Yair Even, Israeli embassy, The Hague. Amsterdam, October 30, 2007

Dear Gilad, Ehud and Eldad, we want you to know that we are standing here and we are with you!

Students from all over the World, living in freedom, have helped organize a solidarity manifestation for you.

The Students who have helped organized this important event here in Amsterdam are Members of B'nei –Akiva, Habonim Dror, the Jewish Agency and Cijo, especially Roberta, Nadav, and Elizabeth,

Dear Rabbi David Lilienthal and Mr. Ruben Vis

Chaverot v'Chaverim, Shalom

Today, here in Amsterdam, the Capital of the Netherlands, as well as in many-many cities around the globe, we raise our voices, loudly and clearly, for a just and simple humanitarian cause.

Today is marked by a world-wide rally of solidarity for our abducted and missing Israeli soldiers and is meant to send a clear massage to Tehran and Damascus. A message based on one of the most profound principles of Jewish tradition and international humanitarian law:

Under humanitarian law, we are obliged to guarantee the lives of enemy soldiers whom we capture and to report their condition. Our enemies are obligated to the same actions. Under Jewish tradition, we are obligated to our brothers and sisters who have been captured by our enemies not to rest one day, nor spare any effort, to discover what has happened to them and to demand their safe return, until they are all back home.

Today, based on these noble moral principles that are shared instinctively by the vast majority of mankind – but definitely not by some of our neighbors – the students of the free world and all of us are calling: Release a sign of life of our Israeli soldiers! There are less than 10. Stop the torture of the families! Behave like civilized human beings!

1 Give reliable evidence that our brothers are still with us and that they are being treated humanly! If they are not alive, tell the truth: enough with the human suffering you are causing our soldiers and their families.

Tragically, the story of Gilad, Ehud and Eldad is not the only one. We are obliged to bring all our missing soldiers back home.

This story began 25 years ago, actually even earlier. The early part is the tragedy of 3 soldiers who didn’t return from the battle near the village of Sulatan Yacub in Lebanon, in June 1982. Ever since that day we are all waiting to know what happened to these three brother soldiers: Zachary Baumel, Tzvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz.

Their histories are a shivering reflection of the history of the Jewish people in our days: Zachary Baumel – was born in Brooklyn, New York, 47 years ago, but his inner compass carried him to Israel to his own people. Zachary's last message to his worried parents concluded with a brief note of assurance: "Don't worry, everything is okay, but it looks like I won't be home for a while."

Over the last two decades his family has traveled the world following every clue and knocking on every door – but those who know the answer keep inhumanly silent.

His tank team member, Tzvi Feldman, was born 51 years ago in Tel Aviv, Israel. His father Avraham, came to Israel from Europe after having lost his entire family in the Holocaust. Tzvi, the oldest of four children, is named after his grandfather who was murdered by the Nazis. His birth had signaled the beginning of a new future in a new land for a family that had all but perished in Eastern Europe.

Together with them the traces of Yehuda Katz were lost as well: Yehuda Katz was born 47 years ago in Ramat Gan, Israel. Both his parents Yosef and Sarah, are Holocaust survivors. His dream was to become one day a leading Judaic scholar and rabbinic figure, a dream that seems now further away than ever since that battle of June 1982. Let us hope that the words of his father’s call - back in 1994,” Yehuda, come home quickly,” will be answered soon.

For surely someone, somewhere, must know were they are and what has happened to them and that person should stand up and declare it, out of a moral decree, and by so doing, that person will bring an end to the unbearable suffering of our soldiers and their families.

2 Ladies and Gentleman Throughout the almost 60 years of Israel’s existence, there is perhaps no other name that has become so synonymous with the Israeli MIA cause as Air-Force Lieutenant Colonel Ron Arad.

Ron Arad was born almost 50 years ago in Israel. He was an air-force navigator in an F-4 Phantom jet. 21 years ago, On October 16, 1986 he was captured by members of the Amal Shi’ite militia in Lebanon after bailing out of his crippled warplane over the Lebanese city of Sidon.

In one of the few letters he could deliver to his wife 20 years ago – on the eve of Rosh Hashana 1987 - he made a desperate call for his release:

“Please do your best to get me out of here … Lebanon is no place to be, and I really want to see you all -- Yom Kippur is approaching and I will be praying together with you.... Let’s hope that He will help the leaders make the right choices. But you can also help.”

Let us join Ron Arad's hope from his unknown place of captivity, let us all hope that He will soften the stony hearts of his captures.

(pause)

Guy Hever is yet another Israeli soldier who has disappeared. It happened near the border of Israel with Syria. Guy was born in Tel Aviv 30 years ago. Ten years ago his parents, Rina and Eitan, spent the day with him before he returned to his unit in the Golan Heights. The next day, Guy left his base to return home, carrying only his weapon and keys. Later that same day, he was reportedly seen standing just a kilometer away from the Syrian border. This was the last time Guy Hever was seen by a friendly eye.

Last year, 2006, may be considered as perhaps the most dramatic year of all. On Sunday, June 25, 2006, at 05:40 in the morning, a terrorist group of several Palestinians crossed the border south of the Gaza Strip into Israel through a tunnel and attacked an army facility that was within the sovereign territory of Israel. After killing two Israeli soldiers they abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit.

3 Less then three weeks later, on the other side of Israel, another terror attack occurred – this time from Lebanon, by the terrorist organization called Hizballah – sponsored by Iran and Syria.

As a result 8 Israeli soldiers were killed and two others: Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were abducted. The leaders of Iran and Syria have refused to give any proof of life from these soldiers – contrary to any normal moral values of the civilized world.

Dear Friends, Last but not least, and maybe the first, Eli Cohen - "our lonely man in Damascus". Eliahu ben Shaoul Cohen, worked as a Mossad agent in Damascus, Syria from 1962 until his exposure and execution on May 18, 1965. He was hung in the center of Damascus, in Martyr's Square, with the television cameras rolling for the entire world to see. Eli Cohen, who not only was never allowed a defense at his trial, was brutally tortured during his long interrogations.

It is 42 years since he was hung and The Syrian Government rejected the many calls to return his remains to his family for a proper Jewish burial in Israel where 'Kaddish' can be said at his gravesite.

In closing may I read to you a song written by Tzvi Feldman 7 years before he was lost in the Battle of Sultan Yakub, when he was still a high-school student full of life.

I Am Here by Tzvi Feldman 1975

I am here, yes it's me The last of the last

So much time has already passed since then Much more than a few years

I didn't fall alone Definitely not

It's just a pity that so many did And all the good ones

Let us hope that these good ones will return back home soon.

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