Noam Shalit, the father of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, is scheduled to leave, Sunday evening, for a series of meetings at United Nations headquarters in New York as part of the Shalit family's efforts involving international sources to free Gilad. The trip coincides with the Palestinian Authority's attempt to get UN recognition as a sovereign state toward the end of the month.
The older Shalit is slated to meet the representatives of different countries, in addition to senior UN staff members involved in humanitarian issues. The Shalit family has also sent detailed letters on the matter to the representatives of all member countries. Shalit associates say that Gilad's imprisonment "for the purposes of blackmail and bargaining" in Palestinian Authority territory "is inconsistent with a request for international recognition, let alone with membership in the United Nations."