Song For Gilad

A Song and Prayer for Gilad Shalit: Take a Little Time to Pray

A 78-year-old Jerusalem Jewish resident and a Northern Ireland Christian have teamed up to produce an extraordinary video and song for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been in captivity under the guard of Hamas and allied terrorists since June 25, 2006.

They sent it to INN and asked us to post it. Here is the link:

British native and psychotherapist Elchanan Berkovitz told Israel National News he had produced a video from pictures of Shalit and wanted a song to go along with it, similar to an effort he made for missing Air Force navigator Ron Arad.

“I found someone in the Northern Ireland Friends for Israel group who said that a singer named Jim Clint had written a song for Gilad,” Berkovitz says.

After they made contact and collaborated on the project, Berkovitz posted the video and song on YouTube and showed it to Shalit’s parents on a visit to their protest tent near the office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

"It is one thing to read about people and see pictures on television,” Berkovitz relates. "To actually be with them and see and share their pain is a humbling experience. I told them the story about Jim Clint, a Christian supporter of Israel, who was moved to write the song about Gilad."

Clint lived in Israel for nearly a decade and worked as a maintenance manager at a hostel in Tel Aviv. He is an educator for an Irish Christian community that celebrates the Jewish origins of their faith.

"Like everyone else I watched with horror the story of the Gaza flotilla and the ongoing conflict between Jews and Arabs", Clint explains. "I have witnessed myself the aftermath of a suicide bombing in the Machaneh Yehuda market in Jerusalem in July 1997. I couldn’t help thinking that in all the waves of criticism which is engulfing Israel at the moment, no one was saying anything about a young Israeli in Gaza, deprived of every human right, and facing the most awful threats if his kidnappers don’t get their way.

"I wanted Gilad’s family to know that in a far away country like Northern Ireland there are people who have not forgotten Gilad and pray for his return to his family. Like millions of others around the world, I want to give the Shalit family encouragement and hope"...

Lyrics and more at Israel National News here.

May he come home soon.