Gilad Shalit

The Beginning On Sunday, 06/25/2006, at 5:40 AM, a terrorist group of several Palestinians crossed the border south of the Gaza Strip into Israel through a tunnel and attacked an army facility that was within the territory of Israel. The terrorists penetrated about a hundred meters into Israeli territory. At least one rocket was fired and grenades were thrown at a tank positioned in the area, manned by four soldiers. The missile hit the rear end of the tank causing the death of its commander and an additional soldier. One soldier was wounded.

The Kidnapping Gilad Shalit, the fourth soldier in the tank, was wounded in the shoulder and was abducted from the tank and taken by the terrorists to the Gaza strip. Shalit’s abductors were members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing of Palestinian governing party Hamas), the Popular Resistance Committees (which includes members of Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas), and the Army of Islam.

This video on Sept. 14, 2009 was exchanged for 20 Palestinian female prisoners.

Attempts to Free Shalit In the days following the abduction Israel launched a military operation in Gaza that proved to be unsuccessful In the months and years since the abduction Israel has made numerous attempts to get intelligence as to Shalit’s holding place – none of them completely successful

Negotiations Starting in 2007, Hamas has declared itself responsible for all negotiations in relation to the captured soldier Their demand – the release of hundreds of convicted Palestinian terrorists currently sitting in Israeli jails Israel has negotiated with Hamas but has refused to agree to its terms when it comes to the release of terrorists

The Knesset The Knesset is the house of representatives (the parliament) of the State of Israel, in which the full range of current opinions are represented. The Knesset has a total of 120 members Israel has an electoral system based on nation-wide proportional representation. In other words, the number of seats that each list receives in the Knesset is proportional to the number of votes it received Parties receive a number of Knesset seats which is proportional to their electoral strength. This is done by the division of valid votes given to all of the parties by 120, in order to determine how many votes entitle a list to a single seat

Legislation The main function of the Knesset as the legislative authority is to pass laws. Legislation can be initiated by the Government, by a single Member of Knesset, or group of Knesset members or by a Knesset Committee Every law passed by the Knesset requires a majority of the present members during the vote. When the Knesset is full, a majority of 61 votes is required to pass a law Since no party has ever reached 61 seats in the Knesset, coalitions have to be formed in order to secure a majority on all issues of legislation