Photo Credit: Yossi Zeliger / Flash 90

Rachel Frenkel, mother of one of three Israeli teens kidnapped by Arab terrorists on June 12, appealed for international assistance on Tuesday, speaking directly to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Switzerland.

Frenkel, who is a U.S. citizen and whose son Naftali, 16, was kidnapped June 12 as he hitchhiked home from Gush Etzion, was flown from Israel by ‘UN Watch’ to testify in Geneva before the agency.

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The UN Watch nonprofit organization monitors United Nations activity.

Frenkel’s son was kidnapped together with another 16 year old, Gilad Sha’ar, and 19 year old Eyal Yifrach. The mothers of all three boys appeared before the committee, although only Frenkel spoke.

Frenkel thanked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for last week condemning the abduction of her son and his friends. She also thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for stating publicly that it is against international law to take hostages.

She described her son for the committee members as a boy who “loves to play guitar and basketball,” and told them that he had texted her to say that he was “on his way home, and then he was gone. It is every mother’s nightmare.

“Much more could be done,” she added. “That is why we three mothers have come today, to make sure the world is doing everything it can to bring back our boys.”

She noted that it is “wrong to take innocent children, and use them as instruments in a struggle.

“Doesn’t every child have the right to come home from school safely?” she asked.

“We just want them back home in their beds… we just want to hug them again.”


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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.