With all the other news of the past few days, this might have slipped through a crack. Interesting.
'My son is an angel, not a shaheed'
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Thousands of Arabs and Jews wept together at the funeral of George Khoury, the 21-year-old university student who was murdered in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood Friday night.
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski and two of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's advisers were also among the mourners.
This is the first time the mayor participated in an event alongside top PA officials in Jerusalem. The funeral was one of the biggest held for an Arab victim of terrorism in Jerusalem.
So this is what it takes to bring us together? In the movies, this would be where everyone finally realizes that the hatred and the bloodshed have all been a terrible mistake and vows to put an end to it at once. Not in real life, though.
Ibrahim Kandalaft, Arafat's adviser on Christian affairs, eulogized Khoury on behalf of the PA chairman, describing him as a shaheed (martyr) of the Palestinian cause.
But the victim's mother interrupted him by declaring that her son was an "angel, not a shaheed."
Good for her. A brave woman. My heart goes out to her.
"This is a big tragedy," said one of the lawyers. "This case shows that terrorism is blind and does not distinguish between Jews and Arabs."
Er, except, counselor, that everyone knows the terrorists have already announced, several times, that they had intended to kill a Jew, not an Arab.
Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, claimed responsibility for the slaying, but later apologized, saying the victim was mistaken for a Jew.
Reconcile that.
