22 years since the battle of Sultan Yaqub

THE INTERNATIONAL COALITION FOR MISSING ISRAELI SOLDIERS
P.O. Box 32380 Jerusalem 91322, Israel
info@mia.org.il www.mia.org.il fax:972-2-623-3864

Today, June 11th, marks 22 years since the Battle of Sultan Yaqub, in which
21 soldiers were killed, and Zachary Baumel, Tzvi Feldman, and Yehuda Katz,
were captured in a battle with Palestinian and Syrian forces near the
Lebanese village of Sultan Yaqub.

The Battle of Sultan Yaqub is regarded by military analysts as one of the
biggest blunders in the war. Today, commanders acknowledge that the regiment
commander was not provided with vital intelligence such as the deployment of
Syrian troops and Palestinian guerrillas throughout the area.
Several hours after the battle, Dean Brelis, a reporter for Time Magazine,
reported that www.mia.org.il/tank.html "something interesting
could be seen in Damascus" -- three Israeli soldiers were being publicly
paraded in a procession of captured tanks through the streets of Damascus.

Since the battle, there have been many conflicting reports regarding the
whereabouts and condition of the missing men. Over the years, Palestinian
and Syrian officials have made many references to information in their
possession regarding the MIAs, but have been unwilling to cooperate in
efforts to return the missing soldiers to their families.

Twenty two years later, Baumel, Feldman, and Katz are still unaccounted for,
despite numerous reports that some of the men are alive and being held under
Syrian control.

Below are (translated) excerpts from the article "Will Not Let Go"
published June 4, 2004 in Maariv (Israeli newspaper), as well as selected
quotes as published in The Jerusalem Report on March 22, from the article
"The Father Who Can't Let Go" conveying the deep torment of these families
after so many years have gone by, as they wait and fight for information
regarding their sons, praying to welcome them back home soon.

Letters to the families can be sent to:
baumel@mia.org.il (Miriam and Yona Baumel & family)
feldman@mia.org.il (Pnina and Avraham Feldman & family)
katz@mia.org.il (Sara and Yosef Katz & family)

For More Information please see: www.mia.org.il

The International Coalition for Missing Israeli Soldiers

Maariv

"Will Not Let Go" by Nava Tzuriel

June 4, 2004

"This year, Please G-d, Tzvika will return, " says Pnina [Feldman] quietly.
At 68, she still believes. But the years have set in. Her 80-year-old
husband is ill and weak. Yona Baumel, who is still fighting for his son, is
now 76.

In the past, Pnina was also involved in the effort to reveal the fate of the
missing sons. She has been everywhere: She traveled to Jordan, Italy, met
with the King of Morocco, but nothing ever happened. As the years passed by,
the traveling lessened. Now she sits at home, waiting, grasping on to pieces
of information, such as the testimony of Italian journalists who have told
her how they photographed her son, bound to the Israeli tank that was
paraded throughout the streets of Damascus.

Baumel, however, is still restless. With his American passport he traveled
to Tunis, Jordon and Lebanon. He flew to every Arab state in which there was
even a slight chance to uncover information regarding his son. Now, he says,
he has secret contacts with Syrian sources. The families are tormented. They
have been bitterly disappointed by the system. They do not know who to
believe anymore.

Two years ago, the IDF established an investigatory committee that will
re-examine the information and materials which have accumulated over the
years on Sultan Yaqub. An IDF Rabbinical court has also been appointed to
examine the findings of the committee. Approximately three months ago Maariv
published the conclusions: The IDF intends to declare the three missing
soldiers from Sultan Yaqub as "fallen soldiers whose place of burial is
unknown". The families refuse to accept this declaration. "To this day they
have not presented any new information that can prove that the boys are no
longer alive", Baumel says, "They never handed over to me the findings of
this committee. They don't have anything and they also can't have anything.
I don't care what they say because I know otherwise"

"As far as we are concerned, nothing has changed and there is nothing new",
says Anat [sister of Tzvi Feldman]. "These are men that have fought for the
state of Israel, who went into battle in order to defend their country, and
I think that the system has not done very much at all for these men". "All
of these years, we have always wished for someone in the system who has
great determination to reach these missing men, since this kind of
determination would have brought them back. All these years, the case has
been passed from one person to another. Today we find ourselves at the same
point we were 22 years ago".

___________

Selected Quotes as published in The Jerusalem Report

"The Father Who Can't Let Go" by Natty C. Gross

March 22, 2004

"Baumel says the reports are untrue - that there has been no formal
declaration that the three are dead, and that the army has never shown him
anything that would indicate that Zecharia is no longer alive. No official
letter has been received; they were not visited by the army's manpower
officials with the grim tidings." (on reports by Israeli media that the IDF
informed the families that it will be declaring their sons as "fallen
soldiers whose place of burial is unknown" - The Jerusalem Report, March 22,
2004)

"Show me a body, or some DNA, and I'm gone...I have eyewitness accounts of
Zack being alive in Syrian captivity years later." (Yona Baumel as quoted in
The Jerusalem Report, March 22, 2004)

"By Baumel's reckoning, his youngest child, now age 43, is being held
incommunicado in a Syrian jail. Nourishing this belief, he says, are reams
of information collected meticulously over the years from diplomats,
reporters, Arab royalty, U.N. officials and Israeli ex-secret service
personnel. Right now, he says, he's awaiting verification in New York of
information from a "semi-official Syrian" source, who says Zecharia was seen
alive in Syrian captivity in 1991." (The Jerusalem Report, March 22, 2004)