Shalit's father to address UN council on son's release
Noam Shalit to demand the execution of the Goldstone Gaza report which calls for his son's release.
By Jack Khoury and Haaretz Correspondent Tags: Gilad Shalit Goldstone report UN Israel newsThe father of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit is to address the United Nations' Human Rights Council next week, Haaretz learned on Wednesday, where he will demand the implementation of Goldstone report recommendations regarding his son.
The Goldstone report charged both Israel and Hamas with war crimes following Israel's Operation Cast Lead in December 2008, which was launched as an offensive measure to stop the heavy rocket fire from Gaza on its southern communities.
In his address to the UN body in Geneva, Noam Shalit will also demand that the allow the Red Cross as well as by media outlets to visit his son, who has been held captive over three and a half years.
Haaretz had also learned that Shalit would be the first speaker in the Human Rights Council's session, and that he will be followed by representatives of various countries, including Arab nations.
Nick Kaufman, who serves as the Shalit family's attorney and who will be escorting the family to the Geneva address, told Haaretz that Israel implement the recommendations of the Goldstone Gaza report, made by human rights groups as well as by Arab states, cannot ignore the fact that the report also refers to Shalit's release.
"If those groups want to prove their sincerity in regards to the Goldstone report they must demand Gilad's release, clearly stipulated by the report," Kaufman said.
Kaufman added that after Noam Shalit's address, the family is scheduled to meet the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. Pillay released a report criticizing Israel's response to the Goldstone report earlier this week, saying that Jerusalem had not impartially investigated issues raised by the paper.
Kaufman said that the Shalit family planned to express their "disappointment at the fact that the commissioner did not find it important to mention the failure to release Gilad Shalit."
Last July, Noam Shalit testified in front of the Goldstone commission, saying that the abduction of his son violates the Geneva Convention and call for his immediate release by his captors.
"The committee is meant to relate to human rights, and he [Gilad] has lived without human rights for three years. No one knows what happened to him, and not even the Red Cross has paid him a visit," Shalit told the committee.
Shalit also expressed his view that Hamas should be held responsible for the abduction and all its implications. In an unusual move he also noted the specific responsibility of Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal, and asked that "the committee determine that Hamas and Khaled Meshal are responsible for the war crime of taking hostages.
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What about the family of thousands of Palestinian prisoners? What about the family of the many legally elected members of the Palestinian parliament who are stil in Israeli prisons? Singling out family of just one Israeli prisoner and never caring about others is a very unbalanced approach of UN. It is just a result of the powerful who do not care about justice and......human rights
When Jews die the UN cheers.
No, it's not a joke; it's not funny, is it? A young man has been wrongly seized and held and rockets stream toward random civilian targets in Israel - not at all funny. Following accepted, legal avenues to resolve grievances is a serious matter, one that serious people pursue preferentially. Whether or not one thinks that nothing will come of it, it is still the right thing to do.
families of thousands of palestinians prisoners should do same .if israel is democratic and god-fearing as it claims , then it should provide palestinians free trips to new york to plea for release of loved ones .shalit is sacred and precious and must be saved in all means , palestinians are gentiles and don,t count . queer equation by all means .
maybe gilads abducation is in the light of what hamas otherwise does considered a petty crime by you... but not here. the whole story went international in a big way. its something people do understand without any inside knowledge of ME politics. gilads name is LINKED with hamas AND gaza. gilads abduction is a CRIME by any standards. your blackmailing for prisoners logically gets a lot of attention. yes, go and ask for the big guns, all their deeds will become public as well. gilad is damning propaganda for gaza. and they know all that. he became an obligation. that is why they cant harm him and havent kidnapped anyone else, and wont do it. apart from lots of trouble and big "PR"-damage, nothing of favour was gained with his abduction. this "game" doesnt work, abdalla... the best you can do, is to prepare well, before exchanging him: invite the red cross, show him in proper condition, good mood, use it to make some "PR" to your advantage...
no visitors because israel it trying to kill his capturers and free him maybe hamas will capture another soldier to join him
Can't blame Mr. Shalit for trying, but his son will just have to sit tight along with the 1.5 million locked up in Gaza prision.
i 'm sorry about your kid but theres no say about the arab kids in jail or worst get shot or beat up everyday from israel you son is not worth more then any other pal
is that a joke? they get a day at the UN every single day!
come on do you thinj Gilad Shalit joined the DF to pick up roses. he was not defenslss
While not begrudging Shalit's father the opportunity to talk to the UN Council, I would like to remind the council and all Israelis that there are 8-10,000 Palestinians in captivity. The council should also take up their cases. Holding them is a crime because all they wanted was independence for their country.
i was wondering the same thing.
...the Palestinians and their families who have been oppressed, maimed, killed by the IDF, Mr Shalit? Everything the Israeli regime does, violates the geneva conventions. Have you forgot this, Mr Shalit? Bombing of civilian targets, bombing of the UN compound, the abuse of civilians. House demolitions, violation of international laws......etc the list goes on. Mr Noam shalit, as a jew, i sympathise with you. But please remember, what we do unto others, they do unto us. Our pathetic government, sorry our regime, has brought all this upon itself and the populace has been brought to bear the consequence of it. Peace.
Shalit has the typical Israeli arrogance that sees them adopt the parts of an agreement that they like and ignore the rest.
This guy is becoming more famous than Stalin.
I wonder if he knows the name of any one of the ten thousand or so Palestinian prisoners held contrary to international law in Israel? Does he know how many of the prisoners never get a trial, merely held indefinitely at the whim of prosecutors who don't need reasons to prison non-Jews?
daughters are in Israeli jails for resisting the occupation.
Would you sell out your country for your son? As well as knowing that for selling out your country, Hamas would still not release his son. Is that the only demand? Is that even one of the main demands? Okay, for a child, I would move heaven and earth, but this will accomplish nothing.
do the families of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza also get a day at the UN?
Wants to only save his son, what about the 1400 Palestinins the were killed by his government, should just forget about them?
Justice demands the implementatioin of the total Goldstone report. Whether the hardship of one person or an entire people is at stake, they all should be released from tyranny. Noam Shalit has a sense of this hardship as do the Palestinian people. Israel has treated the report and its author as abominable. They campaigned to imping the credibility of the report after interfering with Goldstone's fact-finding. Israel has put up the barriers to implementation of the report. Noam Shalit would do well to remember his country's leadership and its failure to act responsibly on the report. He might better organize Israeli political resistance to current Netanyahu-Lieberman leadership and prompt elections that would bring change. Powerful Israel fails to halt its own tyranny against Palestinians. Why should the world be moved by the plea of a single person whose own powerful government fails him and his son? There is a need for uniform, not priviliged justice.
that Isreal got locked up too. WTF all this for one Jew hostage....
How can taking a soldier in be concidered a war crime?
Hamas did a criminal thing, something that the international community ought to condemn and reverse. The government of Israel should never take responsibility away from the proper body, especially when their big plan is to release mass murderers for an innocent young man. Maybe the government of Israel doesn't want to support meaningful roles for international law in the Middle East.