Dozens of bereaved Israeli families whose relatives were murdered by Arab terrorists, have penned an open letter to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, demanding the UN stop funding organizations which provide terrorists with legal aid. More than 40 families have signed onto the letter, Channel 2 reported on Tuesday, warning that groups benefiting from UN funding were “paving the way for the next murder”. The authors of the letter cited two organizations in particular which have been engaged in “legal warfare [lawfare]” against the State of Israel. Both groups – Hamoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, and Adalah – receive significant funding from the UN, despite the legal aid they regularly provide to terrorists and the families of terrorists, challenging counter-terror activities by the government in the Supreme Court. Between the two of them, Adalah and Hamoked received more than 2 million shekels ($559,143) from the United Nations in 2016, the letter noted. The UN’s support for groups engaged in lawfare activities against counter-terror efforts is unique to Israel, despite increased anti-terror measures in countries around the world. “In recent years we have witnessed a significant increase in terrorism around the world,” the letter reads, “countries around the world have been harmed as a result of extremist Islamic terrorism, but we see that only in Israel does the UN take sides and fund the legal defenses of terrorists who murdered innocent people.” “We demand that in the coming days, as you make your first official visit as Secretary-General to Israel, announce the immediate halt of funding for these organizations, which are paving the way for the next murder.” The signatories of the letter include, among others, relatives of Baruch Mizrachi , a veteran police officer who was gunned down by terrorists in Hevron in 2014; 26-year-old Malachi Rosenfeld , who was shot and killed in 2015; 13-year-old Hallel-Yaffa Ariel , who was stabbed to death in her bedroom in Kiryat Arba in 2016; and 22-year-old IDF Lieutenant Shir Hajaj , who was one of four soldiers killed in a ramming attack in Jerusalem.
