Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Minister Blasts Shalit Deal as ‘Great Victory for Terrorism’

National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said Wednesday that the prisoner swap agreement reached between Israel and Hamas to free Gilad Shalit was a “great victory for terrorism.”

Landau was one of three ministers who voted against the proposal early Wednesday morning. Joining Landau were Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon of Likud. Twenty-six ministers voted in favor of the deal, which would see Shalit, the IDF soldier who has been in Hamas captivity for the last five years, return to Israel.

“On the one hand of the scales you have Gilad Shalit – the Israeli soldier who was abducted because in all the preceding years there were many terrorists that were released and created incentives for his abduction. Opposite that, you know that if, as a result of this agreement, many terrorists are released, there is a tremendous incentive to murder Israelis and abduct additional (Israelis),” said Landau.

Prior to Landau’s comments, families who lost loved ones in terror attacks over the years expressed difficult feelings in response to the apparent approval of the Shalit deal. Ron Karman, who lost his daughter, Tal, in a terror attack on bus number 37 in Haifa in 2003 told Haaretz, “I am happy for the (Shalit) family, but fear for the security of the citizens of Israel. It’s terrifying to hear the names on the list that has been known for five years.”

For more, go to Haaretz.com

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.