"When will you wake up?"
Photo: Guy Assayag
Dozens rally outside PM's home; demand swift action for Shalit
Protestors gather across from Benjamin Netanyahu's Jerusalem home, say government's grace period is over, premier must take urgent action to secure kidnapped soldier's return
Dozens of people rallied outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Jerusalem home Friday and urged him to push the efforts meant to secure the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Demonstrators carried signs reading "When will you wake up?" and "What if this was your son?" Dorit Glisko, who has been organizing similar rallied for nearly a year, told Ynet that the protestors "simply want Netanyahu to do his job.
Protest
Sharon Roffe-Ofir
Some 2,000 youths from kibbutzim throughout country, joined by100 settlers, stage rafts sail Sea of Galilee with one demand: Bring us information on Gilad before haggling over price
"We're not setting dumpsters on fire or acting barbarically, and maybe that's why no one is paying attention. It's sad and unfair, but we have no intention of giving up. Gilad is still out there but he cannot fight, so we will fight for him."
Hadar Miller, an activist with the Shalit campaign added: "It feels like nothing is being done. We hope that's not the situation and we are here to remind Netanyahu that his grace period is over and something must be done. We will not sit idly by while Gilad's in captivity."
On Thursday, some 2,000 young kibbutz members sailed the waters of Lake Kinneret – the Sea of Galilee – on homemade rafts in a bid to raise awareness on the status of the kidnapped soldier.
"PM should do his job." The rally (Photo: Guy Assayag)
"We call on the Israeli government, the Red Cross and Hamas to give us information about Gilad first and haggle later," said Yoel Marshak of the Kibbutz Movement.
"We have to have information about Gilad as soon as possible," he added. "It's been three years. No one knows where he is being held, under what conditions or if he is even still alive."
Gilad Shalit has been in Hamas captivity for 1118 days.
