Thursday 18 June 2015

Break or Silence

The mayor of Cologne succumbed to Israeli pressure and cancelled a planned exhibition in his city of Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organisation that collects and publicises testimonies of former Israeli soldiers about human rights violations committed or observed during their army service.

If they can’t break them, the Israeli government, wishes to at least silence them:
 - We will not be complacent when an organization whose whole purpose is to tarnish IDF soldiers acts in the international arena in order to cause serious damage to Israel’s image. - Israel considers the more than a thousand Israelis who have given these testimonies to be traitors and or liars.

It now turns out that Cologne’s mayor has succumbed yet again, this time to criticism over his decision, and the exhibition will take a place at a later date. To be fair, the exhibition should not have been scheduled – as it was - to be part of the festivities marking 50 years diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel. The mayor of Cologne, however, was right to quickly find a solution for the exhibition to take place after all.


The work of Breaking the Silence is laudable and deserves to be supported.

2 comments:

  1. why such an exhibition doesn't fit? because it doesn't show the ugly face of the German relations, that based on moral blackmail? you pay me, and I won'y mention the holocaust, forget and forgive. on condition that you'll continue to pay/ money buys all, should be the title of the relationship exhibition, or "stupid germans, they give in to emotional terror"

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