According to Haaretz, the Shalit supporters areplanning a joint rally with the families of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
I understand them, to a certain extent. They have to do everything they can to raise publicity, keep Gilad Shalit's name in the daily news and in the public awareness. They will try everything and any type of event to get his name in the news. I get it.
But a joint rally with the families of Palestinian prisoners? Holding such a rally is suggesting that their situations are similar. The only similarity of their situations is that they are each being held by people they do not want to be held by.
The Palestnian prisoners in Israel have basic human rights tended to. They have family visits (or they at least did until the Shalit abduction), they have Israeli prison terms, visits by the Red Cross, etc.
Shalit is sitting in conditions that nobody knows about. He doesn't get visits by the Red Cross, no contact with his family or friends, etc. That is not even including the dissimilarity of the way they were each taken captive.
Holding a joint rally suggests you are putting Gilad Shalit on equal footing with Ahmed Whoever.
That is not something I can support.
I agree with you 100%. That's not a move I can really get behind.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of ways of keeping your son's name in the public mind without resorting to these type of moves.
This is difficult for me to believe. I looked on the Ha'aretz and didn't see it. Do you have a link?
ReplyDeleteI meant to put the link in and forgot. now I couldn't find it, but did a search in google. here it is:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1114027.html
Politics makes strange bedfellows. When Shalit was kidnapped, rightfully, families living in Gaza lost the right to visit their family.
ReplyDeleteThose families are being offered a fair meda kneged meda, they get a care package to Shalit and they get a care package to their family members. Shalit getting that package could be very helpful to both his moral and the moral of his family. Offering a slight bid of comfort before Rosh Hashana is a Chesed for the Shalit family.
More importantly the biggest problem with helping Shalit, is the Israeli government burdens all of the pressure to bring him home. Hamas gets to sit back and watch his value in an exchange grow. This explains why Barak has been so frustrated, by recent protests and complaints.
This puts pressure on the Palestinian side directed towards Hamas. If the Palestinians want as desperately to visit their family as we want Shalit home, then the chances are better to get him home safely, with possibly less political fall out.
The down side is some will equate Shalit with regular prisioners but those are probably who think that anyways. The chance of bringing some comfort and putting some new variables into play that could bring him home is worth the risk.
I ask this seriously, with all due concern for the Shalit family.
ReplyDeleteAre we sure of what Rafi asserts here?
Are there no Arab prisoners being denied due process and basic rights?
am not with you !!!!
ReplyDeletereally its a big game!!!!
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