The most prominent Palestinian imprisoned by Israel, Marwan Barghouti, is now serving two weeks in solitary confinement for having been caught with a mobile phone in his cell. Israel’s Channel 2 News reports that the phone was discovered during a search by prison personnel in response to tips that contraband had been smuggled to security…
Hopefully the concert will be more exciting. Paul Simon stayed studiously boring during a press conference in Tel Aviv today, shortly after arriving in Israel for a concert tomorrow night in Ramat Gan. The 69-year-old musician claimed never to drink, smoke or party — or even to consume dairy products — in order to preserve…
They decided that the best way to show their solidarity was by doing time in solitary. Beginning last Saturday evening at 8:00 PM and lasting for 24 hours, various high-profile Israelis took turns sitting in a dark, depressing mock prison cell reflecting the conditions in which Gilad Shalit is likely living in captivity. The cramped…
Getty Images On June 23, the International Red Cross asked Hamas to provide proof that Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured in June 2006, is still alive. Hamas — to no one’s surprise — refused. The timing is not coincidental. June 25 will mark five years that Shalit has been held prisoner by Hamas, without…
This Sunday, May 29 – Memorial Day Weekend here in the United States – marks the 1,800th day of Gilad Shalit’s captivity. He was kidnapped June 25, 2006, by Hamas in a cross-border raid, and it is believed he has been held somewhere in Gaza since then. He has been denied communication with his family…
Aviva Shalit strikes me as a broken woman. The mother of captured IDF soldier Gilat Shalit, she is often seen on the news as the quieter one of Gilad’s two parents. Noam, the father, is outspoken, calmly articulate and level-headed as he fights to bring Gilad back home. Aviva rarely speaks in public, but when…
The campaign to free Jonathan Pollard just gets odder, and more disturbing. Pollard started serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison in 1987 for passing military secrets to Israel while working as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy. The Shmooze reported back in December that his wife Esther Pollard claimed that the enormous…
For the New Year, a Facebook friend wrote as her status, “My New Year’s resolution is to be Happy all Year!” That sounds lovely, I initially thought. It’s almost Oprah-ish, a vision for living one’s best life, joyously. Or perhaps it’s more like what Dennis Prager advocates — the idea that we all have a…
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