Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon declares war on ex-soldiers’ protest group

Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon has banned the military from all contact with the dovish ex-soldiers’ group Breaking the Silence, vowing to carry out a “total struggle” against the organisation which he accuses of undermining Israel’s image abroad.

The group, which was founded in 2004, collects and publishes anonymous testimonies from Israeli soldiers about their service in the occupied territories, revealing alleged abuses against the Palestinian population that are omitted from the sanitised official information provided by the army’s spokesmen and top brass.

Its stated goal is to show the “moral price” that Israel is paying for the occupation, and it tends to blame not the soldiers but the people who send them into the West Bank and Gaza.

In May it issued a report on the 2014 Gaza war that raised questions about whether the army had fulfilled its obligations to protect non-combatants. Testimonies spoke of tanks firing for revenge on buildings without knowing whether or not they were legitimate military targets and of lax rules of engagement.

Mr Yaalon posted on Facebook that the group engages in “hypocrisy and deceitful propaganda against soldiers and the state, and is part of the delegitimisation campaign against us”.

As well as making soldiers’ testimonies available to Israeli and international media, the group conducts hundreds of events and tours to interact with the Israeli public.

Its activists also travel to Europe and the US, including a visit to the UK last month for meetings with MPs and talks, some to Jewish audiences, according to its founder, Yehuda Shaul.

Mr Yaalon said the army had previously attempted to investigate incidents recounted in Breaking the Silence testimony “but they turned out to be groundless”. He wrote: “It became clear that this is an organisation that acts out of malicious motives, and against such phenomena we will engage in total struggle.”

According to the group, its activists had met army officers in the Hebron area of the West Bank during the past year – contact that is now banned.

Avichai Stollar, who collects testimonies for the group, said of Mr Yaalon’s comments: “Instead of dealing with the soldiers who fought for the country and listening to what they did, the Minister of Defence is terrified by actual soldiers speaking against the occupation which he tries to perpetuate. He’s trying to slander us and silence us, but we will not be silent.”

Last weekend Israel’s Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, called on the Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, to shun a New York gathering hosted by the Haaretz newspaper because representatives of Breaking the Silence had also been invited to speak.

Mr Rivlin took part nonetheless, but took pains to stress his view that the Israeli military “is the most moral army in the world”.

Meanwhile, a two-and-a-half-month long wave of violence continued today as a Palestinian man swerved his car into Israelis waiting at a bus station in West Jerusalem, wounding 11 people including an 18-month-old boy who needed surgery on his leg.

Police said a member of the security forces, a security guard and a civilian all fired on the driver while he was still in his vehicle, killing him. Police reported that an axe was found in the car.