The four-year fight to bring my son back home will reach an important milestone when the European Parliament convenes to deliberate "the humanitarian rights of Hadar Goldin" today. At the end of today's discussion, the European Parliament will issue an important statement that I hope will resonate in Washington, the U.N., Cairo and especially Jerusalem.
Hadar was murdered and abducted through a tunnel in Rafah when Hamas violated a U.S.- and U.N. Security Council-brokered cease-fire. As a family, it took us months to understand that Hadar had in fact been abandoned by those who brokered the cease-fire, which was coordinated with Israel and the Hamas leadership. Once we realized Hadar was not a soldier who fell in combat but the victim of a cease-fire, we began to act in the international arena to bring him back. It was there, of all places, and sometimes in contrast with what was happening inside Israel, that we found support for the idea of pressuring the sovereigns in the Gaza Strip – Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Outside Israel's borders, we discovered humanitarian law was on our side and that those holding Hadar and their abetters are in violation of this law and that international organizations and institutions can act against them.
The recent situation in Gaza is an opportunity to bring our soldiers and civilians home. My son Hadar, Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul and Israeli captives Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu are crying out from a distance of just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Jerusalem. They are calling on all of us to wake up and asking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep his promise to set their return as a precondition for any agreement concerning Gaza.
The Israeli government is a full partner in the joint international effort by the U.S. administration, the United Nations, the European Union, the Persian Gulf states and Egypt to rehabilitate Gaza and improve the lives of its residents. These efforts are being waged and coordinated from the White House by senior adviser Jared Kushner and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt. U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov and other central figures in Egypt also play a decisive role. All those involved are raising billions of dollars, and everything is being finalized at this time.
Restoring electricity to Gaza and repairing the sewage system, establishing water desalination plants, building factories to provide employment, expanding the supply and amount of goods, establishing a special pier at the Ashdod Port to unload containers from the Persian Gulf, Europe and Turkey – these are all broad humanitarian steps that Israel and the international community are planning for Gaza, without having solved the issue of returning our boys, which is a humanitarian matter of the first degree. Hamas is holding on to fallen IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens in violation of international law, and the Palestinian Authority is a partner to this violation.
Less than two months ago, when we vehemently opposed the return of the body of Hamas terrorist Fadi al-Batsh from Malaysia for burial in Gaza, Egypt declared that not transferring the body for burial was immoral and against Islam. Preventing the burial of Hadar and Oron is also against religion. The Palestinian Authority became legally, morally and religiously responsible for the return of Hadar and Oron from the moment they signed a reconciliation agreement with Hamas.
