The Shalit Sweepstakes
Also known as “Who Wants to a Millionaire!” : Gaza edition.
The Shin Bet has taken to calling Palestinian land lines on a daily basis with a prerecorded audio message asking people: “Do you want to become a millionaire? Well now you can! And no annoying TV hosts or suspense involved! You don’t have to be smart-in fact its probably better that you’re not because you have to be a dumbass to take this message seriously! It can be your destiny, like the kid from Slumdog millionaire! All you have to do is provide us with information leading to the release of Gilad Shalit, and you can have your share of 10 million dollars! Yes you!”
OK, so I editorialized a bit. But you get the picture (the first and last parts are actually true).
Apparently this has been going on for some time now. My father, who was visiting the US and with whom I just returned to Gaza, told me he heard the same message repeating itself over a year ago. I’ll try to record it next time I heard it for blog documentation purposes, and then maybe, for a new “Shin Bet punk’d” along the lines of this brilliant piece of activism from the days of Cast Lead.
07/25/2010 at 9:30 pm
So you don’t think Shalit should be released?
08/07/2010 at 1:51 pm
I do not see why you wrote such a sarcastic piece about offering a reward for information. This is a common and completely reasonable approach to getting information. How many times have we heard of rewards for information leading to arrests in the United States? If it’s acceptable for the police to do in the US, why can’t Israel do it? After all, information leading to the release of Gilad Shalit hasn’t been volunteered. If doing what’s right isn’t a motivation for people, perhaps money will work better. Even if it is unlikely to work, any chance is worth it. After all, this is a human being who should be released.
It is terrible to reduce such a serious issue to a “sweepstakes” as you have. It is not prize winning- it is a reward for something very valuable. Your comment that it would be dumb to take the message seriously is also worrisome. If someone gave information that led to Shalit’s release, it would be worth 10 million dollars. I hope that someone does take it seriously, and has the guts to help in this terrible situation. It would also be incredibly rude to create the “Shin Bet punk’d” that you described. This is a very sensitive issue, and not to be taken lightly as you so obviously have. Consider if someone you knew was abducted- what would you be willing to offer for their return?