Breaking the Silence
@BtSIsrael • 118,769 subscribers
Breaking the Silence is an Israeli veterans' organization aimed at raising awareness to the dire consequences of prolonged military occupation.
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33,000 Palestinians expelled from refugee camps nearly two years ago are still forbidden from returning. In January 2025, the IDF launched an operation dubbed “Iron Wall” across refugee camps in the West Bank, leading to what the UN describes as “the longest and largest displacement crisis in the West Bank since 1967.” The IDF has demolished entire residential blocks and streets. According to satellite imagery, 52% of the buildings in the Jenin refugee camp were destroyed or damaged, along with 55% in Nur Shams and 37% in Tulkarm. Here’s what the main street in the Nur Shams refugee camp looks like:
Breaking the Silence57,568 views • 11 days ago
🔴NOW: Israel is wiping out an entire Palestinian village of Khirbet a-Taban, in Masafer Yatta, the West Bank. The IDF has left more than twenty children and their parents homeless. The destruction of the village is part of a decades-long strategy to displace Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta under the guise of “Firing Zone 918.”
Breaking the Silence46,320 views • 1 month ago
Establishing settler outposts in the West Bank is part of the IDF’s doctrine. That's what Maj. Gen. Bluth, the highest ranking officer in the West Bank, declared. Along with the IDF, these outposts are the leading edge of Israel’s project of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and are directly responsible for the forcible displacement of more than 4,328 Palestinians, including 2,061 children, since October 2023. Neither terror nor ethnic cleansing in the West Bank makes anyone safer. They only perpetuate violence. The real political purpose of these outposts is annexation and forcing Palestinians into ever-shrinking enclaves.
Breaking the Silence38,769 views • 2 months ago
It’s the fifth day of the siege of Palestinian homes in Qusra, in the West Bank. Now, the IDF claims it is launching an operation in the village to “protect the residents.” We have a couple of questions: Dozens of settlers have besieged the homes for five days. Why didn’t the army stop them right away and instead chose to pray with them and stop journalists, activists, and ambulances trying to reach the family? The settler outpost from which the perpetrators came was established in January and has been involved in dozens of terror attacks. Why isn’t this outpost evacuated? The IDF has the capacity to impose a lockdown on entire Palestinian villages or even cities, demolish dozens of homes, uproot hundreds of olive trees, and forcibly displace tens of thousands of people. How come stopping a few dozen settlers from besieging a Palestinian family in a village where Israelis aren’t even allowed to be is such an impossible task for the army? There is only one answer: backing ethnic cleansing is the IDF’s policy. The army had all the tools to prevent the siege from happening in the first place or to break it from day one. Instead, it took an active part in maintaining it, both in Qusra and in Jalud, where a family was expelled after a two-week siege in July. And now, under tremendous international pressure, the IDF is still failing to even pretend that it is trying to confront violent settlers.
Breaking the Silence26,682 views • 1 month ago
This is what the IDF's ongoing operation, dubbed “Iron Wall, across refugee camps looks like: "Jenin is one of three refugee camps in the northern West Bank that the IDF has heavily damaged and whose residents have been displaced. 55 percent of structures in Nur Shams refugee camp were destroyed or damaged, and so were 37 percent of structures in Tulkarm camp." The operation’s declared goal, as usual, is “strengthening security.” Yet against this backdrop, the Israeli government approved the establishment of new settlements in the Jenin area, some of them planned just a few kilometres from the refugee camp. Settling civilians near what the IDF considers a terror stronghold while conducting a military operation there is hardly a recipe for their safety.
Breaking the Silence32,748 views • 3 months ago
The IDF gave weapons and unchecked authority to violent settlers, including those under international sanctions, by drafting them into "regional defence units." Here's one of many examples uncovered by the investigative journalism program "Zman Emet" on Kan 11. After October 2023, thousands of settlers enlisted in these units. Formally, they are subordinate to the IDF, but in practice operate as independent settler militias.
Breaking the Silence32,369 views • 3 months ago
This is one of the land-grab strategies used by settlers in the West Bank. According to land law in the West Bank, if an agricultural plot has not been cultivated for 3 years, it becomes “state land.” From there, Israel may allocate it to settlers. With or without official authorisation, if settlers move onto this now “public land” and work it for 10 years, it may be allocated to them. For this reason, settlers work hard to prevent Palestinians from accessing their agricultural lands. And “luckily” for them, the IDF is always there to help. Another land-grab strategy, used alongside the first, involves extending settlements’ “security zones” onto Palestinian agricultural lands. As settlements pop up or expand, so do their “security buffer zones.” These zones, referred to as “sterile” in IDF jargon, are areas near settlements that Palestinians are barred from entering without the IDF’s permission, even when they privately own the land in question. Working together, settlers and the IDF deprive Palestinians of access to their land, creating the conditions for its eventual takeover. Explained by Amir Ziv, our Pedagogy Coordinator, on a tour of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank organized by Combatants for Peace.
Breaking the Silence27,150 views • 3 months ago
"Antisemitic". That's how Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם’s speech at the @berlinale was labeled by Israeli media and even German politicians. The reason: he sees the apartheid reality in the WB for what it is. This is the latest example of weaponizing antisemitism as a tool to silence critics 🧵
Breaking the Silence128,404 views • 2 years ago
Netanyahu’s claim that settler violence is “150 juvenile delinquents” is bullshit. This is not juvenile delinquency. Settler terror has existed since the beginning of the occupation, and many Palestinians have been murdered. Our Executive Director, נדב וימן Nadav Weiman Taken from Substack "Ro Khanna’s West Bank Detention: An Eyewitness Account"
Breaking the Silence14,842 views • 2 months ago
Now in Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis demanding justice for Awdah Hathaleen, shot dead outside his home in Umm al-Khair by settler terrorists. The shooter on house arrest while village members are still detained. His body is withheld. Release the body. Arrest the real criminals.
Breaking the Silence52,810 views • 1 year ago
Even in the face of arrests and attempts to silence us, we returned, Israelis and Palestinians, to the Gaza border. Nearly 1,000 infants under the age of one have been killed in Gaza. Tens of thousands more have lost their lives. We are here to raise our voices with theirs. We are here to resist the atrocities inflicted on innocent people for the past 20 months — and to demand the return of the hostages. Now. @JoelCarmel_
Breaking the Silence51,409 views • 1 year ago