After the celebrity parade, a text message campaign

With the start of their son's sixth year in captivity, Noam and Aviva Shalit, parents of captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, on Sunday stepped up their public battle to secure his release. "Gilad has no tomorrow," said his father, Noam, at a press conference in the protest tent opposite the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem. "We are telling the prime minister: You don't have a mandate to sentence him to death. Pay the necessary price from a position of strength, not weakness, and bring him home today, before it is too late and we have to negotiate the return of his casket."

The captive soldier's family announced a new campaign asking the public to send a text message to the number 5252 in favor of a prisoner exchange deal.

Meanwhile, a number of Israeli celebrities on Sunday attended a "virtual solitary confinement" event at Israel's United Studios in Herzliya, in an effort to underscore Shalit's harsh living conditions in Hamas captivity. Each celebrity sat in a virtual prison cell for an hour. Among the participants were past political prisoners Azzam Azzam and Hezi Shai, as well as entertainers Yael Bar-Zohar, Orna Banai, and Zvika Hadar, retired soccer star Eyal Berkovic and actor Moshe Ivgy.

An additional campaign, comparing Shalit to missing airman Ron Arad, will be launched in the coming days. The campaign will feature retired senior defense officials like Ami Ayalon, Carmi Gillon, Yaakov Peri and Amnon Lipkin-Shahak explaining why they favor striking a deal with Hamas.