When College of Communication freshman Leora Kaufman heard about the release of captured Israeli soldier Sgt. First Class Gilad Shalit, she said she broke down into tears.
“I called my mom right away – she’s in Israel – she was really emotionally affected by it as well,” she said.
Kaufman, who spent a gap year in Israel before attending Boston University, said that Shalit’s release was a joyous occasion that was five years in the making.
Hamas leaders released Shalit after five years in captivity on Tuesday in an agreement that swapped his freedom for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, according to reports.
Shalit was flown to an Israeli Defense Forces base after receiving a medical examination and a new uniform, according to an IDF statement. He was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with the Minister of Defense and the IDF Chief of the General Staff before being reunited with his family.
“I know very well that the pain of the families of the victims of terrorism is too heavy to bear,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “It is difficult to see the miscreants who murdered their loved ones being released before serving out their full sentences.”
College of Arts and Sciences senior Ariel Bengio, the president of the Hillel House student board, said that the exchange sheds light on Israel’s situation with its enemies.
“This is a soldier who was serving for the Israeli army, defending the Jewish State,” Bengio said.
“This event will show how much Israel is prepared to do for those who serve it . . . and that no man is left behind, whatever the cost, even if it’s 1027 prisoners – some of them sentenced to life, some of them wanting to kill innocent Israeli citizens. These men and women are now free, but what is really important, is that a kidnapped Israeli soldier is now free and safe with his family.”
Kaufman said that she had visited the tent that Shalit’s parents had erected outside of Netanyahu’s residence as a vigil to lobby for their son’s release.
“I talked to his dad and his brother, who looks exactly like Gilad,” Kaufman said.
However, Shalit’s supporters recognize the heaviness of the deal between Israel and Hamas, Kaufman said.
“This is serious, that we would have to exchange 1,027 prisoners,” she said. “It just shows the values of our country. There’s such a sense of unity in Israel.”
International Institute for Mediation and Historical Conciliation President Hillel Levine, a professor of sociology and religion at BU, said that the negotiations between Israel and Hamas had potential for creating political change in the region, but that this potential never came to fruition.
“The exchange of Shalit for tried and condemned terrorists could have been a moment that would have led to . . . the beginning of peace talks, but that didn’t happen,” Levine said.
However, Netanyahu said in his statement that the exchange was “the best agreement we could achieve, and there was no guarantee that the conditions which enabled it to be achieved would hold in the future.”
“It’s a tragedy on all sides,” Levine said. “No nation and no group of people should be confronted with this kind of decision.”
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Shireen Akram-Boshar, a member of BU’s Students for Justice in Palestine, said she had mixed emotions about the exchange.
“I was relieved that 1,027 Palestinian prisoners and Gilad Shalit would be returning home, but at the same time, both the deal and Western media coverage of the deal make the Israeli racist ideology that one Israeli life is worth over 1,000 Palestinian lives even more clear and obvious,” Akram-Boshar said.
Representatives from BU Students for Israel, CAS sophomore Matt Goldberg and CAS junior Alex Alpert, said the exchange shows how Iraelis “give unbelievable value to one life,” and illustrates the differences between Israeli and Palestinian leadership.
“Israel was focused on restoring the life of one of its citizens, while Hamas was more concerned with retrieving as many terrorists as possible so that in the future they can continue to pursue violence,” Goldberg and Alpert said.
Both Akram-Boshar and Bengio said they do not foresee this exchange improving Israeli-Palestinian relations.
“This certainly cannot help in the conflict, but it isn’t anything that wasn’t on the table already,” Bengio said. “Hamas is a terrorist organization, whose charter includes the goal of destroying Israel. And that hasn’t changed.”
“I hope that Gilad Shalit will make an effort to see that more Palestinian prisoners, often held illegally and treated inhumanely, will be released,” Akram-Boshar said. “Besides this, I cannot foresee much of a change in Palestinian/Israeli relations because of this exchange.”
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I just read the article…I think it might have been the most biased article I’ve read so far, and that’s saying something. It confirmed beyond belief what I said about Shalit being considered a national hero. It put extreme emphasis on the Israeli opinion and said nothing about what i mentioned about children in Israeli prisons or nightly Israeli raids. I’m shocked and frustrated that the Daily “Free” Press would be so biased…stupid of me to be so naive, I suppose!
Here is what I actually wrote:
I had mixed emotions about the exchange. I was relieved that 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, and Gilad Shalit, would be returning home, but at the same time both the deal and Western media coverage of the deal make the Israeli racist ideology that one Israeli life is worth over 1,000 Palestinian lives even more clear and obvious. The media’s portrayal of the exchange is to focus on Shalit as a national hero, forgetting that he was captured as an occupation soldier, not an unarmed civilian like the majority of Palestinian prisoners.
However, I also think that the exchange is perhaps not as meaningful for Palestinians as the media is portraying it. Israeli arrest raids in the West Bank occur nightly, and usually hundreds of Palestinians are arrested each month.
I hope that Gilad Shalit will make an effort to see that more Palestinian prisoners, often held illegally and treated inhumanely, will be released. Besides this, I cannot foresee much of a change in Palestinian/Israeli relations because of this exchange.
The media also ignores the fact that over 100 Palestinian children (under the age of 18) are currently held in Israeli prisons. Each year Israel arrests approximately 700 children as young as twelve years old, detains them inside Israel (a violation of international law under the fourth Geneva Convention), and often treats them extremely harshly.
