Israel Resource Review |
18th July, 2002 |
Contents:
Accounts of Human Suffering
Following the July 16, 2002 Emannuel Attack
Emmanuel Terror Attack Aftermath
Yehudit Weinberg: "My baby's dead, but maybe he saved my life"
Yediot Ahronot (p. 9) by Rivka Freilich -- "When we return home we'll try
to expand the family despite everything that happened," said yesterday
Yehudit Weinberg, 22, from her hospital bed in the ICU in the Rabin Medical
Center in Petah Tikva.
Yehudit, who was eight months pregnant, sustained very serious injuries
on Tuesday in the terror attack outside Emmanuel. She was struck by a
number of bullets in her legs and hips, and the fetus she was carrying was
in danger. She was taken to the hospital and after a long and complicated
C-section operation gave birth to a boy. The baby was in distress and was
defined as being in critical condition. The doctors at the Schneider
Children's Hospital fought for hours to save the newly born infant's life,
but he succumbed yesterday before dawn.
"After the operation Yehudit wouldn't stop asking what was with the
baby," Yehudit's mother, Ahuva Kupilovich recounted yesterday. "We said,
'not good,' and that he was in critical condition, and I hoped she would
stop asking. In the end she asked if the baby had died. We told it had. She
averted her glance. The entire time she still had hope in her eyes that it
would be possible to save him, but he was hurt too badly. Hope was ended,
and Yehudit said, 'maybe it will be better for him this way.'"
On Tuesday, immediately after the bus was struck by the initial
explosion, Yehudit managed to call her parents and said: "I'm in a terror
attack, call an ambulance." She lay down on the floor of the bus, and then
the terrorists' bullets struck her. Her husband, Zvi Weinberg, said: "I
spoke with Yehudit before she got on the bus, and she said that she was
running a little late. When I heard there had been a terror attack I called
but she didn't answer. It was hard. But her parents told me that they'd
spoken with her and that she was alive, so I calmed down."
Yehudit recounted her experiences: "When I got on the bus I sat down in
one seat, but I wasn't comfortable so I moved. The woman who sat in that
seat was killed. When the bullets were flying all around me I lay on the
floor and I said the prayer 'everything is done by His word,' a prayer that
is a blessing. That's the only thing that passed through my mind, and I had
a feeling that I would come out of it. My baby died, but who knows, maybe I
was saved by him. During the terror attack I screamed for help because I
was pregnant, and they really treated me first. Maybe that was his mission
to this world."
"Everything is still fresh and it's hard talking about things," said
Zvi. "Just like every couple, we were eager for the baby, and that
eagerness was taken away. But anything decreed in heaven is decreed for the
best. Yehudit was struck by seven bullets and she survived by a miracle. We
now need to regain our strength and to get back to normal life. To try and
to be careful, but to continue living." Yehudit and Zvi have a son,
Shalom-Noah, who is 14 months old.
The baby that died yesterday was buried in a ceremony that was attended
by Hevra Kadisha [burial society] representatives only. "According to
Halacha, there's no need to say kaddish," explained Zvi. He said the burial
was not complemented by a funeral, and no family members were to attend the
ceremony.
Lived for 45 Minutes
Ma'ariv (p. 7) by Eli Berdenstein and Sharon Solomon -- He was born in a
terror attack -- and murdered in a terror attack -- without ever even being
given a name. Yesterday he was buried in the plot for premature babies at
the Segula cemetery in Petah Tikvah.
Yehudit Weinberg, 22, was in her eighth month of pregnancy. She was
severely injured in her abdomen during the terror attack on Tuesday and
began to lose blood. "I'm pregnant," she cried to the medics, and they
quickly brought her to the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikvah. There,
out of the horror, a son was born in a Caesarean operation. The doctors
were forced to operate to try and save the fetus's life.
The premature baby was taken in mortal condition to the Schneider
Children's Hospital. For 45 minutes the doctors worked to save him, but at
2:00 a.m., they gave up. "The mother lost a lot of blood and the baby
suffered from a lack of oxygen," the director of the premature babies unit,
Prof. Leah Sirota, explained. "We couldn't save him. He was a perfect
baby, weighting two kilo and 330 gram. It is so frustrating to lose a baby
who had a happy life in front of him. Before he even opened his eyes, he
lost his life."
"Every bullet has an address, and what had to happen happened," said his
mother Yehudit yesterday, still hospitalized in moderate condition,
"everything is from the Holy One. I may have been saved because of the
pregnancy, because I shouted that I was pregnant and they treated me
first." Yehudit, who has another son a year and two months old, said:
"Now I know that we will try and have more children."
"I hoped that the baby would be saved" said the father, Zvi, "But God
wanted otherwise." Yehudit's mother, Ahuva Kupilovich, related that she was
the one who told her daughter of her baby's death. "She seemed to have
already understood this by herself, because she picked up that the
situation was not good. I hoped that she would stop asking, but she
didn't. She asked if he had died. I said yes. She didn't say anything,
just bowed her head and kept her thoughts to herself."
"Yehudit was waiting for the child like any mother. But we accept this
fate. She was saved thanks to Torah and this makes it easier for Yehudit
to accept this loss, the knowledge that nothing happens without a reason,"
said the grandmother.
Where is Daddy?
Ma'ariv (p. 10) by Uri Arazi et al. -- "Where is Daddy? Where is he?" asked
Or Haim Shilon, two and a half, yesterday, over and over. He himself was
lightly wounded in Tuesday's inferno. His sister Sara, nine months old,
was killed. His grandmother Zilpa was killed, his mother was wounded and
phoned his father Gal to come and help them. The father, 32, arrived at a
run, and was shot to death by the terrorists.
