Hillel members protest the U.N.

While United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan gave a lecture about increased cooperation… While United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan gave a lecture about increased cooperation within the international community, a group of students protested outside for the same reason.

Students from the Hillel Jewish University Center organized the demonstration outside of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall on Fifth Avenue to protest U.N. involvement in terrorist activity by allowing Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, to continue to operate in U.N.-controlled Southern Lebanon.

Hillel President Mark Shabason stressed that the group was not protesting Annan himself, but the U.N. involvement with the capture of three Israeli soldiers near the border of Lebanon, an area the U.N. is monitoring.

“We feel that the U.N. was partly responsible for the capture of these soldiers,” Shabason said. “We want for them to take responsibility for what happened.”

According to Shabason, the demonstration was supposed to help educate students and people within the community about the situation.

U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said the U.N. is monitoring the situation and will step in to mediate as soon as both parties agree to it, but that has not happened.

“The parties have not asked us to step in on these discussions,” Haq said.

This month marks three years since the Israeli soldiers were captured. When asked about the scheduling of Annan’s lecture, Haq said that the timing was completely coincidental.

Germany is currently handling negotiations for the prisoners’ release.