GUEST: Rami Efal, former Israeli guard in a maximum security prison for Palestinians, talks about his journey from being a member of the Israeli Defense Force to meditating in a Buddhist monastery and translating "Breaking the Silence" testimony into English.
One of the first things that Rami did when he came to America is to find a Palestinian to talk to. He had never really met one, even though he had served for a time in a maximum security prison for Palestinians.
Rami is political in his brutal honesty about growing up in a country that doesn't think about its occupation of the Palestinians. Palestinians are only dangerous non people. That is where Rami started his journey of self discovery, and I think that peeling back the layers must have taken a lot of courage.
I particularly liked Rami's connection to Breaking the Silence. The IDF soldiers we have interviewed on Activist Radio have never been angry. Only honest, brutally honest.
Rami talks about becoming centered by acknowledging of the truth around oneself. For peace to come, Israel has to make this same journey back from the abyss of racism and militarism.
