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Instead of Auschwitz
By Amira Hass
Tags: Amira Hass, Israel News 

Click here for more articles by Amira Hass

The committee coordinating the struggle to free Gilad Shalit went all the way to Auschwitz where, it is reported, its members distributed 888 yellow flowers. That was in October, and we can only hope that this media gimmick will not be repeated, either because an agreement will be reached in the near future or because the organizers will understand how lacking in taste that move was.

The committee is continuing to put non-stop pressure on the government despite warnings that this is hampering the negotiations. In this way, the organizers and participants are showing a healthy lack of faith in the politicians' promises. But the lack of faith stops when we talk about the policy of repression employed by Israel against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. Here the organizers (including the kibbutz movement's missions branch) accept the government's approach and merely demand "more!" - more blockading of food, medicine, fuel and cash; more destruction of industry and agriculture; more homes without water. That is the logic behind the demonstrative obstruction of the border crossings initiated by the organizing committee in October. Now the committee is aiming its arrows at the families of the Palestinian prisoners. It tried to stop family visits at the Ashkelon prison and pledges to do so at other jails.
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There is no doubt about it, Shalit's confinement is cruel - the lack of certainty, lack of information and lack of continuous contact, as well as the fact that there is no external body that can visit him and inspect the conditions of his captivity. The committee is demanding "mutuality," but it seems more like revenge. And in our naivete we thought they wanted to see Shalit freed. To that end, the committee should have done its homework, and not with Defense Minister Ehud Barak as teacher.

If it is a lack of legality we are referring to, the committee could have reminded itself and the government that it is forbidden for an occupying power to imprison in its sovereign territory people from an occupied territory. The committee heads could have checked and known that the right to regular prison visits is being withheld from tens of thousands of Palestinians (including some 1,000 Gaza families). A perusal of the information which the (Israeli) Association for the Palestinian Prisoners has would reveal to the committee's activists that the Palestinian security prisoners do not have the right to speak regularly on the telephone with their families, even when they do not visit them for months or years.

Is this what the committee's members think - that a little more cruelty is needed so the population of prisoners and their families will enlist in the struggle to free Gilad Shalit? Instead of that, why not listen to the Palestinians?

For the Palestinians, Shalit is not a boy who wrote a touching story. For them he is a soldier in the Armored Corps, and he and his colleagues were partners to the shelling of the civilian population. For the Palestinians, Shalit and the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners have the same status -- prisoners of war.

Instead of going to Poland and Ashkelon, the heads of the committee can go to Lod and meet with Leila Bourghal, the mother of Mukhlas, one of the prisoners. His mother is almost 80 and can teach them a lot about what life is like when your rights have been constantly denied. They can learn from her about courage and maintaining human dignity and hope, even though no one in the world knows about her son.

Instead of demanding that the prison service stop visits to the jail, they can ask for a meeting with Walid Daqqa, who was born in Baqa al-Gharbiyah and is being held in the Gilboa prison. And as preparation for the visit, they are invited to read his impressions which he has put down on paper in recent years. If they are loath to try the adventure of driving to the village of Qalandiyah (behind the Qalandiyah checkpoint but inside territory annexed to Jerusalem) they can meet outside the checkpoint with the parents of the prisoner Ahmed Amira. If these people had been Jews, they would all have been released a long time ago, even if their indictments were much more serious. But because they are Arab citizens and residents of Israel, the authorities adamantly refuse to discuss releasing them, not even in exchange for Shalit. Instead of demanding more cruelty, why do you not demand that the state lift its opposition to freeing them?

