On the other hand, with Europeans and other countries, I don’t accept it.
We all remember the Security Council meeting last April attended by the family of Dafna Meir, who two months earlier had been stabbed to death in her kitchen by a Palestinian terrorist. You abruptly stopped your speech to demand answers from Palestinian Authority Permanent Representative Riyadh Mansour. What was going through your mind in that moment?
Actually that’s the only time it looked like the Knesset. One of the UN photographers who has been in the Security Council for many years said he never saw anything like it.
Was it planned it ahead of time?
No. I was furious. It was such an emotional moment, visiting with Dafna’s daughter Renana, who witnessed her mother’s murder and was now addressing the Council. And then we got the message about a terror attack in Jerusalem. It just ignited everything. I thought it was an appropriate moment for both of us to condemn terrorism.
Did any personal experiences during your time as a student at Florida International University come into play with the anti-BDS initiative you organized?
Absolutely. I vividly remember standing behind a table with an Israeli flag and people were cursing at me. It’s not easy to face this on campus. I think anyone who was at the UN for the anti-BDS event and saw 2, 000 people in the General Assembly hall waving Israeli flags and singing “Hatikvah” will never forget it.
My approach is that we must keep denouncing resolutions against Israel even though we cannot get rid of them. But we must also continue to build achievements and victories, big and small. The Sixth Committee was a big victory. Getting Yom Kippur recognized as an official holiday was a victory, and so was getting kosher food in the cafeteria.
How does the Jewish community here in the U.S. fit into all this?
The involvement of the Jewish community is crucial. When the Venezuelan ambassador compared IDF soldiers to Nazis, the Jewish organizations joined me in condemning it. By putting pressure on him, we got him to apologize. I’m grateful for that. We need the Jewish community to be aware of what’s happening at the UN; we need their support.