Gilad’s release: one year on
AS the world marked the first anniversary of Gilad Shalit’s release from captivity this week, the Australian Prime Minister reflected on “the unconscionable inhumanity inflicted by his captors in Gaza”.
Writing, alongside other political and communal leaders in The AJN this week, Julia Gillard described the young soldier’s ordeal as “a lesson for all”, adding that it “underscored the urgent need to find a way to achieve, at long last, a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine”.
“We must redouble our efforts to find the path from the darkness of Gilad’s cell to the light of peace for Israelis and Palestinian,” the Prime Minister wrote.
Shalit spent over five years imprisoned in Gaza, after being kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in a cross border raid on June 25, 2006.
He was finally set free on October 18, 2011, in exchange for the release of 1027 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails, many with blood on their hands.
Among those who questioned – and still question – the wisdom of the deal was Arnold Roth, whose daughter Malki was killed by a suicide bomber in a Jerusalem restaurant in 2001. The architect of that attack, Ahlam Tamimi, was among the prisoners released in return for Shalit.
One year on, writing in The AJN, Roth notes that “the post-Shalit reality is less bright than deal proponents predicted”. Articulating the sense of pain and betrayal felt by terror victims’ families, he rues “the deeply subversive effect of Tamimi’s freedom and its connection to the terrorist attacks now being plotted for future execution”.
Roth’s tone understandably contrasts with that of Shalit’s father Noam, who campaigned tirelessly for his son’s release. Speaking to The AJN this week, Noam looked back on “a happy year”. As for his son’s recovery and reintegration, he said: “It seems he’s very well – you can never know the future, but it seems he’s very well.”
FOR FULL COVERAGE, SEE THIS WEEK’S AJN
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