Mr. Noam Shalit on Monday presented his case to the UN committee in Geneva headed by Richard Goldstone. He told reporters following his statements that he feels the members of the committee received his message and felt the pain and anguish that accompanies him for over the past three years, since his son Gilad was taken captive by Hamas.

He related to the committee how his son�s basic rights were trampled upon and ignored since taken captive, and how to date, no one has first-hand statements or information from any human rights representative regarding Gilad�s condition.

At one point, Mr. Shalit stated Goldstone asked him about recent statements in the Arab media of Gilad�s imminent release, to which he responded these types of reports have been infused into the media since Gilad was taken hostage.

Shalit�s testimony was a private matter, with Israel boycotting the committee which is investigating alleged IDF war crimes against Gazans in Operation Cast Lead, the military�s counter-terrorist offensive launched to halt rocket attacks into southern Israel.

Unfortunately, in a meeting held later in the day with International Red Cross representative Beatrice Megevand Roggo, Mr. Shalit did not learn anything new regarding Gilad�s condition since the international human rights agency has also be prohibited from seeing the captive soldier.

(Yechiel Spira � YWN Israel)