Bereaved parents to PM: Ignore mothers

A group of bereaved parents sent a letter Thursday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which they asked him not to release terrorists with blood on their hands in exchange for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

"It hurt us that they are trying to ride on the backs of celebrities whose loved ones were not murdered by terrorists who are kept in Israeli prisons," said Yossi Tzur, who represents the forum of bereaved parents against the release of terrorists.

Tzur spoke in reference to a letter authored by late astronaut Ilan Ramon's wife, Rona, and Miki Goldwasser, whose son was killed on the Israel- Lebanon border and his body taken hostage by Hezbollah.

In the letter, the women urged Netanyahu to "stop gambling with (Gilad) Shalit's life and sanity".

Tzur and his counterparts have been trying to make their voice heard for a year now. When the campaign for Gilad Shalit erected a protest tent in front of the prime minister's house, Tzur's group quickly erected their own protest tent, on the other side of the street, and this time is no different.

"We regretfully and surprisingly heard of a group of women demanding you 'stop gambling with Gilad's life' – and demanding you save Gilad Shalit's life and freedom in exchange for the immediate release of hundreds of killers," the bereaved parents wrote to Netanyahu.

"Gambling on Gilad, no! But Gambling on others' lives yes??," the parents wondered in their letter, "We, the mothers and fathers who have lost our sons and daughters in the atrocious acts of terrorists, some of which have been released in various gestures and deals. Some of them were also release in order to save soldiers in captivity. And we ask you: Why?

"Why has the Israeli government chosen to gamble with the lives of our children? To destroy our families' lives? How do you justify the lives of our children being neglected in order to save others? Did the prime ministers not know when they approved these gestures and deals that many of the terrorists would kill again? Do you not know this yourself?"

The parents say the release of Hamas terrorists will bring with it a price that will be paid in blood, one that the State of Israel should not pay under any circumstances: "The government must not gamble with the lives of its citizens, and there is no other prime minister that can say, 'I didn't know'".

The letter is signed by 27 families, and it also addresses Netanyahu's own bereavement as it mentions his brother Yonatan Netanyahu, who chose not to give in to kidnappers and was killed in a bold attempt to save the Entebbe hostages.

Tzur, who lost his son Assaf in a bus bomb in Haifa in 2003, said that if the prime minister chooses to meet with the mothers who signed Wednesday's letter, he will also have to meet with him and his comrades.

"The prime minister should also hear our position, which represents no small amount of citizens," Tzur said painfully, "Our list does not including celebrities, but parents who lost their children to those terrorists who are in prisons in Israel today."