Shalit family and 5,000 supporters march into Tel Aviv
Demonstration calling for release of captured IDF soldier has already caused severe traffic disturbances during the morning rush hour.
By Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news Gilad Shalit Tel AvivThe family of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit was joined by nearly 5,000 supporters as they walked toward Tel Aviv, on the eighth day of a protest march aimed at pressing the government to secure a prisoner swap deal with Hamas.
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Participants marching in Netanya on July 2, 2010 in support of a prisoner-exchange deal for Gilad Shalit. |
| Photo by: AFP |
Traffic was backed up along the Ayalon and coastal highways as the demonstrators made their way to the Halacha Bridge in the north of the city, which they reached at around 6 P.M.
Demonstrators are calling for a deal between Israel and Hamas to free Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in exchange for Shalit, captured in a cross-border raid in 2006.
The procession caused severe traffic disturbances during the morning rush hour as some 12,000 supporters neared the city of Herzliya, just north of Tel Aviv. Police closed off sections of the Ayalon Highway later in the afternoon as the protesters walked to Tel Aviv.
The marchers, headed Shalit's parents Noam and Aviva and his brother Yoel, left Kibbutz Shefayim in the Sharon coastal region at 9:00 A.M. en route to Herzliya where they held a rally at the city's Interdisciplinary Center.
"I call on Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu to listen to the nation and do more than he has done so far to free my brother," Yoel Shalit told supporters at the Herzliya college.
The president of the IDC, Uriel Reichman, said: "People have said this wave of protest is a sign of weakness. The opposite is true. What is happening here is an expression of Israel strength and of the principle that all Israelis are responsible for one another."
The marchers will hold another demonstration at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Monday morning, and then head toward Kerem Shalom, the Gaza Strip border crossing where Shalit was seized 2006. Acclaimed conductor Zubin Mehta will lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for a concert Monday evening in Shalit's honor at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, three kilometers from the border.
The Shalits will then return to Tel Aviv overnight before beginning the third and final leg of the march, ending in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.
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Not sa single Palestinian should be freed until Hamas ceasesw all hostilities against Israel. One can definitely feel sorry for the Shalit family, but he is a POW. InWorld War II, in the Six Day War of 1967 and in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, no prisoners were freed on either side until the wars ended.
I am Israeli, I served in the IDF. I want to say that it is ridiculous that the (albeit horrible) plight of a single family cause such disturbances to the entire nation for nearly two weeks. Does anyone realize the excessive financial burden to the entire public that this "demonstration" is causing. How much time people are being compelled to waste in order that the Shalits express themselves to the government. The Shalit family have every right to express their anguish and their feeling that the gov't isn't doing enough, but which clerical sap authorized a 12 day crosscountry field-trip with police escorts and highway closures. No other movement or protest, even when it involved significant portions of the populace, not just a single family, has ever been granted such accommodations at the expense of the rest of the public. Someone must say to the Shalit family that while we sympathize for their son, and realize that it could be any one of us, the rest of us have lives as well. please have the courage to print this Haaretz. You can edit it to insert a disclaimer that is is not your view, (although many in agreement with me just hesitate because its not polite or is hurtful to the Shalits. I am sorry to the Shalits, but it must be said).
your failed arguments provide some amusement. Sadly some of you nutjobs get their child murdering heroes back home, which is why I think that once found guilty they should get the chair to avoid sending them back alive, after they learned PHD in chemicals to make more explosives.
Netanyahu cited two objections to the Hamas demands: 1. The most dangerous released terrorists (45 out of 450) will not be allowed to return to the West Bank but could go to Gaza or abroad, and 2. Arch-murderers will not be released. I think the first objection is reasonable, because of security considerations. But the second objection appears phony. Who are those arch-murderers? It appears they are actually political leaders, such as Barghouti (Fatah) and Natshe (a founder of Hamas). These people themselves did not kill anybody with their own hands, at most they enabled others, so I wouldn't call them "arch-murderers"; it is misleading. In fact, some of these political leaders are even MODERATE. Barghouti and Natshe developed the "prisoners' document" (2006) which enables a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, calling for Hamas and other organizations to join the PLO and for the Palestinians to accept a state in the 1967 borders. Perhaps this is what Netanyahu wants to prevent. He needs enemies in order to delay and reject peace possibilities which would force giving up part of Eretz Yisrael. Sorry Shalit family, you will probably have to wait until the next Israeli election to see your son.
STOP BEATING AROUND THE BUSH IN THE END YOU WILL HAVE TO SWAP AND THE SOONER THE BETTER AND DONT LET THIS BOY SUFFER ANY LONGER AND CLOSE THIS CHAPTER AND SECOND TIME BE MORE CAREFULL THAT THEY DONT CATCH MORE SOLDIERS