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CNN Live Saturday

A Look at Two Young Lives Lost in the Middle East

Aired April 13, 2002 - 12:57   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.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier, two young lives were lost, two young teenagers, both girls, one Israeli, one Palestinian -- one Israeli young teenager killed by a Palestinian. Two lives shattered in this part of the world. Our Chris Burns has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ayat al-Akras (ph) is about to graduate from high school. She wants to study journalism at Bethlehem University, to some day explain the Palestinians' plight.

Rachel Levy (ph) is about to finish high school, too, with plans for college. She loves photography, but she dreams of becoming someone important -- maybe first lady, maybe president.

(on camera): It was here where Rachel and Ayat (ph) crossed paths. One on an errand to buy red peppers and spices for Passover, the other on a mission to pay the ultimate price for her cause.

(voice-over): Friday, March 29, a day shattered by yet another suicide blast. But this one drew more attention than others because in the eyes of many it joined two women in death.

Ayat (ph) lived in a Deshe (ph) refugee camp in Bethlehem, where militants fire in jubilation outside the family's apartment in the hours after the bombing.

Even some family members celebrate her death over the sobs of others.

"Hold you head up high and say claim you're the sister of a martyr," says one, "don't cry."

Ayat's (ph) parents reportedly didn't know of her plans. Her last words to her mother, Khadra (ph), "wish me well on my test today."

But after three cousins and a neighbor were killed in the uprising against 35 years of Israeli occupation, Ayat (ph) made up her mind, enough to leave a videotape behind, enough to become one of the uprising's first women suicide bombers.

"I am the living martyr, Ayat Mohammed Al-Akras (ph)," she says, "doing this job for God's sake and for the sake of martyrs, wounded, the weak people on earth. Shame on the Arab army who watch Palestinian girls fighting on TV. They are all asleep."

What her parents think now and exactly how Ayat (ph) was aided or persuaded by militants is difficult to determine. Ayat's (ph) camp is now ringed by Israeli troops as part of the crackdown against suicide bombers.

A 20-minute drive from Bethlehem, Rachel's family grieves. Her mother, Abigail (ph), is a divorcee who works as an executive assistant. She says Rachel (ph), who spent the first nine years of her life in California came to Israel as the first Palestinian uprising began. "Why did all these soldiers carry guns" she asked?

During intifada that began in September, 2000 Rachel quietly tried to cope with death around her, a suicide bombing at a favorite cafe and the loss of her cousin Raffi (ph), a soldier ambushed by Palestinian gunmen in March. In her diary, Rachel wrote: "The proof, do you have any proof that you can prove me that there is a God."

(on camera): Was she asking that because of the violence that was going on?

ABIGAIL LEVY: Yes.

BURNS: And asking why God didn't do something about it?

LEVY: Yes, and she wrote...

BURNS: Was it anger that she wrote, or how did she say it?

LEVY: Yes, anger, why? She wanted to know where is he?

BURNS (voice-over): Abigail Levy says she understands the Palestinians yearning for their own state, but not as neighbors.

LEVY: I don't want them with me, because I know they hate me. I don't hate them but they hate me, and I don't want to live with them. Okay, you want your place. You want your own country. It's okay. It's okay. But I don't want you inside my country. I want a separation, a border.

BURNS: At least until the wounds heal, which she says could take generations, to break a cycle of hatred and grief that's killing young women on both sides.

Chris Burns, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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