Children to fly kites today in ongoing campaign for Schalit's release

Each kite will be individually decorated by a child, who will write out the captured soldier's name in their own handwriting.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
schalit protest cage 224 88 ap (photo credit: AP)
schalit protest cage 224 88 ap
(photo credit: AP)
Some 600 children will fly kites in the Jordan Valley Wednesday afternoon calling for the release of soldier Gilad Schalit, who has been held captive by Hamas since June 2006. Each kite will be individually decorated by a child, who will write out Schalit's name in their own handwriting, said organizer Orna Shimoni whose own son, Eyal was killed in Lebanon at age 21, in 1997. A number of large professional kites will also flutter overheads with the words "freedom for Schalit," she added. As one of the Four Mothers whose grass roots initiative helped spur Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, Shimoni has been active in the campaign to release Schalit. In planning the event, she said, she was not dissuaded by remarks Defense Minister Ehud Barak made on Sunday that such demonstrations could raise the price that Hamas might demand for Schalit's release. Such demonstrations complement the secret and quiet work of the government to return Schalit home, she said. They were necessary because they reminded world leaders and the international public that Schalit was still in captivity, Shimoni said. During these two years, no one had seen him, not even the Red Cross, she said. "No one knows how he is, and that should worry everyone," Shimoni said. Wednesday's event, which starts at 2 p.m., will take place at the Peace Park in Naharayim, where in 1997, seven 11-year old Beit Shemesh girls were killed by a Jordanian soldier while on a class trip. On Monday friends of Schalit rallied outside Barak's Tel Aviv home to protest his comments against public rallies for Schalit. Demonstrators sat in a cage to depict the conditions under which Schalit is being held. According to Army Radio, one of the demonstrators, Miki Leibovich, said Sunday that as part of the battle against MKs' "apathy," the cage will be placed outside a different lawmaker's home each week. Earlier on Sunday, some 3,000 protesters called for Schalit's release at Kerem Shalom, close to the spot by the Gaza border where he was captured while on patrol.