NEW YORK — Ten years after Israeli air force Capt. Ron Arad disappeared in Lebanon, American Jews rallied for an international effort to secure his release.
Arad’s plane was shot down over Lebanon on Oct. 16, 1986, and there have been varying reports over the past decade about his captors and where he was being held.
Israel believes he is still alive.
Several thousand demonstrators rallied Monday at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza opposite the United Nations, according to the principal organizer, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“I am here today, at this place where representatives of nations and countries convene, to ask for the assistance of the international community in bringing about Ron’s release,” Batya Arad, the missing soldier’s mother told the crowd.
The rally also called attention to the fate of three other missing Israeli soldiers — Staff Sgt. Zvi Feldman, Sgt. Yehuda Katz and Sgt. Zachary Baumel, who were captured in June 1982, during a Syrian-Israeli tank battle in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
The alleged captors have not allowed the Red Cross to visit the soldiers and have not confirmed whether they even hold the four MIAs. Both Iran and Syria, which are believed to have influence over the groups that may be holding the four Israelis, have not been forthcoming with information.