AMIT students call on UN president to denounce Havat Gilad attack
In their letter, the girls seek clarity on eight points, most notably questioning the double standards to which Israel is held at the UN.
By LIDAR GRAVÉ-LAZIUpdated: JANUARY 29, 2018 16:04AMIT students with the letter they penned to UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcák.(photo credit: AVISHAG MINNES)
Students at the AMIT Lehava Ulpana penned a letter to UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcák calling on him to denounce the recent terrorist attack near Havat Gilad in central Samaria.The letter, signed by 15 ninth-graders as part of their English class, was written on behalf of the more than 1,000 students at the all-girls school in Kedumim, located near the site of the attack.The girls called on the UN president to condemn the attack on January 8 that saw Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a 32-year-old father of six, shot and killed by Palestinian terrorists while driving to his home in Havat Gilad.“How is it possible that after an innocent person was innocently murdered in Israel by terrorists, while he was on his way home to his family after a day of work and not one statement of condemnation is heard from the United Nations,” the girls wrote.The students said that as part of their school curriculum, they had studied the “origins and purpose” of the United Nations.However, they said they were “shocked to discover many contradictions between facts written in the United Nations charter and reality on the ground.”“The UN was supposed to be created for the purpose of restoring peace in the world but you are ignoring the chaos and the destruction that the terrorists are creating in Israel and globally,” they wrote.In their letter, the girls seek clarity on eight points, most notably questioning the double standards to which Israel is held at the UN.“If it had happened in a different country, or if the situation was different, such as if a Jew murdered an Arab, the UN would not go quiet about it,” they wrote. “The UN claims that their job is to protect the human rights of people across the world. The rabbi was an innocent man who was on his way home to his wife and six children when he was murdered in cold blood by a heartless terrorist who did not respect the most basic human rights of an individual.”They added: “We expect that the UN would condemn this particular act of terrorism and any such acts across the world and in Israel particularly.”“We spoke about the original purpose of the UN and its contradictory history with Israel since its historical recognition, by the UN, as an independent nation,” said Chaya Heuman, the girls’ English teacher. “As a result, the girls decided to address the UN and question the validity of their unwarranted negative attitude towards Israel.”“I believe that the letter-writing experience also gave the students an opportunity to understand that they have a voice and the freedom to express their ideas and opinions whenever the opportunity demands it of them,” Heuman added.This is not the first time that students at the AMIT high school have written to the United Nations seeking action.In 2015, classmates of Ayala Shapira, an 11-year-old girl who was treated for third-degree burns on 30 to 40 percent of her body after Palestinians threw a firebomb at her family’s car, penned a letter to then-UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon demanding the UN condemn the attack.A few months following their letter, Ki-Moon issued a condemnation, though it fell short of naming the event a terrorist attack.
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