The Bismarck Tribune · Bismarck, North Dakota · 17 January 2002

CP-2002-023

Friendship of Palestinian, architect defies odds

Jamie Tarabay, Associated Press Writer, Beit Jala

Transcribed from the clipping

“BEIT JALA, West Bank — It was a friendship that defied Mideast odds — between a Brooklyn-born architect who came to Israel in the 1960s, led by Zionist convictions, and a Palestinian hotel owner in the West Bank whose brother was a hijacker killed by Israel in the 1976 Entebbe rescue operation. But Avi Boaz and Jamal al-Arja remained close through decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, sharing meals, vacationing together and attending the weddings of each others’ children — until the 71-year-old Boaz was killed Tuesday by Palestinian militants. ‘If we were born as a family, we couldn’t have loved each other more,’ the 65-year-old al-Arja said Wednesday, his eyes red-rimmed from crying. Only a day earlier, the two men had shared lunch at al-Arja’s Everest hotel and restaurant on a hill in the Palestinian town of Beit Jala — as they had for most days in the past 33 years. Sometime after the meal, Boaz, who was building a home in the nearby Jewish West Bank settlement of Har Gilo, drove off with al-Arja’s son Bashir to shop for building supplies and furniture. During the trip, the two encountered a Palestinian police checkpoint. Four armed Palestinian civilians stopped Boaz’s silver Rover convertible, dragged Bashir out of the car and took off with Boaz. The police did not intervene, and the journey ended at a soccer field in nearby Beit Sahour, where the gunmen pumped 20 bullets into the windshield of the Rover, killing Boaz. Boaz had unknowingly got caught up in one of the many unexpected twists of the conflict — a day earlier, a local militia leader elsewhere in the West Bank had been killed by a bomb widely attributed to Israel, and Palestinian gunmen clamored for revenge. The Al Aqsa Brigades, to which the militia leader belonged, announced in a belief Tuesday that it killed Boaz in a revenge attack. Boaz’ son-in-law, Evyatar Cohen, said Boaz never cared about politics. ‘For him, there weren’t any borders. He would just go (to the West Bank) and come back. He was always sure that because he was an American citizen, he was safe in every place,’ he said… Two years ago, Boaz and his U.S.-born wife Eve, who died this month of cancer, went on a 15-day trip to Egypt with Jamal al-Arja and his wife, Nawal. There were also trips to Jordan and picnics in the West Bank hills. When Boaz’ daughter got married two years ago, the al-Arja clan filled an entire table in the reception hall. Boaz was a regular at Beit Jala weddings, often driving the newlyweds to church in his Rover… However, Cohen and her husband said they would never set foot in the West Bank again. ‘If they (the Palestinians) killed him, then it can happen for normal relations between us. We need to separate and that’s it,’ said Evyatar Cohen. Makram al-Arja, 30, said he believed peace would come one day. ‘How much longer can they (Israelis and Palestinians) shoot at each other?’ he wondered.”

Context added by this archive

Jamal al-Arja’s brother was among the hostages Israeli commandos rescued at Entebbe in 1976; Avi Boaz’s brother was a hijacker killed in the same operation. The two men ate lunch together most days for the next thirty-three years. The parenthesis in Makram al-Arja’s question is the paper’s own.

Cite this item

"Friendship of Palestinian, architect defies odds," The Bismarck Tribune, 17 January 2002. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2002-023. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2002-023

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