[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 73 (Tuesday, June 13, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5020-S5021]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REMEMBERING THE ISRAELI MISSING IN ACTION

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join 
me in remembering the Israeli soldiers captured by the Syrians during 
the 1982 Israeli war with Lebanon.
  On June 11, 1982, an Israeli unit battled with a Syrian armored unit 
in the Bekaa Valley in northeastern Lebanon. The Syrians succeeded in 
capturing Sgt. Zachary Baumel, 1st Sgt. Zvi Feldman and Cpt. Yehudah 
Katz. Upon arrival in Damascus, the crew and their tank were paraded 
through the streets draped in Syrian and Palestinian Flags.
  Since that terrible day in 1982, the Israeli and United States 
Governments have been working to obtain any possible information about 
the fate of these missing soldiers, joining with the offices of the 
International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, and other 
international bodies. According to the Geneva Convention, the area in 
Lebanon where the soldiers first disappeared was continually controlled 
by Syria, therefore deeming it responsible for the treatment of the 
captured soldiers. To this day, despite the promises made by the Syrian 
Government and by the PLO, very little information has been forthcoming 
about the condition of Zachary Baumel, Zvi Feldman, and Yehudah Katz.
  June 11 marks the anniversary of the day these soldiers were reported 
missing in action. Eighteen pain-filled years have passed since their 
families have seen their sons, and still the Syrian Government has not 
revealed their whereabouts.
  One of these missing soldiers, Zachary Baumel, is an American citizen 
from Brooklyn, NY. An ardent

[[Page S5021]]

basketball fan, Zachary began his studies at the Hebrew School in Boro 
Park. In 1979, he moved to Israel with other family members and 
continued his education at Yeshivat Hesder, where religious studies are 
integrated with army service. When the war with Lebanon began, Zachary 
was completing his military service and was looking forward to 
attending Hebrew University, where he had been accepted to study 
psychology. But fate decreed otherwise, and on June 11, 1982, he 
disappeared with Zvi Feldman and Yehudah Katz.
  Zachary's parents Yonah and Miriam Baumel have been relentless in 
their pursuit of information about Zachary and his compatriots. I have 
worked closely with the Baumels, as well as the Union of Orthodox 
Jewish Congregations of America, the American Coalition for Missing 
Israeli Soldiers, and the MIA Task Force of the Conference of 
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. These groups have 
been at the forefront of their pursuit of justice. I want to recognize 
their good work and ask my colleagues to join me in supporting their 
efforts. For eighteen years, these families have been without their 
children. Answers are long overdue.

                          ____________________