Transcript
Frimet
Roth was induced by the producer of Wolf Blitzer's program to come into
their Jerusalem studio very late one night and take part in a double
interview: two victims of terror. At no stage was it suggested to her
that the second "victim" would be a Palestinian Arab speaking
about the alleged killing of a friend belonging to a mysterious,
probably non-existent Palestinian anti-drug unit. By the time she
realized how absurdly the program's 'balance' had been engineered (in
fact, after she had finished speaking to the camera), it was too late
for her to withdraw. The program went live to air.
The full
transcript text of the CNN program is online here
The
text below is extracted from a Wolf Blitzer interview program aired on
CNN May 6, 2002 - 17:00 ET
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BLITZER: Torn
apart by war and death. Not much hope here. We'll speak with people
who've lost loved ones when we come back.
Also, President Nixon's true colors revealed. A look at how he says he
really felt about the Arab world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. I'm Wolf Blitzer live in Jerusalem. Let's check
our latest "News Alert."
Negotiations continue to end the standoff at the Church of the Nativity
in Bethlehem. Sources familiar with the talks say the major stumbling
block remains how many of the dozens of Palestinians inside will be sent
into exile. Israel has asked that 13 "senior terrorists" be
sent to Europe. But Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is said to be
vehemently opposed to exiling more than six of them. The church has been
under siege for almost five weeks.
Newly released papers from the Nixon administration show the former
president worried about perceptions that U.S. Middle East policy was
biased against Arabs. They also revealed Richard Nixon denied any
pro-Israeli tilt. In one conversation, he assured Arab leaders that
while his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, is Jewish, his goal was
the same as Nixon's, a fair and just settlement to all.
Middle East violence has claimed many lives, especially over these many
months. We're going to get two stories right now from two individuals
who suffered deep, deep losses. Shortly, we'll speak to a Palestinian,
but first, an Israeli.
Joining me now, Frimet Roth -- thank you very much, Frimet. You lost
your daughter in that pizzeria bombing here in Jerusalem last August at
the Sbarro (ph) pizza. Tell us a little bit what happened.
FRIMET ROTH, MOTHER OF BOMBING VICTIM: Well, that day she went off with
her close friend, Michael (ph), to attend a meeting of counselors
planning their summer camp for next week. She went through the city, she
had to catch a bus there. And apparently she decided on the spur of the
moment to stop off; they both stopped off for a pizza. I didn't know
they were going to be there. And that was it. I heard from her an hour
before. She called me just to tell me what she was planning to do, and I
never spoke to her again.
BLITZER: And our deepest condolences, obviously. I know you have a
picture that you brought of your beautiful daughter.
ROTH: Yeah, it's her last photo. It's the last photo of the two of them
together. It was taken about two weeks before they were killed. They are
buried side by side.
And what can I say? I'm in constant pain every minute of every day. It's
been nine months, but I feel as if it just happened. And I can't seem to
accept the permanence of it. It's very difficult.
But another pain on top of that is the fact that I see the world media
glossing over the suffering of the Israelis, the over 460 Israelis who
have lost loved ones. And our pain is so extreme, so deep. For example,
in this bombing, another woman -- a 31-year-old woman -- was killed. She
was the only child of an American couple living in L.A., with whom I am
in touch.
And they have nothing now, no children. Their pain is indescribable.
BLITZER: It's your feeling that the news media doesn't get the story
right? Is that what you're suggesting?
ROTH: Doesn't seem interested in covering our pain. We suffer quietly.
We don't perform for the cameras, we don't cry, we refused access to the
media at the funeral. We don't publicize our excruciating suffering.
We don't see vengeance as a natural reaction. We don't entertain those
feelings. We don't -- I don't dream of bombing myself up. Why is that
considered a natural reaction for the Palestinians who believe that they
are justified in doing that? We are suffering terribly, silently.
BLITZER: Frimet Roth, we can only express our deepest condolences to you
and your beautiful daughter Malka (ph). And wish you only the best.
Obviously, it doesn't get much easier...
ROTH: It gets hard.
BLITZER: ... at least nine months you're obviously still in pain. Thank
you so much for sharing your story with us. Thank you very much.
And Palestinians have suffered deep losses as well. Let's speak with one
Palestinian who lost his best friend, Mahir (ph), who is joining us now
from Ramallah. Mahir (ph), tell us what happened to your friend.
SALEH, FRIEND OF VICTIM: Well at the beginning, my friend, he's a
policeman. He works with the anti-drug department in Ramallah at this
area in Palestine. Him and his friends, they were trapped in a building.
There were 20 policemen that were trapped in a building, because, as you
know, the Palestinian headquarters are being destroyed.
So they didn't really find any place to hide, so they found this
building and they were hiding in it. And the Israeli soldiers were
surrounding the building from everywhere. And they stayed there for four
days without food or water.
So they tried to leave the building, you know? And while they were
leaving a sniper shot him in his leg at the beginning. And then the guy
who was with him -- I wasn't with him, I was at home that night.
And like the night when the invaded, me and him had dinner together, you
know? And I told him to stay, I begged him to stay. I told him probably
now they're going to invade and it's going to be a great mess, so please
stay in the house. And my mom begged him to stay.
But he was a very shy, nice guy, you know? And he knew that probably he
thought that there's no room for him. So he decided that he'll just go
and join his friends and stay with them.
So when they shot him, his friend told me that he was crawling on the
floor. And because there was heavy shooting at them, he ran away. So I
called the Red Cross like two days after and they told me that he was
injured. That's what they told me.
But, unfortunately, when they left the curfew -- you know we are living
under curfew now; we can't leave the house and we're not allowed to
leave the houses -- I discovered that he's been in the morgue for more
than 11 days without anybody knowing that he was dead, you know?
And he is a policeman. Where could he hide? Where could he go, you know?
BLITZER: Mahir (ph), tell us what his name was?
SALEH: His name is Jed (ph). He was 23 years old and he's not from
Ramallah. He's from a village which is an hour away from us, you know?
And he doesn't know anybody over here. You know where could he go and
hide, you know?
Like he was -- him and his friends were hiding in that building, you
know, because they were scared from the Israeli soldiers, you know? And
when they tried to run, he was shot in the leg. So what happened is --
what I want to say is that when we found out that he was killed, we went
to the place where supposedly he was shot and I found two empty bullets
were there. And when we had seen his body from the hospital, he was shot
in the neck and in the head -- in the back of his head.
That meant that he was executed, you know? I mean he's a policeman who
was fighting drugs in our community and he is being targeted, you know?
And he was in the morgue for 11 days and we did not know about it
because we were under curfew. If you leave the house while you're under
curfew you're going to be shot immediately. They don't distinguish
between a kid, a woman, a child. No matter what, you're going to be shot
because that's their orders, you know?
And what's so tragic about it, that because there's blocks around our
cities, we couldn't transport him to his village by the ambulance. So
the ambulance took him to the border and then a regular car went and
picked him up to his family, you know? And thank God his family, they
got to bury him, you know? Because there are checkpoints...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Mahir (ph), our condolences to you, condolences to his family.
Thanks for sharing your story as well with our viewers on our program.
Appreciate it very much.
When we come back, much has changed. Only three weeks ago, I was here in
Jerusalem. This is my first day back. When I come back, we'll take a
look back, what happened then, what's happened since, where is this
whole peace process, if it can be called a peace process, where is it
headed? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. This is my second trip to Jerusalem in less than
a month. Much has changed since that last trip when I was here... |
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