Shalit campaigners: Where is Bibi's mercy?

While cabinet ministers are holding tense debates following the crisis with Washington, members of the campaign to release captive soldier Gilad Shalit gathered outside the Prime Minister's Office Sunday.

Security guards blocked the activists from entering the compound after they demanded to present their claims before the ministers.

The activists handed over a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via his bureau chief Natan Eshel, who also forwarded a letter addressed to the prime minister's wife Sara Netanyahu via het secretary.

"Where is Bibi's compassion? The boy is nearly four years in captivity," activist Tzahi Leon told Ynet.

Leon, a reserves soldier from Jerusalem leading a group of activists noted that he and his men would not leave the premises even at the risk of being arrested. "Someone will be escorted out in cuffs. We shall stay here. The prime minister and the ministers need to hear about the pain of Noam and Aviva Shalit."

Leon placed the blame for the failure of the recent round of negotiations with Hamas on the prime

minister himself. "From our sources we know there was an understanding presented to the forum of seven ministers and it was foiled by Bibi.

"We, officers and reserve soldiers, will not drop to our knees and give up. For nearly four years the boy is stuck in Gaza and no one cares. What does one expect Noam Shalit to say when his son is captive and after his brother was shot in similar circumstances in Syria?," Leon stated.

The protest leaders in the Prime Minister's Office (Photo: Roni Sofer)

Moshe Tzelik, one of the activists, said, "Gilad went to protect us and we as law-abiding citizens should keep him and bring him back home alive. This Passover eve there is not one bit of compassion and decency."

The reserve troops working for Shalit's release planned on presenting the ministers with a protest letter as well as a letter written by Raviv Kurtz, wife of a reserve soldier and a close friend of Tammy Arad, wife of missing navigator Ron Arad.

Woman to woman

In a letter addressed to the prime minister's wife, Sara Netanyahu, Kurtz noted, "I turn to you personally because I believe we women have an immense capacity for influence and are motivated by intuition and emotion.

"I feel a paralyzing pain thinking of Gilad and dread every day that goes by before my son's enlistment. I know that you also are a mother of two sons and I believe that as such you also worry and can feel some of the Shalit family's helplessness."

Kurtz further wrote, "There is no price on life and freedom, and any price, dear as it may be, is worth Gilad Shalit's return home.

"Mrs. Netanyahu, you can help, you have the power to influence your husband and his friends in the government to do something which is not easy – but right – to bring Gilad back home."