Gilad Shalit, the IDF soldier who was released from captivity in October after five and a half years, has recently opened a Facebook page.

Shalit still has a limited amount of friends, some of them his family members. Shalit also humorously joined the group calling for his release – though obviously it is no longer active.

Shalit has chosen for now not to make his account public, and there are no options for adding him as a friend, writing on his wall or sending him messages. His profile picture is a blurry image of him in yellow and blue – the colors of his favorite basketball team Maccabee Tel Aviv. The only link Shalit has posted so far is “watch the craziest dunk of 2011.”

When Shalit was abducted Facebook was still in its early days, and was mainly used by students at Harvard University and other campuses. However, the more popular it became around the world as well as in Israel, it became an important platform in the struggle for his release.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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