Bereaved Son Blasts UN for Hosting Palestinian Terrorist’s Father

March 24, 2017

Friday, 24 March 2017 | Micah Lakin Avni, who lost his father Richard Lakin in a Palestinian terrorist attack in 2015, blasted the United Nations Human Rights Council for hosting the father of Lakin’s killer this week.

Avni said that the UNHRC “reached a new low” in inviting Muhammad Aliyan whose son Baha Aliyan and his accomplice, Bilal Abu Ghanem, boarded a Jerusalem bus on October 13, 2015, opening fire in all directions and then stabbing passengers. Two of the elderly victims, 78-year-old Haviv Haim and 51-year-old Along Govberg were killed instantly. Lakin, a 76-year-old American-Israeli teacher and peace activist, died of his wounds two weeks later. Baha Aliyan was killed on the scene while Abu Ghanem was wounded. Both men were in their early twenties and lived in eastern Jerusalem.

After hearing Aliyan’s father speak at the UNHRC where Muhammad Aliyan denounced Israel for his family’s suffering, Avni issued a plea to US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley to put forward a “motion to dissolve the United Nations Human Rights Council.”

“After the attack I spoke at the UN and asked the organization and the UN secretary-general to condemn it, but they did not. They’re consistent like that,” Avni said. “This week, the UN hit rock bottom by inviting the father of the terrorist who murdered my father to give a speech as the representative of a delegation of families of terrorists and say how much they are suffering. It’s just unbelievable. One would expect the State of Israel to raise its voice in objection; the UN is a platform for anti-Semitism.”

Muhammad Aliyan, the father of Lakin’s killer, was invited to address the council earlier this week at a meeting devoted exclusively to condemning Israel which the U.S. boycotted.

Avni said that since the attack, Muhammad Aliyan embarked on a campaign to encourage Palestinians to name schools in honor of his terrorist son. “He made schools bear his son’s name, established cub scouts, reading programs, met with just about everyone on the planet and has been consistently inciting violence. And so I ask, “How is it possible that this man is wandering around freely?” Avni asked.

Last year, Avni wrote that he was shocked to witness how Palestinian society reacted to the attack that resulted in the death of his father. Palestinian glorification of the shooting and stabbing spree left him feeling that “the ‘peace process’ is more one-sided than ever.”

“Palestinian newspapers praised Baha Alyan, one of the terrorists who murdered my father, as a “martyr and intellectual.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has met with the families of the attackers and praised them as “martyrs.” A Palestinian scout leader said Baha Alyan who was shot and killed by a security guard before he could kill more innocent passengers was “an example for every scout.”

“Muhammad Alyan, the father of Baha Alyan, has been invited to speak at Palestinian schools and universities about his son the “martyr.” He recently spoke to children at Jabel Mukaber Elementary School in east Jerusalem, about a half a mile from where my father lived. Tragically, many Palestinian children, perhaps most, are still taught to honor terrorists and fight for the destruction of Israel.”

Posted on March 24, 2017

Source: (This article was originally published by The Israel Project, in its publication The Tower on 23 March 2017. Time related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See the original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Micah Avni/ YouTube