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They werent supposed to die

Arabs living in Israel stunned as Hezbollah missiles kill two boys, showing theyre not immune to conflict

BY SONIA VERMA | Special to Newsday

July 22, 2006

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NAZARETH, Israel - Rabia Taluzi, 3, and his big brother Mahmoud, 7, were scrambling up a narrow street when a Katyusha rocket pierced through the clouds and killed them.

The blast shook a nearby mosque during afternoon prayers on Wednesday. It shattered windows and reduced concrete homes to rubble and dust.

Mohamad Sawalha, a 29-year-old tractor driver, was the first to find the boys -- the first Israeli-Arabs to die in this conflict. They lay dying on the broken pavement, and he covered each small body with a blanket.

"These were our own sons. This wasn't supposed to happen to us," he said, his voice shaking with sadness.

Arabs make up a fifth of Israel's population, but in the northern part of the country, they account for half the people now under Hezbollah attack.

The car-sized crater in the road has been covered with fresh tar, but the Taluzi brothers' deaths have torn this Arab neighborhood apart. The boys were killed by shrapnel from a Hezbollah rocket, which made no distinction between Jews and Muslims.

"We never thought Hezbollah would make this kind of mistake," said Abu Jawad, 45, whose field was hit by a separate rocket that sent 50 people to hospitals.

Nazareth, a city of 60,000 people, is a dense tangle of Jewish settlements and Arab neighborhoods, virtually blending together. The intended target of the rocket attack was likely an Israeli police station just a street away from where Rabia and Mahmoud were playing, security sources said.

While Israeli Jews overwhelmingly support the assault on Lebanon, Israeli Arabs are deeply conflicted. "We cannot deny the fact that we are part of the Arab world," Abu Jawad said. "Also, we can't deny the fact that we are part of this society. We are caught between two worlds."

On one hand, Israel's Arab minority sympathizes with the plight of Palestinians and the Lebanese civilians who are the disproportionate victims in this 11-day-old war. But they are keenly aware how intricately their lives are linked with their Jewish neighbors and are deeply defensive of their status as Israelis.

"A lot of our Israeli friends called me to find out what happened," said Abu Jihad, a relative of the Taluzis.

But there are differences brought into focus by such a rocket attack. Nazareth's Jewish neighborhoods come equipped with bomb shelters and air raid sirens. The Arab areas do not. The Safafa neighborhood, where the boys were killed, received no warning. "They [the Israelis] assured us we would not be a target, so there was nothing to worry about," said Mamoun Satiti, a city security official.

On Thursday, a mixed crowd of mourners gathered in the Taluzi home, listening to Quranic chants and praying in unison. Most were reluctant to assign blame for the brothers' deaths to either side of the conflict.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah apologized during an al-Jazeera interview and said the children were martyrs.

Residents refused to believe Hezbollah would ever deliberately hurt them. They are calling for an immediate cease-fire.

"We want both countries to end this war. We don't have anywhere to hide ... Blood is spilled on both sides of the border. Why? Why? Why?" asked Yousef Abudaya, 50, who convened a meeting of village elders to draft an evacuation plan to use if fighting continues. "Both sides are to blame ... It is the civilians who are paying the price."

Nihad Taluzi, the children's mother, has not left her house since she learned they were dead. "There is no difference between Jews and Arabs here," she said, crying. "There is no difference between blood and blood."

She clutched faded pictures of Rabia and Mahmoud, who had been buried side by side in a city cemetery. "Let my sons' lives be a sacrifice for the end of this war," she said. "That is the only honor they can have in death."