Tal Yitzhak, the widower of Laura Yitzhak who was killed in a terror attack in Be'er Sheva in March, said he was appalled to learn that the United Nations did not recognize his wife as a terror victim in its most recent report.
"There is something not right here, and unfortunately, we are the guinea pigs," he said. "The UN hostility has reached new heights.
It doesn't make sense that they count the Palestinian terrorists as innocent victims and not us — families and kids who have lost the most precious thing of all, only because we are Jews."
Yitzhak's voiced his protest in response to UN Coordinator to the Middle East Tor Wennesland's annual report released on Thursday, which left out 12 Israeli victims killed in bombing and shooting attacks.
The envoy reported to the international body's Security Council that more than 20 Israeli victims have been killed as part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the beginning of 2022 — a number lower than the official Israeli tally. He also reported 150 Palestinian casualties during the same time span.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Wennesland relied on data taken from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which only recognized 19 Israeli victims in terror attacks in 2022.
However, Israel recorded 31 Israelis and foreign workers who were killed in terrorist attacks in 2022. The UN agency lists the cause for 12 fatalities as disputed or their perpetrators remained at large.
The widower shared that he had learned about the mislabeling through Ynet's reporting and that the family is still struggling to move on.
Nine months after Laura's death, Yitzhak says that he and his family "do not live in the same way."
"Laura was a great and happy woman that loved life," he reminisced. "We are a sovereign state, and saying that they don't recognize terror, just because we are Jewish, that's antisemitic."
In the report, Wennesland failed to mention that at least 80% of the 150 Palestinians killed since the beginning of 2022 were armed militants.
"It's sickening. Every terror attack that happens here is directed toward innocent civilians," Yitzhak continued. "My wife went out to fill up the car, it wasn't like she went out to war and got jumped by a terrorist.
It's simply shocking that the UN even receives such and such data and says that it doesn't recognize terrorism just because we are Jews. It's inconceivable, it's just very difficult. Anyone who conveys such messages should not be here at all."