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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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