U.K. youth get Shalit advocacy session

About 200 British teen athletes participating in the Maccabiah will on Monday train to compete against a different kind of adversary - indifference in the U.K. to the fate of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit.

The training session in Jerusalem - to be accompanied by Noam Shalit, the soldier's father - was organized by Ra'anana's British-born Marian Lebor, a freelance journalist and member of the forum working for Shalit's release.

She created the training session on Shalit-related activism together with Alex Pinnick, head of the British junior team. Pinnick - whose husband David Pinick is the head of the U.K delegation - then arranged to bring some the junior delegation, aged 14 to 18, for an afternoon work session on Shalit and Israel activism.

The event will include an Israeli about to enlist speaking to the British teens. "This will give them an understanding of where Shalit, who was abducted at the age of 19, comes from," said Lebor.