Published: 6 January 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Big Brother personality NIR AVISHAI COHEN is using his celebrity to educate pre-army Israelis. He says many have never even heard the word ‘occupation’.
A group of young, army-bound Israelis huddle in a cold room in a remote village in the northern Galilee. They are about to partake in an activity that might be considered subversive by the powers that be in Israel these days: a frank discussion about the occupation.
Their guest is a prominent anti-occupation activist who hopes within the next two hours to challenge the widely held belief in this room that Israel can do little wrong. Over the course of this discussion, he will discover how little these 18-year-olds know.
Nir Avishai Cohen, 41, has already spoken to thousands of young Israelis on pre-army, gap-year programs like this one. His talks focus on the injustices of the occupation and on what he believes new recruits need to know before heading out to serve in the West Bank, where many of them are likely to be stationed.
Most of the young Israelis he meets, says Avishai Cohen, have never heard the word “occupation” mentioned in school, let alone been taught what it means to live under such a system.
“As far as most of them are concerned, this is just a term that crazy leftists use.”
A former spokesman for Breaking the Silence, an organization of former combat soldiers dedicated to ending the occupation, Avishai Cohen attained celebrity status three years ago when he participated in the wildly popular Israeli version of reality TV show “Big Brother”.
He fully understands that most of the gap-year program participants who extend him speaking invitations are far more interested in his “Big Brother” experiences than his left-wing activism. But as he likes to say, ‘I’ll go speak wherever the door is open for me – and if this is the way to get in, so be it.’”
