Sderot mother faces Human Rights Council

By Tovah Lazaroff
September 19, 2008
The Jerusalem Post
Original Source: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221745565998&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
With her baby in her hands, Sderot mother Dena Cohen has only 15 seconds to dash to safety when she hears the warning siren of an impending rocket attack ring out across her hometown of Sderot. 
On Thursday, she was the first resident of that city to address the United Nation's Human Rights Council and to give them an intimate portrait of what it was like to live under the constant rocket threat from the Palestinians in neighboring Gaza. 
She spoke on the same day that Archbishop Desmond Tutu addressed the council and condemned Israel's 2006 shelling of the Palestinian village of Beit Hanoun, in which 19 civilians were killed. 
All human life is equal and all innocent suffering is tragic, said Cohen. But, she told the Council, it should also understand what it is live on the Israeli side of the border, knowing that a rocket could fall at any time. 
Cohen, 22, who has a one-year-old son, said, Every night, before falling asleep, I face the same dilemma. What will happen if a rocket falls on my son's room? 
We have fifteen seconds between the alarm and the explosion. Fifteen seconds to run to the closest shelter. In which direction to go? How to react? she asked. 
During the winter, she said, a rocket fell near their home, shattering the windows. 
A shard from that rocket injured their eight-year old neighbor, Osher Twito, who lost his leg as a result. His eighteen-year-old brother was also seriously wounded, Cohen told the Council. 
I will never forget their cries. Every time the alarm sounds, I know that this situation can happen again, or even end more tragically, Cohen said. 
Sderot, she said, is a city in shock. At any moment an alarm can sound that would send its 20,000 residents racing for cover. 
Since Israel withdrew from Gaza, the Palestinians there have launched thousands of rockets in the direction of the south, she said. 
I would like to ask: Does my baby not have the right to be protected? Does he not have the right to life? said Cohen. 
Speaking with The Jerusalem Post after the speech, Cohen said she had been in Geneva on a mission organized by the Jewish National Fund and had been approached by the non-profit group UN Watch to address the Council. 
I was very nervous and but I knew that it was very important, said Cohen, for the council to hear testimony from Israelis. 
The Council is dominated by Muslim nations and has been widely cited for frequently and heavily criticizing Israel while virtually ignoring rights problems elsewhere in the world. 
Tutu tried to strike a balanced tone Thursday when he said that the council should look at suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians. 
But he also said in compiling a report on Israeli-Palestinian violence for the council that he had been struck by the lack of international concern for Palestinians. 
The international community is failing to fulfill its role in respect of the suffering of the people of Gaza, he said. 
AP contributed to this report.