More than 200 people demonstrated yesterday at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, across from the United Nations, calling on the Syrian government to release four Israeli soldiers, who are believed to have been in Syrian custody for the past three years.
The demonstrators, carried picture-posters of Zachary Baumel, Zvi Feldman, Yehuda Katz, and Samir Assad. Three have been missing since June 11, 1982 when the Israel Defense Force invaded Lebanon. Assad has been missing since April, 1983.
New York City officials, among them Carol Bellamy, the City Council President, and City Clerk David Dinkins, and Christian and Jewish religious leaders took part in the demonstration, urging Syrian authorities to follow the Geneva Convention and allow the Red Cross to visit the missing Israeli prisoners.
Syria so far has not acknowledged holding the Israelis but the three Israeli soldiers who were captured on June 11, 1982 were paraded that day in the streets of Damascus. Naif Hawatmeh, the Palestinian terrorist leader, admitted in 1984 that he is holding Assad. Later, however, his group claimed that Assad had been killed.
Sens. Daniel Moynihan (D. NY) and Alfonse D’Amato (R. NY), in statements read at the demonstration in their behalf, called on the Syrian government to follow international law and release the Israeli prisoners. The parents of one of the prisoners, Miriam and Jona Baumel, arrived from Israel to take part in the demonstration.
In a short speech, the parents, who emigrated 15 years ago from New York to Israel, called on the Syrian government to show compassion and to acknowledge the fact that the Israeli soldiers are in Syrian custody and to release them.
The hour-long demonstration was organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York in cooperation with Baumel’s parents.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
