A son of Israel - Gilad Shalit

My son, Mikey

My son Mikey completed his 3 years of military service in the Israeli Defense forces on Thursday 12th March. Most families in Israel, throw a party or have a family dinner to celebrate the safe completion of army service. In particular if their sons have served in a combat unit of any kind they go to great lengths to celebrate their son’s safe return. Our family decided to mark Mikey’s safe completion of his military service by visiting the protest tent for Gilad Shalit, sitting outside the Prime Ministers residence in Jerusalem.

On the 25th June, 2006, Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants. They attacked an Israeli border post, using an underground tunnel. During the attack two of Gilad’s comrades were killed he was injured as well, after his tank was hit by RPG fire. He was 19 years old when he was captured and almost 1,000 days have passed since then.

The protest tent cannot help but move you. On all the streets leading to the tent are large banners with Gilad’s face and the Israeli word hat-zilu, which means rescue me.

A huge notice board stretches for meters with notes written by people from all over Israel. As I stood in line trying to see Gilad’s parents, a little girl of no more than 10 years old stood silently with her mother. Her mother kept asking her if she wanted to go, maybe come back another day, but the little girl said “no I want to give them my poem”. I looked down at the paper she was holding and saw how she must have spent hours drawing the flowers, birds and hearts surrounding her simple but loving words. It was cold, rainy and the crowds were pushing, but this little girl was not to be dissuaded from her mission. Her determination to show her support mirrored the spirit of all the others who were there that day and every day for the past few months.

Israeli’s are loud, but outside the protest tent there was a sad hush, and people talked to one another softly, not wanting to draw attention away from Gilad’s family. We put up our note on the notice board, tied a yellow ribbon on our car, and prayed silently that soon the nightmare this family was suffering would come to an end. Yoel, Gilad’s older brother, expressed it beautifully when he wrote the following to the Prime Minister.

“Please bring about a decision that will bring my brother home, and restore Gilad the soldier to the thousands who are visiting our tent and to others. I promise not to bother you any more; we will all go back to our simple community in the Galilee to live a quiet life”.

Everywhere you go in Israel, you are reminded of this captured soldier. In some banks there are TV screens that show his face and words cross the screen telling us – Gilad is still alive! Nightly, before the midnight news they play a short recording of his voice that his parents received from Hamas in Gaza. Many times the TV broadcasts a black screen to remind us that Gilad is sitting in a bunker somewhere in darkness. Gilad has become the son of every parent and the member of every family in Israel. His family’s pain has become the pain of the nation.

Intensive talks with his captives via Egyptian mediators have taken place over the past weeks but there has been no breakthrough. Now he needs a miracle and all of Israel knows it. Like David of old, we too take courage, looking to the God of Israel for the answer to our hearts cry. ‘Be strong and take heart, all of you who hope in the Lord” Psalm 31:24