Five years ago, in June 2006, Palestinian militant named Hamas abducted a nineteen-year-old Israeli army sergeant named Gilad Shalit. Israeli continued to attack Palestine to bring Shalit back, killing hundreds of Palestinians, even innocent civilians. Israeli government said no at first about freeing Palestinian prisoners in exchange; however, Shalit’s Israeli supporters rallied for government to secure his release and convinced them to save Shalit from Hamas.
Israel, along with the citizens, feared that Shalit might face death the same way Israeli Air Force Navigator Ron Arad did. 25 years ago, Israeli government failed to make negotiations with the Shiite militants until 8 years ago, when Hezbollah announced Arad’s death.
Thus, last week, finally in about five years to Shalit’s capture, Israel made a move about Palestine; Israel and Hamas agreed on freeing Palestinian prisoners from Israel in exchange for freeing Shalit from Hamas. On Monday, Israel announced that it will release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners; 477 prisoners are to be freed on Tuesday. Notably, many of these prisoners are serving life sentences for attacking Israel and murdering a great number of Israelites.
According to an opinion poll, 79% of Israelites approved all the measure of the government supporting Shalit. However, Israeli public split on whether releasing the Palestinian prisoners will negatively affect Israeli security; a pole suggests that a 50% says “Yes” and 48% says “No”.
Advocates of the Israeli government’s decision, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, viewed the issue in a social way and revealed his support towards Shalit by saying, “The state of Israel does not abandon its soldiers and its citizens.” However, some critics viewed this issue in a political and economic sense, holding signs such as “Peace defeats terror”, saying that the deal should not go through because the price that Israel is paying is too high.
Tiffany Ha Yeung Yang
Senior in Yorba Linda High School. Editor of Community Services of the JSR Program. Features reporter in Wranglers Newspaper.
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