As long as Palestinian leaders encourage children to hate Israel and glorify terrorists, “more violence is inevitable,” the son of terror victim Richard Lakin, who was killed in a terrorist attack last October, warned in a Wall Street Journal op-ed (Google link) Wednesday.

Micah Lakin Avni recalled that his father was motivated by a commitment to civil rights while growing up in the United States, and demonstrated this same passion after he moved to Israel and began teaching Arab and Jewish children thirty years ago. Lakin was a “kind, gentle-hearted man who dedicated his life to education and promoting peaceful coexistence,” wrote his son.

Avni was therefore shocked to witness how Palestinian society reacted to the attack that resulted in the death of his 76-year-old father and two others. Palestinian glorification of the shooting and stabbing spree, carried out by two educated Palestinian men in their 20s against Lakin and other senior citizens on a Jerusalem bus, left him feeling that “the ‘peace process’ is more one-sided than ever.”

… Palestinian newspapers praised Baha Alyan, one of the terrorists who murdered my father, as a “martyr and intellectual.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has met with the families of the attackers and praised them as “martyrs.” A Palestinian scout leader said Baha Alyan, who was shot and killed by a security guard before he could kill more innocent passengers, was “an example for every scout.”

Muhammad Alyan, the father of Baha Alyan, has been invited to speak at Palestinian schools and universities about his son the “martyr.” He recently spoke to children at Jabel Mukaber Elementary School in East Jerusalem, about a half a mile from where my father lived. Tragically, many Palestinian children, perhaps most, are still taught to honor terrorists and fight for the destruction of Israel.

Citing his father’s belief that “every child is a miracle that should be nurtured with love,” Avni sought permission from the Jabel Mukaber Elementary School to speak and spread his father’s “message of peace and coexistence.” His offer was rejected.

“As long as Palestinian leaders nurture a culture of hate, encouraging school children to go out and kill, more violence is inevitable,” Avni observed.

Following his father’s death, Avni charged that the attack was the result of “incitement and hate” on Palestinian social media. Avni is currently the lead plaintiff in a suit joined by 20,000 Israelis asking Facebook to do more to stop violent incitement within its network.

Lakin’s killers — Baha Alyan and his accomplice, Bilal Abu Ghanem — were honored at a Palestinian high school last month as part of a program to encourage reading among tenth graders.

In March, Avni met with Vice President Joe Biden and gave him an open letter that read, “We have continued to teach our children to love, while our neighbors increasingly teach their children to hate.” Avni asked Biden to pass the letter along to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

[Photo: Yaser Alagha / YouTube ]