After two years of war in Gaza, rooted in the occupation, the West Bank is in the midst of ethnic cleansing accompanied by settler violence while the army and police stand by and even assist the lawbreakers. The herding communities in the West Bank, those not yet expelled, are in greater distress than ever.
We, the activists of "Looking the Occupation in the Eye," are all volunteers who care about human rights and the future of the state, oppose the occupation and work to end it. To this end, we maintain a continuous presence in the field thanks to a facility allocated to us in Ras Ein al-Auja in the southern Jordan Valley.
Throughout the country, we make the occupation visible every week and resist the war. We try to convince people that the aspiration for a political solution must be at the top of the national priority list. Our activities need funding and are made possible thanks to donations from individuals and organizations, in Israel and abroad.
Change starts slowly and permeates gradually. So too the cognitive change that Israeli society needs to undergo: from an occupier's consciousness to an aspiration for an arrangement that will allow Palestinians in the occupied territories to live and earn a living with dignity, to raise their children without fear of settler or military terror.
We ask the public to take its head out of the sand and see the harsh reality without softening filters: occupying Israel commits acts that under international law are defined as war crimes. The damage to Israeli society is enormous: ethical and moral deterioration, violence that seeps into society, psychological scars and traumas that remain after service in the occupied territories. We strive to put an end to these injustices and help navigate Israel toward the family of enlightened nations.
