The Political as Personal:Testimonial Rhetoric in Israeli

Discourses of Dissent

Josephine Jones Lecture, Department of Communication, (University of Colorado (April 2005

Tamar KatrielUniversity of Haifa

• Since our release from the army we have been haunted by the feeling that ...the service in the territories and the situations we confronted had distorted...the values on which we were raised. We agreed that as long as Israeli society continues to send its young to do combat service in the territories, it is of utmost importance that all of us, citizens of the State of

Israel, should be aware of the price paid by this young generation of fighters.

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• So we decided to break the silence. Because it is time to speak up. It is time to tell about what happens there each day. We all served in the territories. In Gaza, in Hebron, in Betlehem, and other places. We all stood on guard at checkpoints, we all performed detentions and reconnaissance tours, we all participated in the war against terrorism. And we found that the daily confrontation with terrorism and the civilian population left us helpless. Our sense of justice was deformed, and so was our morality and feeling...

• We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, self-sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.

• They are not refusers. They are not politicians. They love the state. They are simply soldiers who were there, actually here, and decided that this cannot go on. That someone must stand up and shout: "wake up and see what is happening to us."

• People do what you tell them. You know it's because you carry a weapon... And then when someone suddenly says "no" to you, what do you mean 'no'? Where do you draw the chutzpa from, to say 'no' to me? ... I am the Law here...I remember a very specific situation: I was at a checkpoint...blocking the entrance to a village. From one side a line of cars wanting to get out, and from the other side a line of cars wanting to pass, a huge line, and suddenly you have a mighty force at the tip of your fingers, as if playing a computer game... You come here, you go there, like this. You barely move, you make them obey the tip of your finger. It's a mighty feeling. It's something you don't experience elsewhere... Suddenly, I notice that I'm getting addicted to controlling people.