Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan met with Yesha Council chairman Shlomo Ne’eman, Yesha Council CEO Shira Livman, and Yesha Council deputy director of public relations Yigal Dimoni at his office in New York City this week.
During the meeting, Ambassador Erdan received an overview of the progress of development in the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria and the security challenges in the area.
At the end of the meeting, Ne’eman presented Ambassador Erdan with a wooden mezuzah in the shape of the Land of Israel, designed by the artist Michal Green-Shatz, a resident of Yakir in Samaria, and a stone from a purification mikvah that was used by Jewish pilgrims to Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, located near Neve Daniel in Gush Etzion.
The new mezuzah will be installed by Erdan in his office at Israel’s mission to the UN. “I was very happy to receive from the chairman of the Yesha Council, Shlomo Ne’eman, and the executive director of the council the mezuzah created by the artist Michal of Yakir, a mezuzah that symbolizes that Judea and Samaria has always belonged to the people of Israel and it will always belong to the people of Israel,” said Erdan.”

“God willing, I will place this mezuzah in my new office as Israel’s ambassador to the UN, in a few months. “I was also happy to receive a stone that was found in a mikvah on the paths of our forefathers and is from the days of the Second Temple. This is of course another proof of the thousands of years of connection between the Jewish people and Judea and Samaria, especially after I previously presented to the Security Council a stone that was thrown [at Jews] on the roads of Judea and Samaria,” added Erdan.
Ne’eman thanked the ambassador for his actions in support of Judea and Samaria and said: “My friend, Ambassador Erdan is a true friend of the settlements in Judea and Samaria. We came to thank him and strengthen him for his consistent firm stand on the side of the truth. We gave him a stone from Gush Etzion from the Second Temple period which he can present at the United Nations and use it to illustrate our right to the land of our ancestors. On behalf of all the residents of Judea and Samaria, we wish him continued success in all his actions for Israel and Judea and Samaria.”