A young man left London to join Israel's army because he wanted to defend the Jewish people but now believes the treatment of Palestinians is morally wrong

REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

• Joel Carmel was raised in London's Jewish community. He was passionately committed to defending Israel from its many critics, whom he believed were biased and did not grasp the constant threats to its security from the Arabian world.
• He went to Israel as soon as he could, joined the army, and rose to the rank of second lieutenant. He served in the West Bank territories, which Israel occupied after the Six-Day War in 1967.
• The West Bank is home to 2.8 million Palestinians, as well as more than 500,000 Jews, who are often described as settlers.
• When he witnessed the occupation as a soldier, he said he came to realize that Israel's policies were as much a force for violence as the terrorism it was supposed to prevent.
• Carmel said he left the army determined to prove that "you can be a patriotic Israeli and criticize the occupation."
• He now works with Breaking the Silence, an organization of military veterans that says it hopes to show the Israeli public what daily life is like for Palestinians living under the occupation.
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As a teenager growing up in the comfortable suburbs of north London, the heartland of the British Jewish community, Joel Carmel had a singular passion: defending Israel against its critics.

"My synagogue, my youth movement, my school were all Zionist organizations. Zionism meant not just Israel has the right to exist but actively defending Israel," he said.

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