Security

Itamar Shapira
Combatants for Peace Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Clearly it’s because a person fought, sacrificed their best years, some people became officers, some are pilots, fighters in elite units, all sorts of quality units. In Israel it is a well known fact that this entitles you to respect and high positions; some people move up and they are the people who are running the country. Clearly the army is central in Israel, and whoever was a combat soldier allegedly has more to say about security and about the conflict. I think this perception is shared more or a less in both societies, which are aggressive. We haven’t got a female Minister of Defense, or someone who hasn’t serve in the military.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Tzvika Shahak
Association for the Commemoration of Bat-Chen Shahak, Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ The Palestinians must understand that there is always the alternative of violence and that we need to keep that. If we are weak we could lose much of our ability to negotiate. I think we need to learn to use our power in a controlled way so it is practical and focused. If we do that, we can harness our power for peace. If we don't, we're harnessing it for war. At the end of the day, all our leaders, including the Israelis, want peace. They don't want to send soldiers to be wounded or to lose their lives. They are doing what they are doing because they understand there is no other way, because they understand that if we don't react to a Qassam rocket being fired from Gaza, if we don't operate and find the head of Hamas or a local organization, if we don't prevent a Palestinian from passing at a checkpoint to blow himself up, our lives here won't be safe. There will be chaos and mayhem and people won't be willing to talk about peace.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Melisse Lewine-Boskovich
Peace Child Israel Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I'm not so sure I totally buy into the idea that everyone has to be a conscientious objector. I don't know if I think there has to be chaos. That's a warning bell for me. I can't say that I would totally forfeit the fact that there should be an army here. There are certain expectations by our colleagues in the field that we should of course be against the army. I can't say that. Not only that, I want to get to the point where my Arab colleagues and friends are not going to expect that of me. If you expect me to say there shouldn't be an army, that means you think I should basically be willing to take that chance and erase my existence. Don't ask me to do that.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Meir Margalit
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I remember that when I was in youth group there was a classic question we debated. A soldier stands outside a cave in which a terrorist is hiding; he debates whether to throw a grenade because there are also a woman and child there, both innocent. He enters instead, and is wounded. The matter of the purity of arms used to be an important issue, as well as army morale, and it was very clear that when facing a terrorist accompanied by an innocent woman you wouldn't throw a grenade and kill her. Today we have a Chief of Staff who is capable of admitting he launched a one-tone bomb that killed 14 people and sensing only a slight jar in the plane.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Majed Tbeileh
Nablus Youth Federation, The Future Generation Hands Committee Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ A bigger victory is achieved when we succeed in convincing the Israelis that only by achieving peace will they be able to achieve security. They mustn’t think that there could be security without peace. They can see that we were able to come and attend the meetings here in the NSWAS even without permits. So if a Palestinian is able to reach them be for peaceful purposes, he will also be able to reach them for harmful purposes. That is why I think the millions of dollars spent on the separation wall are a waste, because no matter what, we will find a way. Look at us now, we are a group of thirty people that got out of Nablus without permits, we didn’t care if we had to climb over mountains for hours to get here. We had to reach them. They need to know that the security that the checkpoints provide is an illusion because if someone wants to carry out an operation and blow himself up, he will find a way.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Gershon Baskin
IPCRI (Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information) Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Dealing with security issues is not new in this world. Millions of people move through airports and through seaports, goods are moving every day, and the security of the world is not threatened. They have developed technologies to deal with it. The idea of two 19-year-old kids at a checkpoint providing security is not the answer, not the solution.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Shlomo Zagman
Realistic Religious Zionism, Mosaica Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ After passing the checkpoint I saw a little girl and an old man sitting on the floor, they were being detained.[...] suddenly the stereotype was shattered but it was a result of discussion and an examination of reality followed by seeing such an image. It was a hot day, the man and girl were suffering and at once I understood the meaning underlying the example of that elderly man and little girl: the majority of the Palestinians live in such a harsh reality. I wonder, what would I do if I were them? Would I want to change places? I don't want to be responsible for this reality. This reality is only meant to bring security, which is a good purpose, but inside this apparatus a lot of injustice is done, and I don't want to be responsible for it. I can only imagine myself in that situation. I would give up; I would be in despair, especially if I was an elderly person. Younger people still have a distant future and hope for things to improve but I think older people don't see the change that could come so they struggle less for change.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Itamar Shapira
Combatants for Peace Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ ...We view the Palestinians and ourselves as having fought for useless things. We struggle for security but simultaneously prevent it; they are struggling for a state but the suicide attacks prevent that; we are in transition to a state of refraining from violence. We don’t use the term terrorist in our group anymore; we talk about people who took part in the violent struggle.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Sarah Karajeh
Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ For me peace means security. Peace means comfort, peace of mind and everything related to security.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Adi Dagan
Coalition of Women for Peace, Machsom Watch Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I think we all have our own red line for what we are prepared the army do for the sake of security. We could also bomb the cities and be done with it! So the issue is that it seems to be a total imbalance, and to a certain extent, a lie. I say a lie because there aren't physical searches at the checkpoints; rather, the checkpoints pen people into all sorts of areas. Why is this done? That's what a military occupation looks like, that's what control likes like. It states who's in charge; the Israelis army is in charge and that's the situation and "you" must accept that, "you" must let go of your aspirations, we're the strong side and that's the story.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Itamar Shapira
Combatants for Peace Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I felt like I was risking the state’s security by entering villages very simply because every time we went in we encountered someone who didn’t quite want us there who would shoot; people were killed, and then there was revenge taken, and then a suicide bombing in another place…20 more dead, and we would set out to catch another one. We saw the names; we were a small unit, so we knew whom we were off to arrest and what they had done. I kept track of all the people we went after in my head and every one of them was connected to someone killed in the previous round. That alarmed me. I used to feel pretty righteous in my own way, I thought that I was there to do police work and catch someone who killed a lot of people, arrest them, and if a person shot at me because they didn’t want to be arrested then that was their problem.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Meir Margalit
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ People say, "but there will be suicide bombings," and I can't promise them that there won't be suicide attacks on buses. I can promise them though that if we don't reach a solution, thousands of terrorists will detonate bombs in the streets of Jerusalem. That's clear to me. There is no wall that can prevent that, no targeted killings or checkpoints either; people who are motivated to do such a thing will slip by easily. I can't promise that there won't be suicide bombings or that there will be peace, yet I can assure you that if we don't reach a solution there will be unprecedented bloodshed.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Adi Dagan
Coalition of Women for Peace, Machsom Watch Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I don't think that I ever thought that the checkpoints were a security measure, because as I said, this was at a time when all the bombings in Jerusalem were taking place five minutes away from my house, and the last thing I felt was secure. I truly believe that the issue of security is symptomatic, meaning that it's superficial and that one must take a profound look in order to view the deeper issues. I think that if we remain at the level of security we won't ever get out of this.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Khulood Badawi
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Ta'ayush, Coalition of Women for Peace, Bat Shalom Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ We take university students from Hebrew University on weekly tours. The only thing these students know about the wall is that it is a means to stop terrorists and provide security. They don't know that it has other human consequences. We take these students and arrange meetings between them and their Arab neighbors in Al-Ram who are affected by the wall. For the first time, as civilians and not soldiers, they see and listen to Palestinians. ” [Source in Complete Interview]