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Sunday, April 25, 2010

Hamas uses Shalit's image in propaganda video

Hamas has released an animated video that is aimed at the Israeli public to pressure Israel to give in to Hamas demands on a prisoner swap.




The video shows Noam Shalit walking the empty streets of an Israeli city, looking at billboards calling for Shalit's release, and ultimately the aged father pictures him coming home in a coffin.

The Al Qassam Brigades, in releasing the video, explicitly threatens that Shalit's fate will end up like Ron Arad's. Yet Hamas is presenting the video as showing a humanitarian message, saying that they understand Noam Shalit's pain and that the Arab parents of prisoners suffer similar pain.

The video is being broadcast Sunday.

This video seems to violate the current normative understanding of Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention that says that POWs cannot be subject to "insults and public curiosity."