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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Judy Lash Balint

Aired December 08, 2001 - 11:45   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Israeli helicopters detect a Palestinian security compound today at the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza. Two choppers fired missiles at a military intelligence headquarters, a police station and a building housing 417, the elite guard of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The Palestine Red Crescent Society says no one was hurt in the attack. Israel says it was a response to Palestinian mortar attacks in southern Gaza.

Writer and journalist Judy Lash Balint has written a book based on the escalating Israel-Palestinian violence. It is entitled "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times, a Vivid Account of Life Behind the Headlines 2001." Judy Lash Balint joins us now from Jerusalem.

Let me ask you, many Americans are wondering if they can ever get used to the idea of living with the threat of violence. Looking at Jerusalem, is this something people adapt to?

JUDY LASH BALINT, AUTHOR "JERUSALEM DIARIES": Well, Jeanne, we've adapted to it in a certain way. It's something, of course, that we've had to get used to for the last 53 years, not just for the last year.

But during the last year, as my book suggests, it is much more in tense times. But sad to say that the rest of the world, I think, is experiencing perhaps the tensest times that we've all ever known. So it is something that, yes, one does get used to, but you never want it to be your normal life.

MESERVE: Why did you write this book? What's the point you wanted to get across?

BALINT: Well, I just felt that people hear and see the headlines. They see the news from a very somewhat skewed point of view. All they see is the attacks, et cetera, et cetera. What I wanted to show is what the effect is of all this on people's lives, living here in Jerusalem, and somewhat in the rest of Israel as well.

MESERVE: And we have some photographs from the book we're going to take a look at, and why don't you talk to us a little bit about what we're seeing. The first one is of a bus. This is a bullet-proof and rock-proof bus that takes passengers from Jerusalem to elsewhere. Tell me about this picture and the story that goes with it.

BALINT: Well, this is typical of busses that Israeli citizens are forced, one could say, to take to places that are now dangerous for us to travel to, various places including -- that particular bus goes to the Etsion (ph) block, which is just south of Jerusalem, an area which is full of people -- it's a dormitory suburb, you could say, in a way. And this is 10 or 12 minutes out of Jerusalem. And people have been attacked on the road. So we're taking these busses in order to protect ourselves.

But despite that, there have been, as you're no doubt aware, many, many attacks which have resulted in loss of life of civilians just traveling to and from work.

MESERVE: And so we see mesh over the windows there. It looks as though some of the windows on the side were blocked out, is that right, to prevent people from throwing something inside?

BALINT: Well they're actually bullet-proof glass panes on the windows, and the front is against stones being thrown at the driver, that would prevent him from driving the bus. But the glass on the side makes it very difficult to see out, by the way. That's bullet- proof glass that's used.

MESERVE: OK, we have another photograph -- we just got a glimpse of it -- of an Israeli soldier. Where is this soldier?

BALINT: Now he is a border policeman who is guarding one of our holy sites. That's the site of Rachel's tomb, which is just outside Bethlehem, and this unfortunately again is indicative of what we're living through, our holy sites, many of which have been destroyed over the past year.

Joseph's tomb, for example, the synagogue in Jericho, an ancient synagogue in Jericho, all destroyed with the violence that we've endured over the past year. And Rachel's tomb is a place where people can still go in those bullet-proof busses. And this is the kind of protection that people have to have going into a holy site.

MESERVE: The third photograph we have is of a house with sandbags. What's this about?

BALINT: Well that's actually in the community of Sagost (ph). to the north of Jerusalem. And what you see there, again, is, sad to say, how people's lives have been impacted by violence.

This is a house that faces directly across from Ramallah in Palestine Authority-controlled territory, and there have been numerous incidences of shooting towards these peoples' houses. So people are still living there, but they're using sandbags. And you can see the child's plaything in the front yard.

So on occasion, of course, you have to let your kids out. But this is the way that people are living surrounding Jerusalem today.

MESERVE: OK, Judy Lash Balint, we have to leave it there. Once again, the name of the book is "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times." Thanks for joining us today.

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