Breaking the Silence slams closing of case against spokesman as ‘slanted’

The director of Breaking the Silence responds to the state prosecution’s decision to close the case against the organization’s spokesman Din Issacharoff.

The controversial organization publishes soldiers’ testimonies about human rights abuses in the West Bank. Issacharoff has claimed to have personally carried out such an abuse, saying he beat a Palestinian detainee unconscious during the detainee’s arrest in 2014.

Prosecutors on Thursday said that the testimonies from the Palestinian man himself and several soldiers who took part in the arrest all agree that the beating never took place.

In response, Breaking the Silence CEO Avner Gvaryahu dismisses the prosecution announcement, saying, “What began with a political demand by the justice minister turned into a political investigation and ended in a political and slanted conclusion. The State Attorney, Shai Nitzan, has become a political servant of the justice minister,” who urged police to investigate Issacharoff on suspicion committing a war crime.

“If this issue had reached the court, the truth would have come to light,” Gvaryahu says. “Anyone who thinks you can have an occupation without violence is fantasizing.”