Gilad Shalit’s name is the first of three appearing on the petition to the Supreme Court, which is scheduled to be heard today, Sunday, at 10:00AM. His parents, Aviva and Noam are co-petitioners.

“Two difficult years have passed since I was compelled to take leave from you and I have been forced to learn to live in captivity,” begins the letter recently received by his parents from Gilad, delivered via the Jimmy Carter Center in Ramallah.

The letter from their son is just one of the documents contained in the petition submitted to the Supreme Court; with the Shalit’s well-aware their request to link their son’s release to Israel’s planned reopening of the Gaza crossings is a long shot. Nevertheless, it is one they feel compelled to take, feeling that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his cabinet has forsaken their son, forsaking promises made during recent days, weeks and months.

According to graphologist and psychologist Yigal Vardi, who was commissioned by the daily Yediot Achronot to examine the handwritten letter from Gilad, the soldier is in a most difficult psychological state, in crisis, almost without hope. His handwriting exhibits he was trembling as well as other signs of his extreme physical distress. On the other hand states Vardi, one can clearly see that he maintains control and a modicum of psychological independence, permitting him to endure the hardships of two years in captivity.

The Shalits insist that they were promised a ceasefire with Hamas would be directly linked to Gilad’s release, and now, in day 3 of the ceasefire, they see this has not been the case, fearing that if Israel is permitted to open the Gaza crossings, Gilad’s situation will continue to deteriorate and his release is becoming less and less a priority to Olmert and his ministers.

Aides to Olmert and senior government officials insist this is not so, stating the ceasefire will assist in obtaining Gilad’s release, a statement that the Shalit’s views as nothing more than rhetoric by the administration to justify their abandonment of Corporal Shalit, who on 25 June will mark the end of two years in Hamas custody.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)