Breaking the Silence spokesman takes job with Hadash-Ta’al’s head MK

“Break the Silence. Speak about it. For our Palestinian victims, so that more Israelis will not need to do what we did there, and also for yourselves.”

By JEREMY SHARON
ARABS HAVE full representation in the Knesset, with MKs such as Ayman Odeh (Joint List). (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
ARABS HAVE full representation in the Knesset, with MKs such as Ayman Odeh (Joint List).
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The spokesman for the controversial Breaking the Silence organization, Dean Issacharoff, has taken the job of spokesman for the head of the Hadash-Ta’al joint list, MK Ayman Odeh.
Issacharoff announced his new position on Monday, writing on Facebook that Breaking the Silence would continue to be “one of the leading organizations in the struggle against the occupation,” and would continue to remind Israelis “that we have no right to deny the rights of millions of other people.”
He also made a final plea on Facebook for Breaking the Silence’s agenda, calling on people who served in the IDF in the West Bank to give testimony about their service.
“Break the Silence,” Issacharoff wrote. “Speak about it. For our Palestinian victims, so that more Israelis will not need to do what we did there, and also for yourselves.”
Breaking the Silence seeks the anonymous testimony of former IDF soldiers who have served in the West Bank to testify about alleged abuse of Palestinians and other unlawful actions by the army.
Issacharoff notably claimed in April 2017 to have physically beaten a Palestinian detainee in Hebron in 2014 during his IDF service, which led to a criminal investigation against him by the State Attorney’s Office.
The investigation was initially closed in November 2017, with the State Attorney’s Office stating that the man Issacharoff had claimed to assault denied having been beaten, in a turn of events that was used to discredit Issacharoff and Breaking the Silence.
Issacharoff said, however, that the Palestinian man investigated was not the person he had assaulted, and video footage of another Palestinian he had arrested in Hebron was subsequently revealed.
The State Attorney’s Office subsequently reopened the investigation into whether Issacharoff had indeed beaten a Palestinian prisoner as he had claimed. It has yet to make a determination.