PARIS-BRUSSELS (EJP)---A giant picture of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped in June 2006 by Palestinians and held since then by Hamas in the Gaza strip, was posted this week before the municipality building of Paris’ 16th district.
During a ceremony on Tuesday, the district’s mayor, Claude Goasguen, from the governing UMP party, said the giant poster would stay on the town hall façade “as long as Gilad Shalit remains in captivity”.
Goasguen, who is also chairman of the France-Israel friendship group at the parliament, launched earlier this year a petition calling for Shalit’s release.
The campaign is aimed at promoting public interest in the case of the 22-year-old kidnapped soldier who has dual citizenship in France and Israel
In several synagogues of European capitals, a special prayer was read during the Yom Kippur service for the release of Shalit.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has expressed his commitment to Gilad Shalit.
In a televised appeal in July after announcing that Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate who was held hostage by leftist guerrillas since 2002 had been freed, he said: "My last words are for soldier Gilad Shalit and for his parents. We do not forget him.”
The president added that France "is always ready to enlist in the battle for a man held unjustly."
