Copyright 2003 Jerusalem Post
July 5
HEADLINE: Families of MIA's Call on Government Not to Release Palestinian Prisoners
BYLINE: MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
The Coalition for Missing Israeli Soldiers in Action called on Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon and government officials not to release any
more Palestinian prisoners until information regarding all the
Israeli MIA's is received and the missing boys are brought home.
The demand does not only relate to the three missing soldiers from
the Sultan Yakoub battle Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz and Zvi Feldman
but also to IAF navigater Ron Arad, and those kidnapped by the
Hizbullah in 2000, Stf.Sgts. Benny Avraham, Omar Suwayeed and Adi
Avitan who the IDF declared dead and Israeli businessman Elhanan
Tannenbaum as well as Guy Hever.
Coalition spokesman Daniel Grisaro said on June 26, Yona Baumel faxed
Sharon declaring "the release of terrorists affiliated with the PLO
yes and the Israeli MIA's, IDF soldiers no?"
Grisaro reminded Sharon that in 1996 when he was the Minister of
Infrastructure he promised the families he would do everything in his
power to bring their sons home if he was elected Prime Minister. "Now
you are Prime Minister," Grisaro reminded Sharon.
The demands made by the coalition acting on behalf of the families
came after the Lebanese Al Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Friday
that the skeletal remains found by a farmer in the south Lebanese
village Hamra a day earlier could be the bodies of Palestinians and
not Israelis as originally reported in the Hizbullah affiliated Nur
radio station on Thursday that claimed that the skeletal remains of
three bodies had been found by a farmer and stemmed back to the times
of the "Zionist occupation."
The newspaper report claimed that the bodies could belong to a
Palestinian woman and two men who died some twenty years ago.
According to the report the skeletons were handed over to the local
police and not the Hizbullah shortly after they were found by the
farmer.
The same report also quoted an official who claimed remnants of
clothing including woman's clothing were found near the remains and
that twenty years ago there were battles in the area between internal
opposition groups.
While Israeli officials said they were sceptical of the initial
report from that the remains could belong to those of the three IDF
soldiers who went missing in action during the Sultan Yakoub battle
in 1982, the IDF has contacted United Nations and International Red
Cross officials asking for their assistance regarding DNA testings of
the bodies in order to determine whether they match those of the
three missing IDF soldiers.
Several weeks ago in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Baumel
said he received information indicating that his son may be alive and
had been moved from Damascus to Lebanon shortly before US Secretary
of State Colin Powell's visit to Damascus he said.
At the same time he passed on the information he received to Prime
Minister Sharon, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as well as other
security officials. In the past years various pieces of information
regarding the fate of the three soldiers from the Sultan Yakoub
battle has surfaced.
On Friday, Channel One reported that a KGB document from 1989 claimed
the three were killed in battle and their remains are being held in
Syria. In 2001, reports were received that one of two tanks dispalyed
in a Russian military museum located a 100 kilometers from Moscow is
believed to have been used in the Sultan Yakoub battle and contained
body parts, personal belongings and documents when it arrived in
Russia.
Around the same time a Fatah commander in Sultan Yakoub Ghazi Atallah
claimed that the three soldiers were taken in alive but were later
killed in an IAF raid when they were being transferred in his jeep.
He claimed that the soldiers whose hands and legs were tied were
placed in his jeep and as they began to leave the area the IAF
shelled the site and he and his driver jumped out of the vehicle
leaving the three trussed soldiers inside.
He said that when he later returned there was nothing left of the
jeep which was completely burned out and the charred remains of the
soldiers. His statements made headlines but shortly after he
retracted them claiming he had no knowledge of their fate.
Officials at the time said they believed he had become frightened
over the huge response his statements generated in the media
worldwide and was possibly forced to retract them. At the time Baumel
declared that if indeed Atallah had information he should contact the
families and inform them.
The families of the three missing soldiers received information from
Syrian Jewish officials way back in Passover 1983 when they were
approached by the Syrian authorities and asked to prepare three
Haggadot and three Kosher meals for three IDF soldiers who were
prisoners.