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CNN Live Today
Heart of Israeli Killed in Bombing Gives Palestinian Life
Aired April 05, 2002 - 10:13 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The people side to this conflict now. There is another side to the conflict in the Middle East. And the heart of an Israeli man who was killed in a suicide bombing is giving a Palestinian woman a new chance at life.
Our John Vause has more on the tale of two families who have been tied by a bizarre twist of fate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a cemetery in Tel Aviv, another funeral for one the victims of Israel's bloody Passover. Zaeef Vider (ph) killed by a suicide bomber at a hotel in the seaside town of Natanya. He was buried alongside his daughter, Savan (ph), also killed in the same attack.
His father, brothers and wife, still bear the physical scars of the blast, which claimed 25 lives. Zaeef (ph) survived for a week on life support. When he died, his family donated his organs, and last night, Isha Buhada (ph) received one of his kidneys.
She waited for this transplant for two years, and finally this Palestinian woman from East Jerusalem was saved by a Jewish victim of a suicide bombing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): He is like my son, all our sons. Don't think I discriminate between a Muslim and a Jew. It is all the same.
VAUSE: Israelis have no say who receives a relative's organs. They are given on a basis of need.
DR. SHAHARABANI, EZRA, SURGEON: It's kind of life here in Israel. We are all mixed together, patients, physicians, victims, all together.
VAUSE: Zaeff's (ph) son told me his father would be happy to know that he saved a life, any life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even if it would be to give his organs to one of the families that was connected to the suicide bombers, so I am sure that he would give it.
VAUSE: From Isha's (ph) son, gratitude and condemnation of the suicide bombers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): But the Israeli army won't stop it. The only solution is the table, negotiations. That is the solution.
VAUSE: And from the family, which has lost so much, hope this gift of life will be a symbol for both sides to end the violence.
VIDER: I don't believe that all Arabs are suicide bombers or all of their friends. We are walking with Arabs. They live (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the Jordan Valley. My father taught me all the time that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) it doesn't matter, no any culture. Life is life for us. This is what he taught me this, and this is what I am doing.
VAUSE (on camera): According to his family, Zaeef Vider (ph) always believed that Israel could exist peacefully with its Arab neighbors, and they say now is a part of him still lives on, so too his hopes for Israel.
(voice-over): For now, though, two families both finding solace there can be life from so much death.
John Vause, CNN, Tel Aviv.
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