No you need to completely rewrite this article its soo extremely racist!!! NOT worthy of a college publication!!! Why don’t you go interview an Arab Palestinian…I’m sure there’s plenty of them here in Boston…and ask them what they think!!!! And don’t TELL me about Israelis having a vigil thinking i’ll cry about it….cause you forgot to mention if a Palestinian family held a vigil outside of the prime minister’s residence then they’d be shot!! And by the way who told you all the Palestinian prisoners were terrorists? Did the Israelis tell you that?? Why don’t you actualy GO to the former prisoners and ask each and every one of them their names and their stories and THEN tell me they’re all terrorists!!! That way you’d be giving fair treatment to both sides!!! One person doesn’t deserve coverage if 1000 others don’t have it!!! And as a media publication that’s what you should have known from day ONE!!!
The conflict’s orgin:
http://www.hudson-ny.org/1437/classic-islamic-view-of-jews
Glenn Beck would be proud
DFP, seriously, stop writing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You guys just have no handle on it whatsoever.
Lisa says: “No you need to completely rewrite this article its soo extremely racist!!!”
Lisa,
A couple of points. First, Islam is not a race, it is a religion. If you are suggesting Dana is a racist because what she wrote then you are confused unless you can explain for us what you mean.
Second you wrote, “…cause you forgot to mention if a Palestinian family held a vigil outside of the prime minister’s residence then they’d be shot!!”
This is an unsubstantiated, histrionic claim on your part. In fact it is Muslims who on a daily basis shoot unarmed families not the IDF. You should visit the “Religion of Peace” website and in it you will find a daily tally of violence Muslims commit with the number of people killed and/or wounded, the location of the event and often the reason the killer gave for his crime.
You really should study this situation in greater detail before commenting on something you know so little about.
@Arafat
Well considering the biased article’s overwhelming abundance of emotion proclaiming the glory of Israel, I just supposed that comments were allowed to express emotion as well. I think half the reason people don’t bother with commenting or discussing is cause they feel like people like you will tell them they don’t know enough. Really I don’t care, I’m not scared. Go on I’m sure you can tell me more reasons why I’m wrong. Really I’d love to know and I’d love to hear it.
And sure, there’s enough discussion out there accusing Zionists of being racists and Arabs of being racists against Zionists…it’s a pretty commonly used term in the discussion. You could go into the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians…if their motivation was religion, still in order to wipe out the religion they had to wipe out a PEOPLE…the people who held the religion. so the ethnic cleansing was directed towards wiping out a biological line of people BECAUSE of the religion they practiced. Palestinians aren’t just Arabs, they are a distinct ethnicity of people living in that particular area the Jews were trying to occupy, who were offensive to Jews because of their religion. yes superficially the distinction between Israelis and Israeli-Arabs aka Palestinians is religious, but fundamentally its biological. Biology and descent is what most often determines religion for the individual…especially the way one’s life is oriented in society because of the religion of birth. Palestinians are both Muslims and Christians, by the way.
If it’s too much of a stretch for you to say they’re a different race…then at least I think it’s important to understand that in any sort of religious conflict such as this, there is always a component of biological discrimination. Its hardwired in our brains…the most inherent way for a group to define themselves as superior to another is through genes and biological descent. Abraham anyone? ….the way we think is what defines us most as “racist”…whether we’re actually hating a race or merely a people different from us. There is really no such thing as race…but it’s contrived in our minds, it’s created by our need to make an image of ourselves better than people who are different from us, who we we perceive as threatening our way of existence. In this sense the Israelis have defined more racial divisions between themselves and Palestinians than I suppose even Asians and Caucasians do in the USA. Look at the Muslims in Egypt who say that Coptic Christians aren’t real Egyptians. Look at the Serbs in the 90s. It’s nationalism, racism…all of it is inevitably linked. In the real world it is.
There’s killing of unarmed civilians on both sides. Don’t tell me the IDF doesn’t go and round up Palestinian unarmed civilians in the refugee camps. Then I think it’s you who needs to do some fact-checking as well.
It’s not enough to say this or that event is reported or tallied by this or that organization. Organizations can be biased. Did they truthfully tally the violence of Israelis against Muslims? You have to listen to the people and find out the truth.
To be honest though, I do appreciate facts. Thanks for being factual. If I see facts then I’ll respond with facts as well.
Lisa writes, “You could go into the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians…”
Where is your evidence of this? The Muslim population in Israel is the fastest growing demogrpahic group and is larger than it was when the state of Israel was founded.
You want real “ethnic cleansing” then open your eyes to what is happening throughout the Muslims world today in places like Egypt (to Christians), Pakistan (o Hindus), Sudan (to blacks and ALL non-Muslims), to Iran (to homosexuals and Zoroastrians and Baha’i), Turkey (to Kurds), Saudi Arabia (to Shi’ites)…
“Palestinians are both Muslims and Christians, by the way.”
Yes, 5% of Palestinians are Christians and just like in Lebanon where a few decades ago it was 60% Christian today Lebanon is only 30% Christian and dropping. (Also all the Christian leaders have been assassinated but that’s just a minor point, I suppose.) And this is exactly what is happening to the Palestinian Christians, i.e., they are being “Ethnically cleansed” to use a term you’re so endeared of using.
Lisa when you compare the crimes committed by the IDF versus those committed by the Palestinians you are comparing apples and oranges, or more accurately, apples and moon rocks.
This reminds me of people who defend Islam by referencing Christianity’s history of violence. The problem is there is a big difference. When Christians commit crimes they are sinning. They are not acting in accordance with the teachings of their religion. But when Muslims kill Israeli children in pizza parlors they are promised Paradise loaded with virgins and get a street in Ramallah named after them.
Lisa, if you cannot understand the importance of this value difference then I better understand why we see things so differently.
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