Leftwing NGO Breaking the Silence on Thursday plans a conference in Jerusalem that will include several former security apparatus senior officials, including former Shin Bet chiefs Carmi Gillon and Ami Ayalon.
The event, to be held at the Barbur Art Gallery (Shirizli St 6, Jerusalem) is titled “Gatekeepers Breaking the Silence” (a reference to the film Gatekeepers featuring interviews with six former Shin Bet heads about their successes and failures since the 1967 war).
Also appearing at the event: retired Police Major General Elik Ron, and Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer, a former military judge and vice president of the Israeli Institute for Democracy.
According to the Breaking the Silence announcement, the former senior officials will discuss “the harsh moral consequences for the IDF, democracy and Israeli society, of 50 years of military rule in the territories.”
According to NGO Monitor, Breaking the Silence has received between 2012 and 2016 2012-16 donations from Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (joint funding from Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands), Trocaire (Ireland), Dan Church Aid (Denmark), Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), Christian Aid (UK), Switzerland, France, CCFD (France), Medico International (Germany), Misereor (Germany), AECID (Spain), EU, ICCO (Netherlands), Norway, Luxembourg, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Open Society Institute, and the New Israel Fund.
Although claiming to address Israeli society, the NGO’s lobbying and media advocacy focus on international audiences, including presentations in Europe and the United States. Yehuda Shaul, BtS co-founder, defended this practice: “Sometimes, when you want to deliver messages to the inside, you must go outside.”
Between September 2012 – June 2016, BtS held more then 80 lectures, exhibitions and events across Europe, America, South Africa and Australia.