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Comments (0)A global campaign to send birthday greetings to captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was launched Friday.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is asking people to send greetings to Shalit for his 24th birthday, Aug. 28. The greetings will be presented to national Red Cross affiliates to be passed on to the International Committee of the Red Cross for delivery to Shalit.
Shalit, who was taken captive in a cross-border raid more than four years ago, is presumed to be held in Gaza by captors who have not allowed him any visits by the Red Cross or any other humanitarian group. After Sukkot, the Conference of Presidents said, it will make a symbolic presentation to the Red Cross asking it to intercede with Hamas and allow a humanitarian visit.
Supporters may send Shalit birthday greetings through Giladgreetings.org. A billboard calling for Shalit’s release will be put up in Times Square for the week before Rosh Hashanah, which begins on Sept. 8, the Conference of Presidents said.
Canadian Postal Union Joins Gaza Flotilla
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has joined a coalition of Muslim, Arab and human rights groups that plans on taking a boat to Gaza this autumn.
“Canadian civil society has a responsibility to fight the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza and to expose the Canadian government’s unjustified support for Israel,” the coalition, which calls itself Canada Boat Gaza, said in a statement on its website. “The time has come to send a Canadian boat to challenge the blockade of Gaza, in coordination with similar international efforts.”
The postal workers union joined the effort after Canada Post announced earlier this month that it is suspending outgoing mail service to Gaza because its Israeli counterpart said delivery to the region was “unavailable.”
“Mail is something that’s important for people. It is contact with members of family and the outside world,” union president Denis Lemelin told the Toronto Star. “It’s always important to find an alternative, and this alternative is the boat to Gaza.”
The group says it needs $300,000 to carry out its mission.
In May, the union denounced Israel’s interception of the Turkish aid flotilla in which nine activists died, calling it “an act of piracy.” In 2008, the union voted to back the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel. The fall mission is slated to include two survivors of the failed May flotilla.
For its part, Canada Post has washed its hands of the project, saying the effort “is in no way affiliated with, or supported by Canada Post.”
U.S. Sanctions Malta Companies as Fronting for Iran
The United States imposed sanctions on three shipping companies in Malta that it said are fronts for Iran’s national maritime carrier.
The sanctions were imposed this month on Marble Shipping Limited and the Bushehr Shipping Company, which are owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines,
and ISI Maritime Limited, which is owned by an Islamic Republic Shipping subsidiary, to keep Iran from sidestepping international sanctions.
The companies are banned from all transactions with U.S. companies and individuals, and their assets under U.S. jurisdiction were frozen.
Stuart Levey, U.S. Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, wrote Monday in an opinion article for the Financial Times that the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines forges documents, changes ship names and sends cargo through front companies located abroad in order to avoid the sanctions.
Levey called on U.S industries to beware of Tehran’s attempts to evade the sanctions. He wrote that IRISL, the national maritime carrier, has carried military cargoes that are in violation of international sanctions. Recently an arms shipment believed designated for Syria and Hezbollah was stopped.
The United States, the United Nations and the European Union have imposed stricter sanctions on Iran after the Islamic Republic refused to stop its uranium enrichment program. Iran says it will only use the uranium for peaceful purposes.