Last update - 00:00 12/07/2007
Protesters urge gov't to bring back captive soldiers at any cost
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
Thousands of people took part in a solidarity rally with the kidnapped soldiers in Haifa's Gan Ha'em at the Carmel Center Thursday evening, calling on the government to bring the boys home regardless of the price.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who was invited by the families of the abducted soldiers, attended the rally although she did not address the crowd or appear as the government's representative.
Numerous performing artists took part in the event, which was organized by the heads of the campaign for the kidnapped soldiers. The audiotape released by Gilad Shalit's captors on the anniversary of his abduction was also played.
Gilad Shalit's mother, Aviva, surprised the crowd with a moving speech in which she criticized the government's conduct in handling the issue of the abducted soldiers.
"Giladi, we shall not be silent and won't let another year go by without you. I promise you we will move mountains, continue to demand action, not sympathy, results, not talk," she said.
"Recently there has been talk of the price we must pay to release you, and every mother here knows that there is no price for a child that we carried in our womb, gave birth to and raised with the sweat of our brow. We can argue and discuss the price of a house, a car or company shares, but there is no price for the lives of our children, who were sent on a mission by the State of Israel and were abandoned in the field," Aviva Shalit said.
"It's been 12 months, 55 weeks, 382 days. I count the days. I imagine you're counting the minutes and seconds," she said.
Carmit Ron, a Haifa resident who lost her husband Aviel and her two children, Anat and Ofer, in the suicide bombing in Haifa's Matza restaurant, expressed her full support.
"I came to strengthen the call to release the soldiers," she said.
"The principle that you don't abandon soldiers in the battlefield comes before any other consideration. The way the bereavement and pain of the victims' families is being used in this matter outrages me," said Ron.
Miki Goldwasser, the mother of abducted soldier Udi Goldwasser, also addressed her son in her speech. "A brave leadership does not hide behind demagoguery. A brave leadership pays the price of its failure," she said.
She appealed personally to Bassam Kuntar, the brother of Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese who is jailed in Israel: "Everybody knows why the soldiers were kidnapped. I think you should be a little more assertive in dealing with the people responsible for not releasing your brother," she said.
Goldwasser was referring to Kuntar's prison conditions and the fact that he was entitled to all the basic rights, while she and the Regev family received no sign of life from their sons.
"Don't you want your loved ones to come back home?" Goldwasser said addressing the mothers of the Lebanese prisoners jailed in Israel. "If you do, ¬ rise and protest against those who promised you to get your sons back soon, but are not working to advance your interests," she said.
Tair Regev, the wife of Ofer Regev, Eldad Regev's brother, appealed to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah: "A person who speaks highly of God must have God in his heart. A person who has God in his heart would not prevent any sign of life, any piece of information about their condition for a whole year."
Regev spoke of Eldad's mother, Tova, who died nine years ago of cancer. "She was the family's pillar of fire, and she is not here with us to encourage, lead and support us," she said.