University of Haifa students mount video campaign for Gilad Shalit’s release

HAIFA, Israel (Press Release) — Students of the School of Political Sciences at the University of Haifa have produced a series of short videos campaigning for the release of Gilad Shalit and to enroll volunteers in “Gilad’s Army of Friends”. The campaign, which can now be viewed on the Internet, was carried out as part of a “Political Campaign” course given by Dr. Israel Waismel-Manor.

The topic of the campaign was chosen by the students themselves at the beginning of the year and the videos are based on the theoretical material that is studied in the course and on a precursory survey that the students carried out  – which found that 87.5% of the public are interested in contributing actively to the campaign for Shalit’s release. Other statistics that were revealed by the survey showed that 62% support the release of terrorists with blood on their hands to achieve an exchange deal, while 16.5% are opposed to such an agreement and another 22.5% are undecided.

“This course has Jewish and Arab, Left- and Right-wing students, and the question of what price can be paid for the release of Shalit raised differing opinions. But when it came to the importance of achieving his release and the importance of public involvement and joining ‘Gilad’s Army of Friends” there was no dispute,” said Dr. Israel Waismel-Manor.

“Everyone wants to give a helping hand, but they are mostly doing it only in theory. I hope that our campaign will make people take real action,” says Moran Nof, a student participating in the course.

View the videos on the University of Haifa YouTube channel.

*
Preceding provided by the University of Haifa