A passionate discussion took place on Tuesday in the Committee of Education of the Knesset on the topic of the NGO Breaking the Silence and its work against the IDF and the citizens of Israel.
The group's members did not attend the discussion, instead sending a response which read: "We do not intend to participate in incitement against soldiers who have chosen to stop breaking the silence, nor will we participate in a discussion which embarrasses the Knesset."
MK Oded Forrer (Yisrael Beytenu) responded, saying, "I'm positive that if Breaking the Silence were invited to a discussion in England or Sweden they would find the time to go and even try to benefit from it. This remind me of the Biblical story of the spies. They went and found the worst way to present the land of Israel, and presented a false report of the situation. Their goal is simply to slander Israel."
MK Itzik Shmuli (Zionist Union) said he condemns the actions of Breaking the Silence abroad, but that to label them as foreign agents is going to far.
MK Ayelet Nachmias Verbin (Zionist Union) said that, even though she signed the document against Breaking the Silence, right wing organizations such as Zo Artzeinu need to come under the Knesset's critical eye as well, and no one is talking about it.
Education Committee Head MK Yaakov Margi (Shas) had to throw out four people within the first 40 minutes for disciplinary infractions, including former Meretz Chair Zehava Galon. Margi chastised the committee members as well as other MKs who sat in on the meeting and said: "We have spent 45 of the first fifty minutes of this meeting dealing with calls to order and disciplinary infractions. As members of Education, Culture and Sports committee and as members of Israel's Knesset you should all be ashamed of yourselves."
MK Nachman Shai (Zionist Camp) said, "We need to hear each other and to carry on this dialogue both in Israel and in more public international forums. Regarding Breaking the Silence and Im Tirzu, we need to hear both sides of the discussion. This discussion brings honor to the democracy of Israel."
Matan Peleg, the CEO of Im Tirzu, said that the problem is that millions of shekels are being donated to Breaking the Silence and other organizations from foreign countries, most worryingly from Ramallah. "We as Israeli citizens are worried where exactly that money is coming from. Members of Knesset you need to figure out who these people in Ramallah are that are giving this money."
MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid) said, "There are times when soldiers do things wrong, and as a former soldier who served in the First Lebanon War, I saw some of these things and I had no one to report to. So it is natural that organizations will spring up that want to be a place where soldiers can talk about these issues, and help deal with them to create a better army.
"But there is absolutely no reason that an organization should slander the army and the country internationally. When that happens organizations from the left are created and then organizations from the right are created. And us here in the Knesset lose control of the finding out the truth and resenting the truth of what is going on in Israel to the rest of the world. We need to gain that control back."