Court rejects Shalit petition

The High Court of Justice on Monday rejected the petition of Noam and Aviva Shalit against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the political security cabinet, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

At the same time, the justices noted they felt the cabinet needs to discuss the issue of the release of the Shalits' son, Gilad, again.

The Shalit family had asked the court to order the government not to implement the cease-fire agreement with Hamas in Gaza before their son's release.

According to the Shalits, cabinet members were misled into thinking the agreement on Gaza linked Gilad's release to the opening of the Gaza border crossings.

The court ruled that the cabinet's decision was a policy matter, and it could not intervene. Nevertheless, a confidential part of the opinion was given only to the State Attorney's Office.

Since Shalit's abduction in June 2006, his parents have met many times with government and security officials, including six times with Olmert and three with Barak. According to the petition, during these meetings the Shalit family was promised that any cease-fire agreement would include Gilad's release.

Gilad's parents said that keeping the crossings closed was Israel's only means of pressuring Hamas to release their son, and that Israel should have held on to the option of opening the crossings as its only effective bargaining chip vis-a-vis Hamas in talks for Shalit's release.

The court on Sunday instructed the cabinet to brief Shalit's parents and tell them how the talks have progressed so far, and why the government believes it should open the crossings without first securing Shalit's release.

On Sunday night, Amos Gilad, who is handling talks for Shalit's release as head of the Defense Ministry's political department, met with the Shalits to tell them Israel would not cede any leverage on Hamas by opening the crossings, and that the move would "improve the atmosphere" between the two sides. It would thus benefit efforts to bring home the corporal.

Olmert is scheduled to discuss the matter with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak later this week. Olmert is expected to travel to Cairo for the meeting along with Ofer Dekel, the government's chief coordinator for prisoner deals.

In his review of the post-cease-fire situation at the weekly cabinet meeting, Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet security service, said the price Hamas is demanding for Shalit is not expected to drop following Israel's cease-fire agreement with the organization.

Diskin told the ministers that "Hamas does not regard the deal for Shalit's release as part of the truce." Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann criticized the current deal, calling the fact that opening the crossings is not conditioned on Shalit's release "systemic lunacy."

Defense Minister Barak said efforts to win Shalit's release might fare better during a period of quiet than during fighting, but said at the cabinet meeting that making concessions to Hamas, such as opening the borders, was not likely to be the move that brings him home.

"Those who think we can bring about Shalit's release by opening or closing the crossings are harboring illusions," he said.