Or Haim was hospitalized in Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, with his sister
Galia Ester (Sara's twin sister). The two were surrounded by love from
relatives yesterday, who tried to hide their tears from them. At the same
time, the mother, 29, who was moderately wounded by shrapnel all over her
body, was taken into surgery at the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tivka.
After she came out, the doctors told her that she had lost her baby girl,
her husband and her mother. Ayelet pulled herself together and phoned her
eldest son in the hospital. One relative related: "While talking to her a
light came into his eyes. He calmed down and began to take care of his
little sister. He gave her Bamba and shared a popsicle with her." He told
photographers standing nearby: "She likes that."
Later on Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Law visited the children. "I'm
scared," Or Haim told him. "you're a good boy, don't be scared," the
rabbi replied.
At the same time the children's grandfather, Moshe Mashiah Kashi, 72,
of Givatayim, prepared for the funeral of his wife Zilpa. He told family
and friends how he took Zilpa to the Bnei Brak bus station, where the
67-year-old woman got on the bus of death, along with her daughter and
grandchildren. "She was always visiting the children. She was scared of
nothing," Mashiah said, who also related that five years ago malignant
growths were found in Zilpa's body, but that she had overcome the illness.
Hundreds attended the funeral in Yarkon cemetery. But her daughter Ayelet
could not come, because of her injury. "Why have you left me," Zilpa's
husband cried, holding on to her body, "why did you leave me?"
The funeral of Gal Shilon and of Sara Shilon will take place today.
Yesterday Gal's parents, Yaakov and Sylvia, cut short an organized tour of
Russia and returned home. The father, Yaakov, is a registered nurse and
responsible for the project of rehabilitating IDF injured; mother Sylvia
has a beauty parlor in Ramat Ilan. Ten years ago they lost another son,
Nimrod, when he was 17. A relative related that Sylvia did not want to go
overseas and had a feeling that something bad would happen. Two weeks ago
she told her daughter Ravital, that she dreamed that Gal was being shot and
killed.
Gal served in the Air Force in an anti-aircraft unit, studied business
administration and at the same time studied for a civilian pilot's license
while working for an airline in Canada. When he returned to Israel a few
years ago, he began to come closer to religion, after an aerial exercise in
which he was almost killed. Three years ago he met Ayelet through a match.
The two married, and a year ago moved to Emmanuel. His sister Ravital said
yesterday: "I didn't think my brother was killed in the terror attack since
he wasn't on the bus. I phoned him but he didn't answer, so I phoned
Ayelet's cellphone. A Magen David Adom medic answered me and refused to
give details, only asked me to come to the hospital, where I heard. Gal
was dead."
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Placing a Population Under
Curfew During a Tme of War
Ma'ariv Editorial: July 18, 2002
We hear of the great suffering of the Palestinian population
under constant curfew. Residents of entire cities are stuck
inside their houses most of the day, most of which are crowded,
badly ventilated and not air-conditioned in this blazing heat.
The adults don't work, the children don't go to school and
cannot play outside, the pantry is getting even more bare and
there is very little money to stock it during the few hours when
the curfew is lifted. Tanks move about the streets with
ear-splitting noise and strike fear into the hearts of many, and
sometimes shots are heard and adults or children lie lifeless
because of a mistake, or because of thoughtlessness or because
of a soldier's overly light finger on the trigger.
Their suffering is indeed terrible and continuous and it must not be
ignored, it must be noticed and we must empathize with the distress of
masses of innocents. But it must also be remembered and we must remind
others that this curfew has a reason and it was imposed from a real lack of
choice. The fact is that 24 days went by without there being a suicide
attack inside the Green Line, until last night's terror attack in Tel Aviv.
This attack, like the attack on Tuesday near Emmanuel, is very painful,
but there is great value in reducing the frequency of terror attacks, which
had become intolerable. The curfew works, not perfectly, but quite
efficiently. The responsibility for the great suffering that he causes
lies solely with Yasser Arafat, who thanks to the policy he has been
conducting for two years, has almost brought another catastrophe onto his
people. Arafat sowed the wind and his people reap the storm. Wretched
are the Palestinian people who have him as their leader and they must ask
themselves why they insist on sticking to him. In their eyes he is the
symbol of the struggle and of resistance, but are they really in need today
of a struggle and resistance conducted in a blood soaked terrorist fashion
that only toughens the Israeli positions, or perhaps they need to finally
replace this broken record, to accept a cease-fire and to begin a process
of healing the wounds.
There is a general consensus in the world, some of its explicitly
expressed, like by the US president and some secretly in private
conversations, such as among Arab leaders, that Arafat has ended his role
and is an obstacle on the path to reaching an agreement. All speak of his
natural death as the best thing that could happen in the Middle East and
only he himself and his people insist on dancing together the death dance
that leads nowhere. It is true that many among the Israeli Left accuse the
government and the IDF of having too heavy a hand, but they must turn their
accusatory finger at the Palestinians and their leader, who last night
continued to signal us that they have chosen to continue with the abhorrent
path of terror and prefer this over opening horizons of hope.
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Palestinian Authority Ceremony
Honors Families of Suicide Bombers
David Bedein
Palestinian Authority ceremony honors families
of suicide bombers
On Thursday, July 18, 2002, The PA Minister of Communications,
Imad Falluci (The Hamas leader who was brought into the PA
cabinet as a result of the PA-Hamas coalition accord that was
signed in Cairo on December 15, 1995) invited the press to a
ceremony in which the families of suicide bombers were each
awarded with checks from Saddam Hussein.
The official award provided by the PA for the families of suicide bombers was decorated with a picture of Saddam Hussein in the center and buttressed with flags of the PA and Iraq in each corner.
A film of the ceremony was shown on offcial Palestinian Authority PBS TV last night. and also aired on IBA TV
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