Captured fallen soldier's family petitions High Court over inaction by government
Family of Sgt. Oron Shaul, who was killed in battle in Gaza and taken by Hamas, asks court to order the prime minister to convene a special team formed to handle the return of their son—as it has yet to meet even once.
Among the members of the special team are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, as well as Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri.
Oron Shaul was killed in a battle in Saja'iyya during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge when Palestinian militants fired an anti-tank missile at the armored personnel carrier (APC) he was riding in. Six other soldiers were also killed in that incident.
But while the bodies of the other six were identified, Shaul went missing. Hamas claimed to have kidnapped him and he was declared a fallen soldier whose place of burial is unknown five days later. In June 2016, he was recognized as a captured fallen soldier whose place of burial is unknown.
"To this very day, and over two years later, Oron has yet to be found—alive or dead. Explicit promises made to the petitioners by senior state officials regarding the measures that would be taken in an effort to return him have been broken one after another," the Shaul family wrote in the petition.
"The petitioners also have fundamental reservations regarding the IDF's determination that Oron was killed in battle, which are not part of this petition," the family added.
In late June 2016, after the signing of the reconciliation agreement with Turkey—which did not address the issue of missing and captured Israelis—a ministerial committee decided to establish a special team that would be entrusted with handling the issue.
The special team, the petition states, "was meant to create a high-ranked, organized framework to regularly deal with the issue of missing and captive Israelis on the ministerial level. This includes providing a framework for discussion and decision-making vis-à-vis putting pressure on Hamas to help bring to the release of the Israelis it holds captive."
"To the petitioners’ knowledge, this team has never convened and has yet to start fulfilling the important role it was entrusted with, this despite the fact over four months have passed since the decision was made to form it," the petition notes.
The Shaul family claims in its petition that "the prolonged—and likely intentional—delay in convening the special team and in beginning its work hurts the efforts to return the missing and captive Israelis, including Oron Shaul."
Oron's brother, Aviram Shaul, slammed the prime minister's inaction, saying "Let every Jewish mother who sends her son to Golani know: As long as Netanyahu is responsible for the fate of her son, he would have no problem sending him to battle in a faulty APC. But if that difficult battle goes wrong and her son is taken captive by the enemy—he will henceforth become a nuisance."
"Let's hope the High Court can convince Netanyahu that Golani soldiers must not be abandoned and that they must be returned from captivity after having fought a war that lasted over 50 days," the brother added.
