SAUJS Wits members got together last Monday to mark four years since the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The students gathered at the Umtombo building on Wits’ East Campus for a prayer rally.

The event was held to highlight the time that has lapsed since Shalit’s capture and to pray for his speedy and safe return. A strong crowd of Jewish students arrived at lunchtime to take part in the event. At the entrance they were all handed ‘Free Gilad Shalit’ T-shirts, a tag to put on their bags and a set of Tehillim to say for the captured solider.

While there was no disruption by anti-Israel elements on the campus, the SAUJS gathering tookmplace in the shadow of a large mural advertising a forthcoming anti-Israel flotilla protest.

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The Wits committee were happy with the event which had taken a lot of planning and preparation.

“It was important to us that we did an event like this,” said SAUJS’ Wits chairman Dina Hendler afterwards. “It shows the world we have not forgotten our defenders in Israel and that we will not be intimidated into forsaking our small part of the Jewish world”.

SAUJS National Political Officer, Ilan Solomons, added that “events like these contribute to an overall proactive strategy on campus. You simply cannot wait around and let your enemies define important points in the information war,” he said