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When Famous Novelists "Confront the Occupation" in the West Bank
(Washington Post) Matti Friedman - Last year, a group of American writers came to "bear witness" to the crisis in the West Bank and Gaza, where thousands of reporters, NGO staffers, activists and diplomats hover around a conflict with a death toll last year that was about a third of the homicide number in Baltimore. The visitors were shown around by anti-occupation activists and wrote up their experiences. The resulting anthology, Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, constitutes a chorus of condemnation of Israel. We aren't told who paid for this project. But we learn that it was organized by a group called Breaking the Silence, one of many NGOs funded by Europeans and Americans to critique Israeli policy. These particular activists say they're "Israeli veterans," which Israelis know not to take seriously - we have a compulsory draft, and most Israelis are veterans. The writers avoid Palestinian extremists and average Israelis, so it looks like all Palestinians are reasonable and all Israelis aren't. The writer is a former journalist for AP in Jerusalem (2006-11).