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“Ronit Chacham’s Breaking Ranks rise[es] to the level of the literature of testimony, the literature that stays news forever, that will not allow injustice to be forgotten, that records what the victums themselves cannot record … the Israeli voices, aided by a sense of detachment, takes us to the heart of the Palestinian experience; they bombard our senses with rich, sensory detail, the images of brutality and oppression stay embedded in our memory.” —Middle East Journal
“Military service is an integral part of life in Israel: both men and women serve in the Israel Defense Forces; devotion to the country’s survival is a given. So disobeying an order is a remarkable action-one discussed in depth here by nine ‘refuseniks,’ Israeli soldiers who refused to serve in the Occupied Territories. They tell Chacham … about their upbringings, their crises of conscience, the mistreatment of Palestinians by themselves and others, their attempt to reconcile support for Palestinian rights with devotion to their homeland, their refusals to serve, and the consequences. Anyone trying to understand why these men have taken the action they have will be moved by their thoughtfulness and articulateness.” —Publishers Weekly
“In Breaking Ranks, we hear the voices of men who have refused to participate in the atrocity-producing situation of military occupiers. We learn of their admirable personal struggles in overcoming psychic numbing and recognizing the pain and humiliation they and others were inflicting. Their actions have extraordinary significance for the State of Israel, for the Palestinians, and for the rest of us as well.” —Robert Jay Lifton, author of Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism
“This book should be read by those of all political views concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These accounts and interviews will surprise, sadden, shock, infuriate, but most of all, stimulate open-minded readers to consider alternatives to their strongly held views. This is an ultimately hopeful book. I was profoundly moved by it.” —David Gordis, President, Hebrew College
“Ronit Chacham’s exemplary oral history and commentaries portray in depressing yet hopeful detail those courageous and principled Israelis who have refused to participate as soldiers in Israel’s occupied Palestinian lands …. An end to the bitter civil war may not be in sight, but at least we have these remarkable men to prove that war and killing never brings peace and that some are brave enough to say ‘No.’” —The Jewish Peace Fellowship