Pelosi Statement on the Release of Gilad Shalit

Contact: Nadeam Elshami/Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616

San Francisco – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today after the release of kidnapped Israeli Army Corporal Gilad Shalit:

“For more than five years, the Congress of the United States has called for the immediate release of Corporal Gilad Shalit. Today, after painstaking negotiations, he has returned home – to freedom, his family, and his future.
“For the Shalit family – indeed, for all of the citizens of Israel, for all who have worked and longed for Gilad’s release – this day is a cause for hope; yet it is also a reminder of our need for resolve.

“In recent years, I have met and spoken with Gilad’s father, Noam, on a number of occasions, learning about the struggle to bring his son home. When I traveled to Israel, I met with the Shalit family and loved ones of other missing soldiers. To them, to our friends in Israel, to the Israeli Knesset and to leaders throughout the Middle East – Arab and Israeli alike – I showed Gilad’s symbolic dog tags, always displayed in my office, symbols of our unending hopes for his survival and safe return.

“Now that he is home, we share in the joy and relief of the Shalit family. We are grateful to all who fought, negotiated, marched, and advocated for his release. We continue to pray for the return of all captured Israeli soldiers and for a future of peace and security for the people and state of Israel. At this time in the Jewish calendar, there is, perhaps, no better way to celebrate a time of happiness, thanks, sweetness, and joy than the return of Gilad Shalit.”

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