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| School students and suicide bombers - The results |
| 2004-02-23 |
| Edited for brevity. A little after 3 P.M., the principal of the Experimental School in the center of Jerusalem, Uri Geva, assembled the 55 students in the graduating class, the teachers, and dozens of parents. "We’re still waiting for official notice," he began, finding it difficult to continue. For the friends of Benaya Jonathan Zukerman, 18, it was enough. The principal continued: "The whole time we hoped and we prayed, and now we all need to be strong. We lost..." He stopped again. He later said that this was the first time he had to tell students about the death of a friend, and that there was no right way to do so. When news hit of the suicide bombing on bus No. 14, at around 8:30 A.M., Jerusalem schools began the standard procedure of dealing with terror attacks that take place in the morning: homeroom teachers went from class to class, checking who was absent and trying to reach them on the phone. In the Hebrew Gymnasia high school in the Rehavia neighborhood, concern was particularly strong: about half of the students live in the south of the city and travel to school on bus No. 14. Many of them begin class at 9 A.M. After about half an hour, it became clear that the concern was justified: about 10 of the school’s students had traveled on the bus. The school defined two of them as missing; one student, Liz Monteleo, was located later in serious condition in the hospital. An additional 11 high school students from throughout Jerusalem were wounded in yesterday’s attack, and dozens of other youths witnessed it. Meanwhile, the other missing Gymnasia student was 12th grader Lior Azulai, 18 . He was killed. About two-and-a-half hours after the attack, the 12th-graders gathered in the auditorium and the principal, David Gal, said: "I have a difficult announcement." "They took it hard," he said. "I was barely able to get out a sentence. I told them this was the hardest day of my job." Just three-and-a-half weeks ago, another bus bombing took place on one of the capital’s main thoroughfares, Gaza Street, a few hundred meters from the Gymnasia. An eighth-grade student was seriously wounded. He’s still hospitalized, paralyzed in his lower body. About six months ago, in the terror attack in Jerusalem’s Cafe Hillel, the father of one of the students was killed. In the downtown pedestrian mall six years ago, two students were killed. In the Experimental School, they weren’t worried about Benaya Zukerman. He hadn’t arrived in class, but he lived in Ein Kerem - there was no reason to think he was riding bus No. 14. Only as the hours passed and the school couldn’t reach him on his cell phone did someone remember that Banya had planned to collect his driver’s license from the state license office in Talpiot, in the south of the city. School officials couldn’t find him in the hospital, and the 12th-grade homeroom teacher, Giora Segel, gathered the students. "I gave them a short and sad speech," he said. "I told them we have very grave concerns." And we should reward the people who cause this with their own country? |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #3 Build that wall. Throw some minefields in there too while your at it. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-2-23 10:53:29 PM |
| #2 cowards |
| Posted by: smokeysinse 2004-2-23 7:01:35 PM |
| #1 Dar, This *is* very sad and condolences to the students and friends of those who's lives were lost. This is the reason the wall is needed. While the mainstream media cries about Palistinian students being unable to go (or having to cross a checkpoint) to school because of the wall these students are unable to live period. Not only will they not go to school but they will not be able to live, love, marry, laugh, cry, have children, etc.... they are fucking dead -- forever. I don't see this reported on BBC/CNN/American networks..... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-2-23 5:19:33 PM |