Overview

The very name of the Israel Defense Forces suggests that its primary mission is the defense of the country's territory. Indeed, both internationally and within Israel, support for the occupation of Palestinian territory rests on the belief that the army's actions and presence in the West Bank and Gaza are essentially defensive and responsive, aimed at protecting the country from terror. But Israeli soldiers themselves tell a profoundly different story. In this landmark work, which includes more than a hundred soldiers' testimonies collected over a decade, what emerges is a broad policy that is as much offensive as defensive. In their own words, the soldiers reveal in human and vivid detail how the key planks of the army's ostensibly protective program have in fact served to accelerate acquisition of Palestinian land, cripple all normal political and social life, and ultimately thwart the possibility of independence. The many soldiers who have spoken out have taken aim at a silence of complicity, both within Israel and in the wider world, that perpetuates the justification for occupation. In the process, they have created a gripping and immediate record of oppression. Powerful and incontrovertible, Our Harsh Logic is a supremely significant contribution to one of the world's most vexed conflicts.

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9781250037732

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Reviews

The soldiers in Our Harsh Logic have come forward to rouse the conscience of their fellow citizens....Anyone who thinks the IDF limits itself to confiscating weapons and punishing terrorists when patrolling the occupied territories would do well to consider what its own members say. -- The Nation<br><br> Random brutality, Kafkaesque bureaucracy, hatred, and dehumanization: that's the face of Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza as described by disaffected soldiers in this troubling oral history.... Our Harsh Logic conveys a truth about the inescapable ugliness of Israel's military rule over its neighbors. -- Publishers Weekly<br><br> Humanitarian activists and opponents of illegal Israeli settlements will find much ammunition in these pages. -- Kirkus Reviews<br>

""The soldiers in Our Harsh Logic have come forward to rouse the conscience of their fellow citizens....Anyone who thinks the IDF limits itself to confiscating weapons and punishing terrorists when patrolling the occupied territories would do well to consider what its own members say."" --The Nation ""Random brutality, Kafkaesque bureaucracy, hatred, and dehumanization: that's the face of Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza as described by disaffected soldiers in this troubling oral history....Our Harsh Logic conveys a truth about the inescapable ugliness of Israel's military rule over its neighbors."" --Publishers Weekly ""Humanitarian activists and opponents of illegal Israeli settlements will find much ammunition in these pages."" --Kirkus Reviews

The soldiers in Our Harsh Logic have come forward to rouse the conscience of their fellow citizens....Anyone who thinks the IDF limits itself to confiscating weapons and punishing terrorists when patrolling the occupied territories would do well to consider what its own members say. --The Nation Random brutality, Kafkaesque bureaucracy, hatred, and dehumanization: that's the face of Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza as described by disaffected soldiers in this troubling oral history....Our Harsh Logic conveys a truth about the inescapable ugliness of Israel's military rule over its neighbors. --Publishers Weekly Humanitarian activists and opponents of illegal Israeli settlements will find much ammunition in these pages. --Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

Breaking the Silence, one of Israel's most internationally lauded NGOs, was established in Jerusalem in 2004 by Israel Defense Forces veterans to document the testimonies of Israeli soldiers who have served in the occupied territories.

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