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CNN Sunday Morning
Arafat Speaks Out
Aired February 03, 2002 - 07:39 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat wants to set the record straight about the Palestinian vision for peace. In an op-ed piece in today's "New York Times," Arafat said he condemned recent attacks carried out by terrorist groups against Israeli civilians. And he defended his support for a peace agreement.
In part, Arafat wrote, "There are those who claim that I am not a partner in peace. In response, I say Israel's peace partner is, and always has been, the Palestinian people. Peace is not a signed agreement between individuals it is reconciliation between peoples."
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict hinges on a peaceful co- existence between the two sides. And a man who symbolized that co- existence has been killed.
As CNN's Mike Hannah reports, his death left many feeling even more hopeless about the peace process.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE HANNAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The death of Avi Boaz was a defining moment. For he uniquely transcended the bitter divide between Israeli and Palestinian, traveling freely between the Jewish settlement where he lived, and a nearly Palestinian village, where he spent much of his time.
"He wanted to help them. He wanted to give them everything that he knew," says this man. "He knew architecture, so he helped them build houses."
Earlier this month, the 72-year-old architect was abducted by masked gunmen at a Palestinian checkpoint, his bullet ridden body and car were found later in the day. The worst fears realized of his Israeli friends, who urged him to stop visiting Palestinian areas.
RINA ISSACSON, FRIEND OF AVI BOAZ: And he says, "No, it's fine. Everybody knows me. Everybody knows my car. Nothing will ever happen to me.
His daughter, Idit and her husband, tell of a man who loved life, loved his friends, and loathed the politicians.
"He used to say without politicians there will be no war," says the son-in-law. IDIT COHEN, DAUGHER OF AVI BOAZ: When they show on the news, I don't know, someone -- one of the political people , he always used to change the channel.
HANNAH: She remembers a childhood spent with a father's Palestinian friends. Here Avi on holiday with Jamal al-Aja, his friend for more than 30 years. And here, Jamal's son, Bashir, with Idit on her wedding day.
(on camera): Jamal al-Aja owns the Everest Hotel in Beit Jalah (ph), where Avi kept a room to sleep over. Jamal tells us that Avi Boaz was like a brother, one of the family. But in a sign of these times, he declines to appear on camera to talk about his Jewish friend. People here are caught in the middle. They fear being labeled as terror suspects by the Israelis or as collaborators by Palestinian militants. There is, they say, no law and order.
No Palestinians came to Avi Boaz's funeral, a ceremony in which it seems more than a man was buried.
MICHAEL MELCHIOR, ISRAELI DEP. FOREIGN MINISTER: The tragedy of this murder is that besides from killing people, they're also killing our innocence, our willingness to find a way of living together.
HANNAH (voice-over): But others insist that the values Avi Boaz believed in live on.
JOAN KADIM, FRIEND OF AVI BOAZ: Avi would want me to say that we should continue trying to work together, to live together and to survive together. And what happens in major tragedy, but that's not going to stop us from believing.
HANNAH: Avi Boaz was buried next to his wife, Eve, who died of cancer less than two weeks before. And his daughter places stones on two graves. Each death diminishes us, wrote a poet in centuries past. And in this cemetery, on this day, the old words ring with the truth unburnished by time.
Mike Hannah, CNN, Jerusalem.
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