Web effort to help Shalit
ON the eve of the fifth anniversary of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit’s capture, an online campaign launched in Australia and highlighting his continuing captivity by Hamas, has gone global.
ON the eve of the fifth anniversary of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit’s capture, an online campaign launched in Australia and highlighting his continuing captivity by Hamas, has gone global.
The site, www.meetgilad.com, is the brainchild of Andre Oboler, director of the Community Internet Engagement Project at the Zionist Federation of Australia.
Its aim is twofold: to collect one million personal messages of support for Shalit from around the world, and to build a coordinated global network of organisations, which can work towards “goals of mutual interest”.
The AJN is also encouraging the community to send in messages of contemplation about Shalit’s plight and notes of support for Shalit’s family.
A selection will be printed as part of the newspaper’s special coverage to mark the fifth year of the young soldier’s captivity.
Oboler’s site is available in seven languages – including German, Russian, Hebrew and Romanian – and includes sections for people to leave messages and to learn more about how they can act to further the cause. It also provides a section for organisations to register their details in a database and set up their own “Meet Gilad” message centre. “Australian Jews can take pride in the work we are doing to make a global difference, but better still, they can join us and become part of the push for Gilad’s freedom and human rights for all,” said Oboler.
Some 27 organisations had signed up, including the World Zionist Organisation and the World Union of Jewish Students.
The site had also clocked up 885 personal messages to Shalit from around the world. Among them, one Swedish woman who wrote: “We hope that you know that so many people stand behind you and are working for your freedom. Our thoughts are with you.”
An American supporter of Shalit wrote: “Jews from all over the world think about you and pray for you daily. We all love you.”
Oboler added: “We invite [everyone] to leave their message, and to spread the word not only to their friends and family in Australia, but to their wider networks around the world.”
Shalit was captured during a cross-border raid on June 25, 2006. Since then, he has been held by Hamas in Gaza without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross. His whereabouts are still unknown and his family continues to lobby the Israeli Government to secure his release.
Letters of support for Gilad Shalit should be emailed to letters@jewishnews.net.au by noon, Monday, June 23.
CHANTAL ABITBOL
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