[News] Hamas Release Animated Gilad Shalit Cartoon

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Hamas Release Animated Gilad Shalit Cartoon

By 
<http://palestinethinktank.com/author/Haitham/>Haitham Sabbah • Apr 29th, 2010
http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/04/29/hamas-release-animated-gilad-shalit-cartoon/


A superbly-made futuristic animated cartoon 
broadcast by Hamas movement on Sunday is creating 
waves in Israel. It is thought to be the first of 
its kind from the military wing of Hamas that 
does not depend on the traditional images of 
brave Hamas warriors fighting against Israel.

Video link: 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHVR63sDY7c>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHVR63sDY7c

The film wants to send the message that unless 
there is a real change in thinking on the part of 
the Israeli government, captured Israeli soldier 
Gilad Shalit will be returned to his family in a 
coffin rather than standing on his own feet.

The Israeli government reacted angrily to the 
film, describing it as "deplorable" and blamed 
Hamas for the failure to agree a deal for the 
release of Shalit, who was captured in June 2006. 
He is alive and believed to be held somewhere in Gaza.

The 
<http://qassam.ps/video-29-Cartoon_Film_for_Gilad_Shalit.html>Hebrew 
animation is broadcast on various popular 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHVR63sDY7c>video 
websites, predominantly with English subtitles. 
On the website of Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas armed 
wing, the item also 
<http://www.alqassam.ps/arabic/video1.php?id=388&cat=5>appears 
in Arabic, giving rise to guess that the intended 
target audiences are both Israelis and Palestinians.

If Hamas was looking for a reaction in Israel 
with the video, it certainly has achieved that on 
Sunday and Monday as news outlets gave 
substantial time and space to the animation.

Israeli politicians and pundits alike felt the 
need to talk about the movie. "It is best if 
Hamas leaders would focus less on videos and 
presentations and more concerned about the 
interests of their prisoners and the public in 
Gaza," Noam Shalit, father of Gilad Shalit, told the Israeli news website Ynet.

The film focuses on Noam Shalit. Through a series 
of vignettes, Noam is portrayed trudging through 
the streets of Israel and being confronted by 
huge advertising boardings each with a different 
Israeli leader pledging to free his son and then 
finds a newspaper discarded in a rubbish bin 
showing on its front page a $50m reward for information on his son's case.

Towards the end of the clip, Noam is an old man 
when he arrives at the Gaza border to greet Gilad 
at his long-awaited homecoming. He lets out an 
anguished cry as he sees his son is no longer alive.

Hamas and Israel have been in on-off negotiations 
for Gilad Shalit's release since the soldier was 
captured by Hamas-led Gaza militants on the Gaza frontier in June 2006.

A deal between Israel and Hamas, negotiated by 
German intelligence officials, appeared close at 
the end of last year but fell through at the last 
minute when Israel stepped back. Hamas was to 
release Shalit and in return Israel would free 
1,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. 
About 11,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli 
jails, most of which without charge.






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