|
UK Jewish Maccabiah Athletes In Solidarity With Israel POW
By Zeddy
Lawrence Kfar Maccabiah, Ramat Gan, Israel ---- July 22, 2009 ..... Young UK athletes competing in the 18th Maccabiah Games took a break from pursuing medals this week to attend a Q and A with the father of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit. In am emotional address to the 170 junior members of Team GB - many of them the same age as his captive son who was seized three years ago by Hamas terrorists - Noam Shalit recalled the plight of another Israeli declared missing in action, Ron Arad. "Several
Israel governments failed to bring him back," he said, "and
unfortunately we lost him. Everybody should learn from this lesson." “We don’t have any clue about his health,” added Noam, “because Hamas prevent any access to him by bodies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross.” Asked what Jews worldwide could do to help, he urged the global community to “put pressure on the ICRC to be more determined, more assertive to obtain access to Gilad and fulfill its duty by international law”. He went on to criticize the UK and US for pressuring Israel to ease border restrictions on Gaza, while failing to speak up for his son. “These governments don’t mention there is still an open account - an unresolved issue between Israel and the Palestinians.” The evening also featured a talk from Amir Goldshmidt, an 18-year-old member of the Shalit campaign, who is due to begin his own IDF army service in three months. Addressing the young audience, he asked: “Who is 18 years old? You could also be Gilad Shalit. “We need to go into the army in Israel, to serve our country and we’re glad to do it.” But expressing his despair at the failure to secure Gilad’s release, he added: “I go into the IDF knowing I could die or be injured, but I want to know my government would do anything to get me out of there.” Speaking to the Israel News Agency / Jewish News after the event, Noam said: “It’s very touching that young people are interested in such issues. They are not expected to show any interest in this terror hostage crisis but it seems they do and they show they are involved.” He added: “They are part of the Jewish community in the UK - they can have an influence through their parents or through their youth movements. The main thing though is to raise awareness of the issue of Gilad.” The World Maccabiah Games are a quadrennial sports, cultural and educational event that takes place in Israel. The 18th World Maccabiah Games, taking place July 12 – 23, 2009 are the world’s third largest international athletic competition. As the world’s
third largest sports event after the Olympics, the 18th Maccabiah
Games in Israel plays host to 3,000 junior Maccabiah athletes,
aged 15 -18; 5,000 open athletes, 2,000 masters and Paralympics. Sports for which competitors will be going for Gold include: artistic gymnastics, badminton, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, bridge, cricket, chess, fencing, golf, gymnastics, handball, half-marathon, field hockey, judo, karate, netball, lawn bowls, rowing, rugby, squash, soccer, softball, swimming, table-tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, track and field, ten-pin bowling, volleyball, water polo, wrestling and windsurfing. The 18th Maccabiah Games is utilizing powerful Web 2.0 new media social networking to connect in real time with millions in Israel and worldwide. There are Twitter news channels: israelmaccabiah and maccabiah and two official Facebook groups. In addition to Maccabiah.com, a new state of the art Web 2.0 Maccabiah Web site has been launched.
Joel Leyden contributed to the above news story.
The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in London and Israel for the Internet by the Leyden Communications Internet Marketing PR SEO Group and London SEO Pr - Israel, London, New York.
Internet
Marketing SEO Professionals ask:
Sponsored by IsraelPr.com Hosted by
|
