The father of a missing Israeli soldier went to Australia to press for his son’s release.
Shlomo Goldwasser, whose son, Ehud, was abducted last year by Hezbollah in the event that sparked last summer’s war in Lebanon, arrived Monday in Australia as local parliamentarians called for the soldier’s unconditional release.
Shlomo Goldwasser sat in the Parliament visitors’ gallery as lawmakers threw bipartisan support behind a member’s bill to condemn the abduction by Hamas of Gilad Shalit in June 2006 and the abduction of Goldwasser and Eldad Regev by Hezbollah the following month. The bill condemned Hezbollah for “violating Israel’s sovereign territory” and called for the soldiers’ unconditional release.
During the debate on the motion, which was not put to a vote, Michael Danby, the only Jewish federal parliamentarian, said Australia was following in the footsteps of Russia, Britain, France and the United States in condemning the kidnappers and calling for the release of the three captives.
The families of Goldwasser and Regev have heard nothing since their sons’ capture. Hamas released an online video of Shalit on the first anniversary of his capture.
Goldwasser, whose visit is sponsored by the Zionist Federation of Australia, has spent the past 14 months traveling abroad to drum up support for the release of his son and the other Israeli army captives.
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