Israeli media reveals for the first time details on testimony made by Gilad Shalit, the soldier who was captured by Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas in 2006.
Israeli senior columnist, Ben Caspet, who writes for Maariv, disclosed records of the investigation conducted by the occupation army with Shalit following his release in 2011, noting that the probe eliminated some of these records for “known reasons,” as he said.
Ben Caspet said in his report that Shalit “doesn’t deserve to be called a hero.”
“The story which you will read is of Shalit. It’s his version as he told the investigators from the Israeli army. It seems he was afraid to meet them. He was ashamed to tell them what had happened,” Ben Caspet said.
“However… he did not hide any detail. He confessed to failure, and that he did not assume his duty.”
The Israeli well-known analyst said that Shalit has an exceptional memory, and that he remembers every single day of his captivity: when he moved from a place to another, how he was, what he ate, what he did and what happened to him.
In this context, Ben Caspet stressed that the captivity of Shalit indicates that there had been a big failure, to the tank crew (which Shalit was one of it), to Shalit himself and to the Shin Bet which failed for more than five years to track the captured soldier.
Shalit had handed himself over, without resistance, the Israeli analyst said, noting that the former MIA (missing in action) soldier was not supposed to be among a tank crew.
“May be he was not qualified for this mission. When his tank was hit he was afraid… He failed. Naming him as a hero by (former) Chief of Staff Benny Gants is misplaced,” Ben Caspet said.
“Shalit doesn’t deserve the name of hero. He is anti-heroism. Shalit was stuck in a difficult position, so he chose to surrender,” the Israeli analyst went on as saying.
Source: Israeli media
