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Making the Suffering Known

(Baltimore Sun) Peter Hermann - Often, Israelis say, the scenes of destruction after attacks such as the bus bombing in Jerusalem last week are so shocking that newspapers and television reporters are unable to describe the extent of the suffering. In the U.S., such detail is considered too graphic by most publications. "I think we clean the scenes up too fast," says Barbara Sofer, director of public relations for the Women's Zionist Organization of America, which runs Jerusalem's two Hadassah hospital centers, the city's premier trauma centers. "The only thing that comes across is that we can't have a coffee in peace at a trendy cafe. That's not what this is about. It's about our lives being blown to pieces. The world is not privy to this." Even the ultra-Orthodox, such as Alex Farkash, spokesman for Bikur Cholim Hospital in downtown Jerusalem, say constraints against displaying the dead and mutilated are outweighed by the need to demonstrate what happens when a person blows himself up in the crowded confines of a bus.
2004-02-06 00:00:00
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