Goldin family
Goldin familyצילום: עצמי

The family of Hadar Goldin and legal centers at the Shaarei Mada VeMishpat Law School petitioned the Supreme Court Thursday against the decision to transfer coronavirus vaccines to the Gaza Strip above the level that is required under international law as long as the Hamas terrorist organization continues to hold their son's body and other Israelis captive.

In the petition, filed through attorney Prof. Aviad HaCohen, Leah and Simcha Goldin, the parents of soldier Hadar Goldin, who was killed when Hamas violated a ceasefire during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and whose body is being held by Hamas, claim that the Israeli government and security forces allow large numbers of people and goods to pass to and from the Gaza Strip, far above what is required by international law.

It is also alleged in the petition that those involved in this process are hiding the information from the public, and although they have been approached seven times during the past year with demands for the disclosure of the data in this matter, those requests have gone unanswered.

At the beginning of the petition, Hadar's parents and his brother wrote a heartfelt plea, in which it was stated, among other things: "For more than six years, the Israeli government and its leaders, as well as members of the defense establishment, have surrounded us with denial and falsehoods. They would talk well about their commitment to get our boys back, but it was all idle talk with nothing to back it up."

"From time to time, some of them take care to 'release' statements - in face-to-face conversations with us, or in press releases - according to which 'the release of the boys and their return to Israel is near,' but reality showed that these were nothing but hollow speeches, words that were mainly intended to calm the flood of speakers or to fulfill cynical political needs and to 'calm the atmosphere,'" they added.

According to them, "In practice, no real steps are taken, such as the obvious step: stopping all movement of goods and people, from the Gaza Strip to and from Israel, until the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin and Sgt. Oron Shaul and two Israeli citizens held by Hamas," he said.

"Humanism and a concern for the quality if mercy are welcome qualities, but they require everything. In this case, the respondents do not engage the 'reciprocity' required by the circumstances, the reciprocity with which every sane person would have taken: He who seeks kindness, mercy and humanity, should respect and take these measures. Humanitarian gestures taken in a one-way direction only increase hatred and evil on the other side, leading to the fact that even after more than six years, the IDF soldiers and citizens of the State of Israel held in the Gaza Strip have not returned home," the family members claimed.

According to Prof. Aviad Hacohen, "This is a petition written from the heart of the Goldin family and its contents speak for themselves. Unfortunately, due to petty politics, the dismissal of ministers and the formation of new parties, our public representatives have forgotten their basic duty to every citizen: to return the IDF soldiers and citizens of the State of Israel who are in the Gaza Strip and under Hamas control. Humanitarian gestures are a worthy and wonderful value, but only on the condition that the other party first fulfills its obligations."