 |
|
 |
Students Deliver Hillel's Petition to the UN
August 1, 2006Comments (0) | Add | E-mail this to a friend
 Students deliver Hillel's Israel Petition to the U.N. David Karp photo.
With a box containing more than 42,000 signatures, student representatives of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life stood in sweltering July heat and navigated long security lines to deliver a petition to the offices of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York.
The petition, urging the secretary-general to “clearly and immediately reaffirm the right of Israel to defend its citizens and ensure its security in the face of relentless attacks, killings and kidnappings by Hezbollah” was launched on Hillel’s Web site on July 20.
Add your voice and sign the petition today.
“Jewish students from across the spectrum are deeply concerned by what is happening in the Middle East,” said Hillel President, Avraham Infeld. “They want to send a message to the international community that recognizing the root cause of this violence is the best way to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
While in circulation, the petition grew into one of the largest documents of its kind, quickly picking up speed as signers forwarded it to friends and family.
“My dad signed the petition after I sent it to him,” said Ilyse Whitney Davidson, a sophomore at Hofstra University and one of the students delivering the petition. “He told me he was the 20,000th person to sign.”
Michelle Sandler, a junior at American University, also assisted in delivering the petition to the secretary-general. “I hope he takes the petition seriously and reads some of the comments,” she said. “Many of the people who signed are college students. We are the future, the ones who will be in government and working at the U.N. someday.”
For most of the students it was their first visit to the U.N., yet it didn’t go unnoticed that they delivered the petition on a day when the Security Council was convening to discuss the conflict raging in the Middle East.
“Seeing how many different flags are flying outside, I realized that the U.N. is not just about peace in the Middle East,” said Davidson. “But someone actually took the time to come and take our petition, with all the signatures and comments, upstairs to the secretary-general. I don’t know if it will make a difference, but we stood up for what we believed in.”
The students are participants in Hillel's Collegiate Leadership Internship Program (CLIP).
|
 |
|
 |