Reports by Breaking the Silence & Gisha

JVL Introduction

Breaking the Silence has just published a report on the work of the Israeli defence ministry unit known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat), the body largely concerned with administering the occupation – issuing and processing paperwork.

It approves medical and work permits to enter Israel or travel abroad, it controls the flow of imports and exports, infrastructure planning and allocation of natural resources.

In other words it controls everything, exercising a draconian and unscrutinised control.

Bethan McKernan, writing in the Guardian, extracts stories from the Breaking the Silence report, testimonies by former soldiers who worked in Cogat.

They reveal the extensive use of collective punishment; the extensive network of Palestinian agents blackmailed into cooperating with Cogat; the considerable influence of Israel’s illegal settler movement on the decision-making processes; the arbitrary, baseless blocks on goods allowed in and out of Gaza.

Cogat is an integral part of a system of oppression.

The report is complemented by Gisha’s new publication The Permit Regime: Testimonies in which Palestinian residents of Gaza describe the bureaucratic violence inherent in Israel’s permit regime.

Occupation? Apartheid? Settler-colonialism? It is all of these  – and more.

This article was originally published by the Guardian on Mon 1 Aug 2022. Read the original here.