A Jewish woman who married an Arab who subsequently tortured her is pleading to the Israeli government to include three of her six Jewish children, trapped in Gaza, in any deal that returns kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.
The bizarre case focuses on Galit Popok and three of her six children who still are in Gaza, where she was kept against her will until she managed to escape with her other three children three years ago this month. Her husband, Rami al-Qedra, was killed in the Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign last year, and three of her children are being held by his father, Mahmoud al-Qedra, in northern Gaza.
"The price that Israel will pay for the release of Shalit is high, and I believe that Israel can also pay a price and help me get my children back," Galit told the Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv last week. The Muslim grandfather said he will oppose including the children in a deal for Shalit, and he wants the mother to return to Gaza with the three children who are safe in Israel.
Galit Popok immigrated to Israel with her parents from Russia, and when she was only 16 years old, she married an Arab whom she met at a wedding hall where he worked. After she gave birth to two children in Israel, Rami took her to Gaza, ostensibly only to visit his parents.
"She didn't even grasp that he was an Arab," says Sholom Dov Lifshitz, chairman of Yad L'Achim, which works to rescue Jews from Arab spouses. "He told her that he was an Israeli. She was a new immigrant and a pretty confused girl," he added.
Rami remained in Israel illegally until he was forced to leave Israel, when he took with him Galit and their children. "According to him, I was his property for him to do with me as he wished," says Galit. "He beat me and tortured me all the time,” he said.
She was able to escape him when she was allowed to take three of her children to a children's clinic, from where she drove to the Erez border crossing and showed the soldiers her Israeli identification card, allowing her to pass the checkpoint.
She left behind three of her children, including newborn twin girls.
Even if Israel were to include her children in Gaza in a deal, the chances for the return of the soldier remain fuzzy at best. An inner-Cabinet meeting on Sunday concluded without a formal vote on a rumored proposed to trade hundreds of convicted terrorists for Shalit.