Instead of treating them and their families like enemies, it would be worth the while of the committee
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Disturbing trend
Jewish Agency says Anti-Semitic acts in Jan. 2009 triple last year's records.
After the war
IDF gains in Gaza have softened Israel's stance on Shalit deal.
Family visits a
11:08  |  FOX 11/12/08
  3.   a hero or a villain 11:33  |  rm 11/12/08
  4.   Amira 11:47  |  Jake B 11/12/08
  5.   Are you nuts Amira Hass, how can you even compare Gilad to terror 11:37  |  Harvey 11/12/08
  6.   The best way to honour the loved ones ... 13:14  |  Edith 11/12/08
  7.   Edith #6 13:53  |  Chris 11/12/08
  8.   600 Palestinian "Gilad Shalits" waiting in Israels prisons..... 15:28  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/12/08
  9.   Nr 6, Edith from Belgium
  8. &n 11/12/08
  10.   IT DOESN`T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS 16:03  |  indrajaya 11/12/08
  11.   The way to free Gilad Shalit 16:37  |  Shlomo from Tel-Aviv 11/12/08
  12.   Amira, I will go one step further than you on freeing Gilad... 17:00  |  Dutch 11/12/08
  13.   Dutch #12? Shalit as perpetrator? 17:22  |  Chris 11/12/08
  14.   #10;you sound like the hamas murderers;they say free them all 17:34  |  glenna 11/12/08
  15.   Amira Hass 17:45  |  Gil 11/12/08
  16.   Not the same 17:53  |  SDHD 11/12/08
  17.   Miss . Hess , tell me 17:54  |  TOMY 11/12/08
  18.   Amira Hass One More Thing 18:06  |  Gil 11/12/08
  19.   Chris, Re Shalit as a perpetuator of injustice (part 1 ) 18:35  |  Dutch 11/12/08
  20.   ALARMING NEWS 18:41  |  WORLD_GUARDIAN 11/12/08
  21.   Serge from Belgium on honoring the Shoah... 18:45  |  BBSNews 11/12/08
  22.   Amira Hass isn`t Mulkhas the mastermind of the Bali Bombing 18:46  |  Gil 11/12/08
  23.   Amira Hass isn`t Mulkhas the mastermind of the Bali Bombing 18:47  |  Gil 11/12/08
  24.   So Amira, did you get to visit Gilad Shalit while in Gaza? 19:10  |  Jacob Blues 11/12/08
  25.   #19 Dutch where is your "proof"? 19:51  |  Chris 11/12/08
  26.   1Cipora Why should the Palestinian people bow to Israel`s terms? 19:54  |  Dutch 11/12/08
  27.   Thing is Fox... 20:00  |  haq 11/12/08
  28.   Bow Palestinians wow too 20:05  |  x-ray 11/12/08
  29.   Chris from Warsaw... 20:08  |  haq 11/12/08
  30.   you are high on crack miss haas. 20:17  |  israeli 11/12/08
  31.   Chris, Re Barrier (part 2 ) 20:34  |  Dutch 11/12/08
  32.   #21 BBS News 20:59  |  Chris 11/12/08
  33.   Free the thousands of illegally held Palestinians 21:26  |  Abe 11/12/08
  34.   Instead of Auschwitz 21:43  |  Yacoub 11/12/08
  35.   So can I visit Gilad then? 21:48  |  Ofer Maimon 11/12/08
  36.   In your own words, Amira 21:56  |  Robert 11/12/08
  37.   Wunderkind 22:12  |  ron 11/12/08
  38.   Swiss (Dino) on what is humane.... 22:22  |  Ofer Maimon 11/12/08
  39.   To Dutch - wall 22:34  |  Chris 11/12/08
  40.   Wunderkind, Fritz....good question... 22:41  |  Ofer Maimon 11/12/08
  41.   So Amira, friend of Gaza, 22:47  |  Robert Haymond 11/12/08
  42.   There is a huge difference between Shalit & terrorists 23:02  |  Gee 11/12/08
  43.   Haq and "flawed" 242 23:13  |  Chris 11/12/08
  44.   # 38 Ofer Maimon 23:30  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/12/08
  45.   Too Bad 23:57  |  Williams 11/12/08
  46.   Hass contradicts herself yet again 00:17  |  Joe Sittizen 12/12/08
  47.   Shalit is no longer alive 00:20  |  peter 12/12/08
  48.   Chris, are you really from Warsaw? 01:08  |  BBSNews 12/12/08
  49.   Slippery slope of moral relativism 01:09  |  Aden 12/12/08
  50.   Hass 01:17  |  Jasper 12/12/08
  51.   Amira Helps Redeem An Ugly Image And Growing Enmity 01:46  |  Gray 12/12/08
  52.   Amira and The Need for Advancement in Gene Therapy 02:11  |  Tod Zuckerman 12/12/08
  53.   Chris, Re Proof of Shalit the perpetrator 02:18  |  Dutch 12/12/08
  54.   44 Joe Sittizen shows his punitive side... 02:29  |  Dutch 12/12/08
  55.   BIG difference!! The Arabs are known to be alive have Red Cross & 04:05  |  PETER SM 12/12/08
  56.   Good to see Amira back 04:07  |  peacelover 12/12/08
  57.   BSNews, are you really from the same universe? 04:08  |  SDHD 12/12/08
  58.   #47, peter, i am afraid that you are right 04:42  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 12/12/08
  59.   Israel refused Hamas Offer 05:42  |  Shlomo 12/12/08
  60.   The evil within 05:45  |  johnny 12/12/08
  61.   hopeless people 08:30  |  B Saleem 12/12/08
  62.   Bravo, Amira, as usual 10:07  |  eitan goldberg 12/12/08
  63.   Dutch-joke part 2 11:39  |  Chris 12/12/08
  64.   BBS yes I AM from Warsaw 11:57  |  Chris 12/12/08
  65.   Thank you Amira 12:59  |  Elly 12/12/08
  66.   FREE ALL PRISONERS WHO HAVE COMMITTED MURDER 19:53  |  Lee 12/12/08
  67.   re occupying force 19:53  |  stephanie 12/12/08
  68.   Speaking of Palestinians and Auschwitz 20:30  |  Jake 12/12/08
  69.   #15 Gil 04:53  |  Shlomo 13/12/08
  70.   Incidentally, Amira, 09:56  |  Robert Haymond 14/12/08
  71.   To Jacob Blues 13:40  |  Teresa-Maria 16/12/08
 Read & React
Livni: Israel should strike Hamas again to halt arms smuggling
Responses: 44
Amir Oren: 'Decisive' Gaza offensive merely rehearsal for next crisis versus Iran
Responses: 7
Netanyahu: Likud-led government wouldn't build new settlements
Responses: 30
Akiva Eldar: Saudi plan offers Israel united front with Arab states against Iran
Responses: 7


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