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December 4, 2009
Negotiations continuing
A local vigil for Gilad Shalit draws hundreds of students.
PAT JOHNSON
A clock projected on a screen at the front of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver's Wosk Auditorium counted the years, months, days, hours and minutes of the ongoing incarceration of Gilad Shalit.
As news reports first emerged that a deal was underway to end the captivity of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldier who was abducted in a cross-border attack on June 25, 2006, students of King David High School and Hillel's Israel Awareness Club attracted about 300 people to a gathering of solidarity with the missing soldier last week.
Noam Gilead, president of the Israel Awareness Club at the University of British Columbia, explained the rationale simply.
"All of Israel is responsible for each other and it is our obligation to bring our sons home," said Gilead, himself an IDF veteran.
Two other young IDF veterans spoke movingly about Israel's ethical mandate to protect its soldiers and respect human life.
"Before I enlisted, I had heard that the Israeli army was one of the most humane armies in the world," said Ayelet Gabriel Weil, director of Hillel at the University of Victoria. "It wasn't until I was part of it that I understood to what extent and how humane it is."
Part of this humanity, she said, is the recognition of the supreme value of human life and the use of weapons and force only when faced with direct danger. Also core to the IDF's ethic is the assurance of doing everything possible to bring captured Israeli soldiers home.
"Every single soldier had the certainty that if anything was to happen to us, they would do anything to bring us home safely," said Weil.
Ayal Levi, a UVic student who served in the West Bank and in the 2006 Lebanon War, said the IDF's moral code is not something the world hears about in the news.
"I left the army with more of a devotion and more of a belief in the moral cause of the IDF than when I went in," said Levi. "When I was involved, in 2006, in the war in Lebanon, it was a challenging experience to say the least. Our battalion was the first battalion over the border. We engaged in mostly hot spots and I buried more than a few of my friends.
"When I got back to North America, a lot of questions had to be answered," he said. "Was the war justified? Was a proportionate amount of force used? Was it worth the lives of your friends to bring back possibly two soldiers, dead or alive, we didn't know at the time."
Oliver Jacobson, a Grade 12 student at KDHS, said his class had been discussing the ethics of trading jailed terrorists for the life of a single Israeli.
"The dilemma surrounding Gilad's release is an important discussion in our class," he said. "One side of the dilemma – the general population – thinks that Gilad should be released at all costs. This includes negotiations where Israel could end up releasing hundreds to thousands of terrorists that are currently held in Israeli prisons. On the other hand, many parents of murdered soldiers in Israel do not think that Israel should be cooperating with terrorist organizations and they strongly stand against the release of the terrorists who may be responsible for the murder of their sons and daughters. It is a very sensitive subject in Israel and in class we are attempting to see both sides of the dilemma."
The evening involved dozens of students who encouraged a packed auditorium to visit action stations where they signed petitions and wrote letters to elected and diplomatic officials urging added global attention to Shalit's situation.
A "Post-it" project had community members write ordinary daily activities, which were over-stamped with the words "Gilad didn't," such as, "Today I went to school; Gilad didn't" and "Today I hugged my parents; Gilad didn't."
Rael Katz, a UBC student and vice-president of the Israel Awareness Club, encouraged individuals to take action.
"It is easy to avoid taking action when we think that our voice is alone and small," Katz said. "But I say we are not alone. Today, we are gathered together, many voices and one voice."
At press time, negotiations for Shalit's release were continuing between the Israeli government and Hamas.
Pat Johnson is, among other things, director of programs for Hillel in British Columbia.
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