Last update - 00:00 31/12/2006
Shalit's father addresses son, kidnappers in letter in Al Quds
By Jack Khoury
Noam Shalit, the father of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit said the open letter to his son that he published Friday in the Palestinian daily Al Quds is one of a number of ideas he will be implementing in the near future in an attempt to free his son.
Al Quds is published in East Jerusalem and widely distributed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The letter to Gilad Shalit appeared at the top of page 2 with an item on page 1 directing readers to it.
Al Quds wrote that the letter had been published by the parents of the kidnapped soldier in the hope that his captors would let him read it.
The letter opens: "We in the family, your mother, your father, Hadas and Yoel, hope you feel well and are managing despite the tough conditions, the winter and the difficult situation you have been in for over six months. My Gilad, we miss you very, very much and want to see you with us and hug you tight, and so does the whole family and all your friends from school. We hope it will be very soon."
Noam Shalit added "the fact that we don't know how you are, how you feel, how you are making it through the winter, and how the Palestinian organizations holding you are treating you, is very hard for us. They declare that you are a prisoner of war, but unfortunately, they are preventing you from receiving the rights to which you are entitled as a prisoner of war according to international law, and also according to the exalted Islamic law."
Noam Shalit also quoted verses from the Koran on the proper treatment of prisoners.
Shalit also noted in the letter that all rights should be given to his son "as we in Israel give full rights to any prisoner or detainee regardless of the reason for his detention."
Shalit expressed hope in the letter that during Id al-Adha "a change would take place in the position of the Palestinian organizations holding you," and they would respond to "the proposals of the Israeli government and the respected Egyptian intermediaries, and the proposals of Egyptian minister Omar Suleiman to release many Palestinian prisoners and allow them to spend the blessed holiday of the sacrifice at their homes and with their families. We know that many Palestinians mothers and fathers are waiting impatiently and looking forward to that moment, and some have been waiting for it for years."
At the end of the letter Shalit wrote: "Don't break before you are released, which is very close, and we are doing all we can so that your release and the release of the Palestinian prisoners will be very close."
Shalit also addresses his son's captors, asking them to be "honorable enough to show you this letter without delay." Shalit told Haaretz yesterday that he had not yet received responses from Israeli or Palestinian officials. "We are waiting and hoping for the best after declarations by Palestinian officials, among them Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. I hope these are not just declarations."