Israel Matzav

Noam Shalit sides with Hamas

Saturday marked five years since Hamas kidnapped IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit from a border outpost near Gaza. Instead of trying to bring international pressure on Hamas to release the kidnapped solder, the Shalit family is pressuring the government of Israel to pay the price - regardless of what the price might be.

Hundreds of people began gathering at the Schalit family tent set up outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem Saturday afternoon to offer their support to the family's demand that their son, Gilad, be released from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip. Saturday marks the fifth anniversary of Gilad Schalit's kidnapping by Hamas terrorists along the Gaza border.

Gilad's mother and father, Aviva and Noam, as well as brother Yoel chained themselves to a fence outside the Prime Minister's Residence, saying that they are "a family in captivity." Hundreds of supporters and protesters gathered to support the Schalit family, under the banner: Five years - No achievements.

Aviva Schalit, speaking with Channel 2 news, had a message for the prime minister: "Return Gilad tomorrow morning. We're a family [that's been] in captivity for five years. We're tired of sitting in front of the Prime Minister's Residence. We want to go home, but we want to go home with Gilad."

Also taking place Saturday evening, some 3,000 people rallied outside the Cesarea Museum near Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's private residence in a planned show of public pressure on the prime minister to advance a prisoner exchange deal that would free the IDF soldier. The event, which is being billed as a "march on Cesarea," is intended to show the prime minister that "his political future is directly related wellbeing and release of Gilad," organizers said.

Beginning at 8 p.m., a 24-hour live broadcast began showing various celebrities and former POWs sitting inside a makeshift dark closet-like prison cell - for one hour each - to reflect the conditions of captivity Schalit is living in.

Hamas agrees completely.

Hamas held Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responsible for the consequences of the failure of efforts to secure a prisoner exchange deal.

Hamas claimed that it was Netanyahu’s “intransigence and criminal policies” that was delaying a prisoner swap. It also urged human rights and legal organizations to put pressure on Israel to “protect Palestinian prisoners against Zionist repression.”

Hamas’s armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, published a video clip, in which it also vowed that Schalit would never see the light until Palestinian prisoners are released from Israeli jail.

The video clip contains a scene where Schalit’s face is replaced with that of missing IAF navigator Ron Arad, whose whereabouts have been unknown since 1986.

Also on the fifth anniversary of the kidnapping of Schalit, Hamas published photos of an actor impersonating a gray-haired elderly Schalit sitting in a tiny cell in captivity.

On the walls of the cell the “prisoner Schalit” has written graffiti that reads: “My fate is the same as that of Ron Arad, “Save me at any cost” and “I miss mom."

At this point, no one can even confirm that Shalit is alive. This past week, Hamas turned down a public request by the Red Cross to see him.

As outrageous as Shalit's kidnapping was, Israel would pay a price for his release. But not any price. The price that Hamas is asking - 1000-1400 terrorists including several mass murderers - is not a price that Israel can or should pay.

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Gilad Shalit, Hamas, Noam Shalit

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:18 AM