director, is visiting Australia and is being lauded for his bravery and morality in exposing alleged abuse. I served with Gvaryahu and more than 20 other young men in the elite Orev unit of IDF paratroopers. We put our lives on the line to defend our state and our people for three years and continue to serve as reservists. I am here to tell you that Avner is at best wilfully blind to the truth and at worst a deliberate liar.

None of this is news. Most of the “evidence” that BTS relies on is given anonymously and is virtually impossible to refute given the lack of detail about where and when alleged abuses took place. The soldiers who so bravely “break the silence” are too cowardly to name names and provide details so that the perpetrators who they constantly complain about can be brought to justice.

Instead of bringing their complaints to the proper authorities in Israel or airing their views within the country whether in the media or in public forums they choose to go from place to place outside Israel peddling their slander of the IDF to an all too ready media who can’t wait to publish yet another story that fits the narrative of Israel as the oppressor. They do this because they know that within Israel, nobody believes them.

Australia is very close to my heart. My mother grew up here and I have family in Sydney. I spent nearly a year in this unbelievable country after I was released from the army.
When I heard that Avner was coming to Australia, I was filled with anger and sorrow. Anger that he yet again is going to be slandering us, his comrades in arms, in order to promote the agenda of his organisation through spreading lies; and sorrow that his will be the only voice that Australian audiences will hear without the ability to challenge him.

In fact for the reasons set out above, no one can effectively challenge the lies spread by Breaking the Silence when they are not given the detail of the events or locations that underpin the attack on the morality of the IDF.

A few years ago, I was contacted by the executive director of Reservists on Duty, an organisation of citizen soldiers that seeks to counter the lies of Breaking the Silence. It was then that I first learned of Avner’s allegations against our unit. I saw a number of videos that Avner had put out in which he “testifies” to crimes he says we as a unit committed whilst serving in the army. I looked at his video with disgust and disbelief and was outraged by the things he had said about us.

A number of members of our team were similarly outraged and, having considered what we might be able to do to counter his lies, made a video in which we responded to his slanderous comments. We said clearly and unequivocally that, “We served with Avner, he is lying!”

Many of the things that he refers to simply never happened, in other instances he has been misleading about the facts and blown small incidents out of all proportion so that they fit his narrative. Avner never says that his brothers in arms have called him out for being a liar, in fact his narrative doesn’t refer to the rest of his platoon at all.

Avner is not the only member of Breaking the Silence who has been called out for his lies. For example, about a year ago the State Attorney’s office investigated Dean Issacharoff, another spokesperson for BTS as a result of an expose by Reservists of Duty. The investigation concluded that Issacharoff’s allegations had no foundation and that he was lying.

I am not saying that mistakes are not made or that from time to time individual soldiers fail to live up to the high expectations that the IDF has for its members.

The IDF has an effective system of investigation and prosecution for those soldiers who fail to adhere to its code of conduct and it is to that system that Avner and his colleagues can and should report their allegations with the detail that would be necessary to allow an investigation (and if necessary a prosecution) to take place.

What I fundamentally disagree with is BTS’ method of shopping these outrageous and unsubstantiated allegations to a willing media outside of Israel in order to demonise and isolate our country. That is no way to achieve the change that they say they want and nor will it ever result in a single alleged offender ever being brought to justice.

Australia needs to know that the voice of BTS is not the voice of the mainstream in Israel where an overwhelming portion of the population are serving or will serve in the IDF. It is not even the voice of the mainstream Israeli left. It represents, at best, a very tiny fraction of the citizen soldiers of Israel, and it does so through lies.

I have no problem with Avner’s political views. I do have a problem with the fact that he and his friends behave as if they are above democracy in Israel, better than the system of checks and balances that underpin it and somehow more moral than the millions who have served before them, with them and after them. They are trying to force their opinions about the resolution of the conflict by inciting the world against the only democracy in the Middle East.

I will not be there when Avner speaks. I do not believe that anybody can effectively contradict him and his colleagues as with rare exceptions nobody is able to test the allegations that he makes. I hope that in my own small way I have encouraged you to question his lies and not simply accept them as he would have you do – on face value and without independent verification.

My name is Benayahu Carmi. I am not a senior officer, and I am no expert in matters of national security. I am a soldier/citizen of Israel that served in the same unit as Avner Gvaryahu.

BENAYAHU CARMI served with Avner Gvaryahu and is a member of Reservists on Duty.