Micah Avni, whose father Richard was killed in a Jerusalem terror attack last October, was in Geneva to urge the UN body to condemn Palestinian terrorism. On Monday, Avni addressed the UN Human Rights Council. Following is the transcript of his remarks:
"My father, Richard Lakin, was a kind gentle person. An elementary school principal who educated thousands of children. A human rights activist dedicated to promoting coexistence. He marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. He founded a school in Israel where Muslim, Christian and Jewish children studied together. He wrote a book called 'Teaching as an Act of Love'.
"Last October, two Palestinian terrorists attacked a bus full of civilians in Jerusalem. They shot my 76-year old father in the head, and stabbed him multiple times after he fell, severing most of his vital organs.
"Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon came to visit my father in the hospital before he died. He wrote my mother a private condolence letter.
"What the secretary-general, and you, the UN investigator on Israel, and this council, did not do was publically condemn these terrorists, or the rampant Palestinian incitement that fuels this brutality.
"The UN Office here has a webpage devoted to 'UN Response to Acts of Terrorism'.
"It contains a long list of terror attacks, and UN condemnations. My dad isn’t on it.
"In fact, not a single Israeli victim of the latest wave of Palestinian terror is on it.
"Palestinians are not preparing for peace. Instead, Palestinian leader Abbas praised my father’s murderer – calling him a 'martyr.'
"I am here today from Israel to issue a direct challenge to the Secretary General, the High Commissioner, and this Council: Killing civilians on a bus is terror. I challenge you to outright condemn the murder of my father Richard Lakin.
"I challenge you to condemn President Abbas for calling my dad’s murderer a 'martyr' and for his hateful incitement to violence.
"The passionate goal of my father and the people of Israel is peaceful coexistence. Your failure to condemn Palestinian violence and your continued rationalization of Palestinian terror is pushing peace away, making more death inevitable."
