Breaking The Silence Videos

Veterans Day is this week, and the shootings at Fort Hood this week brought to the forefront many questions about soldiers and military personnel: how are soldiers surviving the wars, and readjusting to life at home? What are we doing to help them, and is it enough?

Micha Kurz was an Israeli soldier during the second intifada, and when he left the military he co-founded Breaking the Silence, an organization that collects stories from members of the service (which is compulsory in Israel for young men and women) who served in the occupied territories. Breaking the Silence allows soldiers to confidentially speak out about the things they did and saw while in the military. Kurz is now with Grassroots Jerusalem, where he helps bring together grassroots social justice activists from across Israel. Kurz notes that his Jewish upbringing is what caused him to question the way Israel conducts the occupation and to speak out against it, and he talks to Laura about what Americans can do to help bring peace in Israel and Palestine.