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Two years in
terrorist captivity
Two years have passed since the unprovoked abduction of
Gilad Shalit on the Israeli side of the border with
Gaza, and Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser on the Israeli
side of the Lebanese border.
On June 25, 2006 IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, was abducted
on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza. On the
first anniversary of his abduction (25 June 2007), Hamas
released a recorded message of Gilad Shalit's voice -
the first sign of life since he was abducted. Shalit's
father Noam indicated that the voice - if not the
wording of the message - was that of Gilad.
Addressing the members of the diplomatic corps in
Israel, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said: "Hamas is
making cynical use of the suffering of Gilad Shalit, the
pain of his family, the pain of the people of Israel, in
order to dictate its own brutal agenda in the region, in
order to undermine a political process which is taking
place right now to create a better future for the
region. Hamas is responsible for the life and health of
Gilad Shalit, and we, the Israeli government, will take
all steps to bring him back home."
This recording, while an important development, cannot
be seen as a substitute for what Hamas must really do:
namely, to allow the International Red Cross to
immediately visit Gilad Shalit and to allow him to
receive proper medical attention.
At age 11, abducted soldier Gilad Shalit wrote a story
entitled "When the Shark and the Fish First Met" about a
fish and a shark who meet and, though natural enemies,
they decide to become friends and live in peace.
Five 5th grade students from New York read the book
Gilad wrote at age 11 - "Gilad was a boy our age when he
wrote this story. Today, no one knows where he is. If
the shark and fish can make peace, why can’t people?"
Listen to the story: Children reading for Gilad Shalit
Almost two years have passed since the unprovoked
abduction of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser on the
Israeli side of the Lebanese border on July 12, 2006 -
an action that precipitated widespread confrontation
between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hizbullah terrorist
organization. To date no word has been heard from the
two captive soldiers, and neither their families nor the
government of Israel have any knowledge of their
whereabouts or their current state of health. Especially
grave is the fact that these unprovoked abductions were
carried out on sovereign Israeli territory.
Taken from their families almost two years ago, these
captive soldiers are denied the most basic of human
rights. In a gross breach of U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1701, the terrorist organizations that
carried out these abductions, and Syria and Iran who
support them, behave as if these human rights are
nothing more than a bargaining chip in their game of
negotiation, refusing even to transmit messages to the
captives from their families. International bodies who
met with the captives' families have also tried to
forward messages and letters, but they have been met
with a negative response as well.
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