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Will They Listen?

Dov Lieber and Tamar Pileggi | Times of Israel

A

fter learning that an east Jerusalem
school recently hosted the family of
the Palestinian terrorist who killed
his father, the son of an Israeli peace activist
has asked to give a talk about Jewish-Arab
coexistence to the students there.
Micah Lakin Avni, the son of Richard
Lakin, a 76-year-old former American school
principal and civil rights activist, contacted
the Jabel Mukaber elementary school in an
effort to share his father’s legacy, the Ynet
news website reported.
Richard Lakin was severely injured in a
shooting and stabbing attack on a bus in
Jerusalem on Oct. 13 and died two weeks
later of his wounds.
Two other Israelis were killed in the attack
— Haviv Haim, 78, and Alon Govberg,
51. The two assailants came from the east
Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber.
Baha Allyan, a 22-year-old graphic designer,
was killed by security forces; the second ter-
rorist, Bilal Ranem, was captured alive.
In January, Israeli forces demolished the
family homes of both terrorists.

Avni said that after learning that the
school had invited Allyan’s family members
to address students, he contacted the prin-
cipal and asked him “to invite me to give a
talk to show the other side of the picture and
how we can live together in coexistence by
respecting each other and resolving conflicts
by talking rather than fighting.”
In late March, the privately run
Elementary School of Jabel Mukaber
had hosted officials from the Palestinian
Education Ministry along with Mohammed
Allyan, Baha Allyan’s father, and his mother
and brother.
According to a Facebook post since
removed from the school’s Facebook page,
Allyan’s mother urged the students to use
knowledge as a weapon.
The mother “taught them a great lesson
whose gist is that the struggle can also be
done through education, the pen and cul-
ture; and they can live their childhood with
all of its hope, meaning and dreams,” the
post read.
The post referred to Allyan as a martyr,

In a 2014 photo, slain peace activist Richard Lakin reads a book to his granddaughter as
his son Micah Lakin Avni observes.

which is standard practice in Palestinian
society. There was no mention of what his
brother and father said at the event.
The elementary school’s administration
declined a request to comment from the
Times of Israel.
Avni told Ynet he’d heard of several events
across the West Bank where Mohammed
Allyan was invited to speak, and in which
Bahaa Allyan’s and others’ actions were
praised. But, he said, “this is the first time
I’ve seen such an event in Jerusalem, in areas
that are under [Israeli] control.”

Avni said “incitement was the main factor
that leads to the spread of terror.”
Following his father’s death, Avni launched
a multi-faceted campaign against incitement
on social media, including filing a class-
action lawsuit against Facebook in a New
York court.
In Israel, he told a Knesset committee
that lawmakers must do more to combat
incitement on social media, in order to help
prevent more of the terrorist attacks and
tragedies of the kind that befell his family.

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78 April 28 • 2016