Suicide bomber's victims should be remembered

  In a Feb. 28 presentation at the Wesley United Methodist Church of Naperville, Mr. Kevin Clark, a human-shield activist, recounted his recent stay at the family home of a Palestinian suicide bomber.

  In the course of his talk, Mr. Clark pulled out his wallet and proudly displayed pictures of both his son and the suicide bomber, Mr. Burak Khelfi. Along with another member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (a Palestinian terror organization affiliated with Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction), Mr. Khelfi carried out a suicide bomb "martyrdom" attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Jan. 5. The explosion killed 23 people — 15 Israelis and 8 foreign nationals — and left 120 wounded.

  Although Mr. Clark expressed great sympathy and passion for the dead suicide bomber, he did not utter a single word of compassion for the bomber's victims or their grieving families and friends. Even more distressing, no one among the audience at the church questioned the speaker's disregard for the victims' lives.

  While these victims may not have found a way into Mr. Clark's presentation or his wallet, we should not forget them.

  So let us remember and honor the innocent victims rather than their murderer. These are: Moshe (Maurice) Aharfi, 60, Israel; Krassimir Mitkov Angelov, 32, Bulgaria; Steven Arthur Cromwell, 43, Ghana; Mordechai Evioni, 52, Israel; Andrei Friedman, 30, Israel; Ivan Gaptoniak, 46, Ukraine; Guo Aiping, 48, China; Meir Haim, 74, Israel; Hannah Haimov, 53, Israel; Avi Kotzer, 43, Israel; Li Peizhong, 41, China; Ramin Nasibov, 25, Israel; Ion Nicolae, 34, Romania; Mazal Orkobi, 20, Israel; Ilanit Peled, 32, Israel; Mihai Sabau, 38, Romania; Viktor Shebayev, 62, Israel; Boris Tepalshvili, 51, Israel; Sapira Shoshana Yulzari-Yaffe, 46, Israel; Lilya Zibstein, 33, Israel; Amiram Zmora, 55, Israel; Igor Zobokov, 32, Israel; Zhang Minmin, 53, China. Ora Hoshen Naperville

03/23/03