The Israel-Palestine conflict hit home for some students Tuesday
when survivors of terrorism came to UCLA to share their tragic
experiences.
The presentation entitled “Survivors of Terrorism”
held in Royce hall on Tuesday night, featured victims who
volunteered to tell their stories with the One Family organization,
which aids and assesses the needs of victims of terrorism right
after an attack, said Shannon Shibata, a volunteer with One
Family.
There was a hushed silence in the room as about 20 students
listened to the victim’s stories.
Shibata said she is fresh out of college. While studying history
at Hebrew University in Israel, she said she witnessed the
“daily suffering, pain, and murder that should move every
nation.”
A year ago, she gave up all her possessions because of what she
saw in the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, which has resulted in
the deaths of hundreds of Israelis and thousands of
Palestinians.
Shibata works as a volunteer with One Family to show terrorist
victims that they are not alone in their struggle and to show
students around the world that something needs to be done.
Geula Hershkowitz, a volunteer with One Family and one of the
speakers, spoke about how she lost her husband and son to separate
terrorist attacks.
On Jan. 29, 2001, she came home to Ofra, about 20 minutes away
from Jerusalem, and turned on the television. She said she saw a
report about an Israeli who had died on the road that her husband
usually drove on. Hershkowitz’s shock turned to sorrow when
the rabbi came to her door to tell her that her husband had been
killed.
After the incident she insisted that her and her son wear
bulletproof vests. But three months after her husband’s
death, her son was shot through the neck by terrorists while he was
driving. The rabbi refused to relay the news to her because he said
three months was too short of a time for him to bring such
news.
Instead, a group of women visited Hershkowitz, who said she
fainted at the sight of them because she knew the news they were
about to tell her.
Avihu Cohen, director of the One Family Fund who has lost his
father to an act of terrorism, told the students they should take
action.
“Terrorism is not acceptable at all. Human beings
shouldn’t act like that.”
Daniela Karlin, a first-year Jewish studies student said she has
had her own experience with terrorism in Israel.
“I was in Jerusalem during the Sbarro bombing and was
shocked even though it was not a new thing,” she said,
referring to the Aug. 9, 2001 bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria that
killed 15 people. “Unfortunately, this horrific thing was
nothing new.”