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Israeli Ambassador Living in the Shadow of Death

(New Zealand Herald) Greg Ansley - When Orna Sagiv, Israel's Ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, boarded an aircraft in Hamilton for a flight to Wellington, it was an unnerving experience for the diplomat. "Nobody checked me with metal detectors. Nobody checked my bag. Then the pilot comes...and he sits in his pilot's seat and he doesn't even have a door....I'm so happy that there are still some places in the world where people trust each other and believe the worst cannot happen, but it is so different." "We lost in the past 3 1/2 years 935 people [to terrorism]. Imagine for a country the size of New Zealand to lose in 3 1/2 years 620 people. What would you as New Zealanders demand your country do?" "New Zealand people speak about human rights. We're sympathetic, but don't we as Israelis have human rights as well? And when we speak about human rights, isn't the first and most important human right the right to live, to exist, to take a bus without being blown up, to go into a restaurant without having to have security people?" "Why should a mother feel like, 'What might happen to me on my way to Jerusalem? Is someone going to shoot the cars today?'...If you want to go to the park with your children you think, 'I better not go to the park. Who knows, some sniper can come and shoot the kids.'"
2004-03-11 00:00:00
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