Gilad Schalit is 23 years old. Four of his 23 years have been spent somewhere, perhaps in Gaza, perhaps not, a prisoner of Gaza’s leaders, the flattered favourites of the “freedom flotillas,” we must point out.

Four years ago last Friday, June 25,  the young Israel Defence Forces soldier was kidnapped by Hamas. Nor should we forget that two of Schalit’s colleagues were killed during the kidnapping raid by the Hamas henchman. 

After four years we nearly suffocate in our sadness over Schalit’s fate. We cry for his family. And we wince at the unbearable dilemma borne by the government of Israel in trying to secure his release. 

But Hamas quite revels in its barbarity.

They torture Schalit’s family with their taunting and teasing. They refuse any access to their prisoner by any outside individual or humanitarian agency. They have not allowed even the International Red Cross to meet with Schalit to attest to the state of his health. 

Last Saturday, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha reconfirmed that the government of Gaza will never allow the Red Cross to see their kidnapped prisoner. “We can’t allow the Red Cross to visit Schalit because he is not in a prison. Therefore, revealing his location would be very dangerous,” he said. 

Ha’aretz reported that a member of the Hamas politburo, Osama Hamdan, complained that Israel was more focused on trying to locate Schalit than in simply exchanging the more than 1,000 prisoners that Hamas was demanding.

Imagine that!

To bring attention to Schalit’s plight, a number of demonstrations calling for his release were held last week in Israel, Europe and the United States.

In Nahariya, at Israel’s furthermost northern town along the Mediterranean, some 600 people marched for Gilad. In Jerusalem, the lights around the Old City of Jerusalem were turned off. 

In Rome, where the Italian government had made Schalit an honorary citizen, the lights of the Colosseum were switched off. 

The darkness of two of the pre-eminent historic locales of western civilization poignantly symbolize the darkness in which young Schalit has been kept hostage these past four year. Of course, it also symbolizes the darkness of the values that made and keep him a hostage. Alas, one can add as well that it also symbolizes the dark silence of he world’s response to the behaviour of Schalit’s Hamas jailers.

In New York, a group of ships called  the “True Freedom Flotilla,” intent on contrasting the actual imprisonment Schalit with the propaganda imprisonment of the people of Gaza, sailed by the Statue of Liberty on their way to the United Nations headquarters. 

On Sunday Schalit’s parents, Noam and Aviva, began a march that was expected to last more than a week, from their home in Mitzpe Hila in the upper Galilee and finishing in Jerusalem. The march is to dramatize their son’s plight and to bring pressure on their government to conclude an arrangement with Hamas for the return of their son. 

On the first day of their sombre trek, they were joined by some 10,000 supporters.

At the outset of their long march, Gilad’s mother told reporters, “We’re heading off on a long, exhausting journey today, and we’ll return only with Gilad.” 

When they arrive in Jerusalem, the Schalit family will set up a tent outside the prime minister’s residence. They have said they will remain there until an agreement is reached.

In a statement at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured the Schalits that he will meet with them to update them on the government’s efforts on behalf of Gilad. “Our hearts are with the Schalit family,” Netanyahu said. 

Since their son was kidnapped four years ago, the only contact they have had with him has been through three letters and one staged, concocted video.

Last Friday in Rome, Gilad’s father tearfully pleaded with the people of Europe.

“As I stand here in… one of the most important cities in Europe and the civilized world, I call on the international community… not to forget Gilad. I’m asking that the same international community, and the European one in particular which pressured Israel to take humanitarian steps on behalf of the people of Gaza, would use all means available to them to pressure Hamas to take one small humanitarian step on behalf of Gilad.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has been unsparing in his support of the people of Gaza. In his last visit there, in March of this year, he explicitly told them, “The United Nations will stand with you and continue to support you.” 

We urge him to say the very same thing to Gilad Schalit. 

Indeed we urge him to call for an independent, international investigation into the grotesque incivility of the Hamas leaders who kidnapped him. That the UN secretary general appears unperturbed by Hamas’ remorseless, mockingly cruel behaviour is a discredit to him and a bleak augury for Gilad’s release. But we will never forget Gilad. Nor will we ever let the world forget, either.