The parents of kidnapped Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, are starting a new campaign to urge the Israeli government to consider exchanging Palestinian prisoners in return for their son’s freedom. A report from Ynet News July 3, 2011 indicates that Noam and Aviva Shalit have recently met with several MKs (members of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament) in order to launch a new initiative aimed at their son’s release.
The Shalits have drafted a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and plan to circulate it among Knesset members seeking their support. The letter urges Netanyahu to work on a prisoner exchange, although it acknowledges that he has long been working on alternate ways to secure the captive’s freedom. In the letter, the Shalits state that an exchange is the only way left since all other methods have been exhausted and considerable time has passed since their son was captured.
Hamas Violates International Law
June 25, 2011 marked the start of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit’s sixth year of captivity, held in an unknown location, incommunicado, by Palestinian Hamas. He was captured by terrorists from Gaza who had tunnelled illegally into Israel at a border crossing on June 25, 2006—an attack in which two of Shalit's fellow soldiers were killed. His captors have denied him visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (a requirement of international humanitarian law) and also any communication with his family. There has been no confirmation that Shalit is receiving humane treatment, medical care, and sufficient food and exercise.
Hamas, the governing entity in Gaza, and an internationally recognized terrorist organization, is using Shalit as a bargaining chip in its ongoing, constitutionally declared, Jihad against the Israeli state. This use, along with the mocking and humiliation of Shalit, violates international humanitarian law concerning the treatment of prisoners.
The only sign that Shalit is still alive is a two-minute video of him holding a newspaper dated September 2009. This “proof of life” was issued by his captors in exchange for the release of twenty Palestinian women prisoners by Israel.
In April 2011, the IDF announced that it had killed senior Hamas member Taysir Saliman Abu-Saname, in a southern Gaza Strip strike. The IDF said that Abu-Saname had been one of the planners behind the abduction of Shalit. Hamas denied that the IDF could have any knowledge of who the abductors were.
Israel Debates Prisoner Exchange
Within Israel there is debate about any proposed exchange—both the numbers of prisoners to be exchanged and the wisdom of releasing terrorist prisoners back to Gaza cause concern. Relatives of Israelis killed in terrorist attacks by Palestinian militants urge Netanyahu to consider the deaths which will result when released prisoners return to terrorist attacks. Other Israeli leaders and activists say that any exchange which meets the demands of Hamas will only serve to strengthen the terrorist organization.
Human Rights Organizations Issue “Weak” Joint Statement
International efforts have continued for five years to secure Shalit’s release. Recently the UN, President Obama, and the Canadian government renewed their calls for Hamas to release Shalit.
Human rights organizations also have lent their voice to appeals for Shalit, but not with the same urgency or intensity as some of their other campaigns. The late Soviet Jewish activist, Yelena Bonner, speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum in 2009 challenged these organizations. In "Yelena Bonner on Gilad Shalit's human rights" by Marian Lebor, The Jewish Chronicle Online, June 19, 2011 Bonner states: “And another question that has been a thorn for me for a long time. It’s a question for my human rights colleagues. Why doesn’t the fate of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit trouble you in the same way as the fate of the Guantanamo prisoners?”
Twelve human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, issued an unprecedented joint statement on June 2011 calling for better treatment of Shalit, but the statement, criticized as being “weak,” refrained from calling for his release, nor did it condemn the terrorist Hamas regime.
Hamas Could Take a Step for Peace
Shalit’s captivity and its eventual outcome hold immense significance for the Israeli nation which must struggle with the ethics and risk entailed in exchanging many dangerous prisoners to secure the release of one Israeli soldier.
The relatives of those killed by Hamas militants are demanding that the government fully inform the public of the numbers of Israelis killed by each prisoner who is being considered for exchange. But others are insistent that any deal involve the exchange of just one prisoner for Shalit’s release.
Yelena Bonner, however, asked for the release of Shalit with no exchange. She summarized the importance that a gesture of peace from Hamas would hold: “And yet I still think (and some will find this naïve) that the first tiny, but real step toward peace must become the release of Shalit. Release—not exchange for 1000 or 1500 prisoners who are in Israeli prisons serving court sentences for real crimes.” (The Jewish Chronicle Online)
Shalit’s fate, however it is resolved, is seen as pivotal for future peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories. For Noam and Aviva Shalit, a prisoner exchange leading to their son’s release will be the first step toward that goal.
Jen L. Jones - Based in Canada, Jones writes on human rights, history,and the natural world. She focuses also on Turkish and Scottish travel and ...
Join the Conversation