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CNN Live Saturday

In Haifa, Suicide Bombing Shatters Peaceful Atmosphere

Aired December 08, 2001 - 20:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In the Israeli city of Haifa, a suicide bombing last weekend all but shattered an atmosphere of peaceful and even trustful coexistence there.

Here's CNN's Chris Burns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nissin Buzaglo (ph), an Israeli Jew, helps keep a makeshift memorial outside his apartment building, where a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up inside a bus, killing himself and 15 Jews.

"We tell our children to be careful, to stay out of shopping malls," he says, "but now, I can't even feel safe at home."

Down the street, Mari Yasser (ph), an Israeli Arab, lights a candle at another memorial for the victims, some of whom he says he helped save. Speaking Hebrew, he says Jews in this ethnically mixed neighborhood of Halisa, now look at Arabs with more suspicion.

"The Jews are very afraid," he says. "To them now, all Arabs look the same."

Taking a bus for many Israeli Jews here seems like a death- defying act.

"There's always the fear that now it's going to happen," says bus rider Veronica Lerner.

How safe do you feel?

VERONICA LERNER, BUS RIDER: Not safe at all. I tend to take taxis.

BURNS (on camera): The bomb that exploded here struck this neighborhood especially hard, shaking lifelong ties between Jews and Arabs, shattering for many, a climate of trust.

(voice-over): Israeli Arabs here say the attacks are hurting them as well.

"It's very bad for both sides," says this woman. "We just hope there will be peace." "It doesn't stop. Both sides keep retaliating. We should understand them also," says this woman of the suicide attackers. "They are desperate."

One Jewish-Arab friendship that has stood the test is a few meters below the bombing site, at Hero's Falafel shop. 17-year-old Mohammed Gish works alongside 16-year-old Izik Zabad. Some Jews protested outside this Arab-owned shop after the blast.

How good friends are you?

"Very good friends," Mohammed says in Hebrew. "And I love him."

Despite the violence, there are ties here that still live on, offering hope the latest tensions won't boil out of control.

Chris Burns, CNN, Haifa, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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