Yoav Shalit's letter. 'My dear brother'
Photo courtesy of israel-now.tv
1,556 days in captivity. Gilad Shalit
Photo: Noam Rotem
Shalit's brother sends letter via Red Cross
Yoel Shalit meets in Geneva with head of Red Cross operations in the Middle East to protest that no one from organization has seen his brother in more than four years. He passes on letter in hopes it will reach Gilad
Yoel Shalit, captive soldier Gilad Shalit's older brother, met on Tuesday with the head of Middle East operations for the Red Cross, Beatrice Roggo, at their headquarters in Geneva to protest that no representatives from the International Red Cross have been able to meet with his brother in more than four years.
Yoel asked Roggo to pass on a letter to his brother. At the end of the meeting, he participated in a rally in front of the UN headquarters calling for Gilad's release.
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Yoel Shalit and his partner Yaara Winkler arrived at the Red Cross offices in Geneva accompanied by Attorney Calev Myers from the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, which is initiating a range of activities in Switzerland in support for the captive soldier. The three met with Roggo, and Yoel handed her a letter, reminding her that the family's previous letter did not reach its destination.
Roggo has met with Gilad's father, Noam Shalit, in the past, and is well-acquainted with the affair.
Winkler told Ynet that during the meeting Yoel expressed resentment towards "the Red Cross' asymmetrical policy between Gilad's situation and that of the Hamas prisoners in Israel."
According to him, "The Red Cross visits every year a half a million captives and hostages held by the more brutal organizations that are more complex than Hamas, and Gilad, out of all of them, they haven't managed to visit."
Yoel Shalit passing on the letter to Roggo (Photo courtesy of israel-now.tv)
Roggo noted that she and her associates are making efforts, but that she "cannot elaborate."
Winkler added, "We expressed our appreciation for the efforts. But the bottom line is that we cannot accept that for four and a half years the result is that there are no results."
In the letter Yoel sent to his brother, he wrote to him about what was being done on his behalf in Israel and the world. "He told him about the family's longings, and sent him words of encouragement," Winkler said.
This is the first time that Yoel Shalit has gone on a mission to international meetings on behalf of the family in order to secure his brother's release. According to Winkler, additional meetings are planned for him in the future.
"I very much hope that there won't be a need for them," she said. "Yoel has not been exposed thus far to many of these kinds of events, but he displays a lot of confidence and determination in front of the people who have the power to influence. He knows how to get the point across."
At the end of the meeting, Yoel joined a rally being held for his brother nearby in front of the UN headquarters in the city. Hundreds of people who arrived from throughout Europe took part in the rally.
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