Head Of Anti-Occupation Group Breaking The Silence Detained In West Bank
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — The executive director of Breaking the Silence was detained by Israeli Border Police Friday along with two other activists.
The arrested activists — Avner Gvaryahu, the group’s executive director; Achiya Shatz, its communications director; and human rights attorney Michael Sfard — were detained next to a settlement outpost in the southern West Bank, near Hebron, according to Haaretz. They were released after three hours of questioning.
Breaking the Silence is a group of Israeli combat veterans who oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. The group is controversial in Israel, and Israel’s right-wing government has made efforts to limit its activity. Most recently, Israel passed a law barring activists from the group and others like it from entering schools.
The activists were in the West Bank, where Border Police detained the activists for illegally entering a closed military zone, but Haaretz reported that the area was closed specifically to prevent a Breaking the Silence tour there, and that settlers regularly enter such zones without facing arrest.
Left-wing activists from another group were allegedly attacked by settlers in the same area last week.
In a Facebook post, Breaking the Silence said the detentions were “directly connected to the settler violence we have experienced in recent months, and the total capitulation of [Israeli] security forces to that phenomenon.” The group added that the detentions “should concern any citizen who desires democracy in Israel.”
Liberal groups in Israel and abroad condemned the incident. Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, which funds Breaking the Silence and a range of left-wing Israeli groups, criticized the Israeli government for “endangering the physical safety of citizens who stand up for human rights.” T’ruah, a liberal rabbinic human rights group that partners with Breaking the Silence, called for an investigation into the detentions.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
