Approaching Conflicts
Contexts, Perspectives, and Values in Israel Education

Political Cartoons Depict the Gilad Shalit Prisoner Exchange

Toolkit Discussion Guide

Discuss.

  • What message do you get from this cartoon?

 

It is interesting that the backdrop of the cartoon is a chessboard. In some ways the prisoner exchange can be viewed as a political game in which Shalit and the Palestinian prisoners are pawns.

 

Discuss.

  • What does the cartoon mean when it tells us, “So Much Joy, So Much Pain”?

On the ground, you see Israelis welcoming Gilad Shalit back home. Yet the cartoon shows people killed by the terrorists being released up in heaven looking down. The cartoon really expresses the tension between exchanging Palestinian prisoners, some perpetrators of terrorist attacks, for one Israeli soldier.