From Pierre Tristam, About.com Guide November 19, 2009

Follow me on:

From Parent to Parents: Noam Shalit pleads with his son's captors in Gaza to release him. (David Silverman/Getty Images)

On June 25, 2006, Hamas militants staged an ambush at an Israeli outpost on the border with Gaza, killed two Israeli soldiers and took a third, Gilad Shalit, hostage. The abduction triggered an invasion of Gaza, and a similar ambush days later on an Israeli patrol along the Israeli-Lebanese border, by Hezbollah militants, triggered a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah.

In December 2008, Israel launched a three-week assault on Gaza, ostensibly to reclaim Shalit and demolish Hamas. Neither objective was achieved, although one-fifth of Gaza was demolished and more than 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed. The United Nations Human Rights Council appointed a commission to investigate instances of atrocities and war crimes on both sides. Hamas collaborated. Israel did not. The result was the Goldstone Report.

As commissioners conducted their investigations, they called for testimonies from Israelis, Palestinians and others. Among those testifying was Noam, Shalit, Gilad's father. Noam Shalit last July in Geneva took the opportunity to address the people of Gaza and Hamas militants directly. He did so in terms that transcended politics, ideology and the usual bromides that attend both. He did so as a parent, appealing to the parent in his sons' captors' hearts.

With Shalit's release again uncertain despite promising signs last month, it's worth listening to his father's words:

People of Gaza, I do not come before this Mission as a representative of the Israeli State. I come neither to condemn nor to justify the recent Israeli operations in Gaza. I am not a politician nor do I care for politics. I am a civilian and the father of three.
[...]People of Gaza, your leaders are fighting to return your sons and daughters from captivity. This is an understandable desire. You may agree with such a policy. Many of you, however, will realize that the fate of an entire prison population cannot depend on the ransom of one young man.
Your leaders have committed a crime with respect to my son. They hold him to ransom and, by the same token, they hold all of you to ransom. For three years now, you have been held hostage to the inflexible demands of your leaders and their unwillingness to compromise. They issue demands which, I fear, the Israeli Government will never meet. My son's fate is the means through which your leaders distract your attention from the destruction they have brought upon you. Is this humane? Are these the acts of an honorable regime?
People of Gaza - Do not ignore the root cause of our mutual suffering. You know that the injustice done to my son was the trigger for war. You also know that the release of my son is the key to peace and the lifting of the Israeli commercial blockade. A small gesture and a little effort on both sides can relieve the misery of many.
[...]And finally to the people holding my son: I urge you to release my son. You have the power to act with grace. Do it for the respectability that you wish the international community to accord you. Do it because you see yourselves as statesmen acting with humane intent. Do it for the sake of the respect you say you show this Mission. Do it not for gain but do it, I beg you, because it is the just and right thing to do. But most important of all, do it for the peace and welfare of your own people.

Noam Shalit to Hamas: Father to Fathers

Comments

Leave a Comment