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CNN Live Today

Profile of Suicide Bombing Victim

Aired June 24, 2002 - 14:40   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All week we're taking a closer look at terrorism and the tragic toll that it's taking on people there.

Today we focus on a woman who has suffered incredible loss. Her mother and her daughter were killed in the same suicide bombing. And in all, seven Israelis were killed at the crowded bus stop in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem on Wednesday evening.

Here now is CNN's John Vause with her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PENINA AIZENMAN, SURVIVOR OF BOMBING: We came back from Ofra, where my parents live. It's like a little village near Jerusalem, what you call a settlement.

We came from a concert that was organized by my mother, a music concert. So we just got down from the bus. I don't remember a lot because I think that at the moment we got to the station was the explosion.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What do you remember? Do you remember the sound? The sights?

AIZENMAN: Not the sound, not the sights, not the terrorist, no.

VAUSE: Nothing?

AIZENMAN: So the only moment that I remember is when the hospital, when I opened my eyes and I -- I asked where am I. And so they told me there was an explosion. They didn't tell me what happened exactly. It was my question. Where is my children? Where is my mom? Nobody wanted to tell me.

VAUSE (voice-over): On that day at that moment, nobody in the emergency room wanted to tell Penina Aizenman what she now calls the cruel truth. Instead it came many hours later from her husband: A suicide bomber had killed her mother and 5-year-old daughter.

VAUSE (on camera): Do you remember that moment?

AIZENMAN: Not exactly.

VAUSE: Do you remember the feeling? AIZENMAN: Yes, I remember. I remember that I was terribly sad, because my mother and my daughter, for me, were the most precious souls in my life. My mother and I were like that. Every day we were talking on the phone. She knew about -- she knew about everything. And my daughter, she was a beautiful girl. This is something that not only I -- you can ask people.

VAUSE: Blond hair, green eyes.

AIZENMAN: I'm telling you: blond hair, like curls, green eyes, nose like -- little nose not a big nose. Everything is perfect.

VAUSE: She was like a painting, you told me.

AIZENMAN: What?

VAUSE: You said she was like a painting.

AIZENMAN: Yes, like a painting, exactly. As if the best painter in the town made her.

VAUSE: Now she's gone. And your mother?

AIZENMAN: I don't deal with it. I just cry. I am a very realistic person. So I used to say to myself all the time, to put it in my head that I will never see them, in order not to be an illusion. And telling myself all of the day, from the morning to the evening: that's it, you will not see them, never.

VAUSE (voice-over): Penina was badly injured in the blast. Her left arm burned, the other hit by flying pieces of shrapnel. Her eardrums burst. Her body aches now and there are headaches, constant headaches. Her face is scarred. Doctors say it will be months before the physical wounds heal, before she again looks anything like the woman she once was.

AIZENMAN: But first of all, I'm glad that it's me and not the baby. Because I know that I loved him. I got this, and if not, he would have. It's very simple.

VAUSE: Sergei (ph) is almost 2 years old. He doesn't know what happened at that bus station in a Jerusalem suburb. His wounds have now all but healed. He doesn't understand that his mother's life has forever changed.

AIZENMAN: I know that my little baby will have now a sad mother. I know. It's a fact for me. I can't be happy as I were. I don't believe in god. My family believes. My family is religious. I lost my belief many years ago.

This Wednesday I got to the final conclusion that no god is here. Which god will take my most (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

VAUSE: As a family, they tried to take all of the precautions; avoided crowded places. They didn't visit cafes. Always watched for anyone suspicious. When they visited their parents in the settlements, they would always travel on the special armored buses.

When the intifada began almost two years ago, Isaac Aizenman even suggested leaving Israel. But his wife insisted on staying. On Wednesday he identified the body of his dead daughter. His anger, he says, is directed at the Palestinian leaders.

ISAAC AIZENMAN, PENINA'S HUSBAND: I just wanted to say to them, my life of my little baby has been taken from us. It's been such a terrible thing, that I just wanted to say to them, look at the face of my child, find out. And look at her face. Look at her innocence.

VAUSE: Penina says it's all so much worse because she feels Israel is isolated. The world's sympathies, she believes, are with the Palestinians.

P. AIZENMAN: This is not a war. It's not a war. War is against soldiers. It's not against babies and mothers.

VAUSE (on camera): There are a lot of difficult months ahead. How do you rebuild your life?

P. AIZENMAN: I think as soon as I get well with my situation, maybe the first thing will be to think about amplifying my family. Have another children. I'm a broken person. So I don't try to fight against it. I face reality. I will try to make it less and less difficult.

VAUSE: Good luck.

P. AIZENMAN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Doctors say Penina will hopefully be released from the hospital by the end of the week. She and her family plan to remain in Israel.

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