Israel-Lebanon Border Shooting; Right of Return for Palestinian Refugees; Israel's Security
ANDERSON: Officials on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border are investigating the first deadly shooting in the area in more than three years. An Israeli soldier killed by cross-border gunfire over the weekend. Let's get the very latest now from Karl Penhaul. He's following the story from Jerusalem for you this evening. Karl, what are the latest details as we know them?</s>KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli soldier was a sergeant staff major, a very high-ranking NCO. He was shot by what the Israeli military are telling us is a sniper from the Lebanese army. There was also about three hours after that initial incident happened, another shooting incident in which Israeli soldiers fired on a couple of Lebanese soldiers just across on the other side of the border. The good news, however, is that UN peacekeepers have been working throughout the day to try and deescalate the incident. They've called in both the Israeli military and the Lebanese military to try and get at the bottom of exactly what happened and put together some kind of mechanism to make sure it doesn't happen again, Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Karl, many political observers say that the real key to bringing peace to this whole corner of the Middle East is getting a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians, of course. And there has been some movement, at least, towards that with Secretary of State John Kerry there only last week building bridges, not barriers.</s>PENHAUL: Well, absolutely. And the work of Secretary of State Kerry at the very least shows that he has a deep personal commitment to trying to get some kind of peace process on track. But the problem, of course, is that at the core of this conflict are a series of seemingly intractable and -- very complex core issues. One of them, of course, is the so-called right of return for Palestinian refugees. But to understand what that complex political issue really means, I tried to take a look at it in much more human terms.</s>PENHAUL (voice-over): The clank of a rusty key. Enough to send an old man's mind drifting home.</s>ABDEL MAJED ABU SROUR, PALESTINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): We had the best bread ever. You didn't even have to dip it in olive oil. There was wheat bread, we made it by hand.</s>PENHAUL: That was 65 years ago. He never tasted bread made with his father's wheat again. Abu Srour never saw his friends again, either, but still remembers their names.</s>ABU SROUR: Mohammed, Ali, Mahmoud, Ibrahim.</s>PENHAUL: It was October 1948 when Abu Srour says he fled his village of Bayt Nattif in fear of his life.</s>ABU SROUR (through translator): We fled in the middle of the night. People said the Jews were coming. Anybody who could carry their children or few possessions just ran away. I never saw the Jews. All I heard was shooting and bombing.</s>PENHAUL: In fighting between Arabs and Jews in the years immediately before and after Israel was created in 1948, the UN estimates more than 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes.</s>PENHAUL (on camera): There's not much left to see of what was Abu Srour's village. He told me how he and his family went up to the surrounding hills and watched while his own home was dynamited and destroyed.</s>PENHAUL (voice-over): His home may be gone, but he still treasures his front door key. He says he keeps it hidden, too precious to show me on our first meeting.</s>ABU SROUR (through translator): It never used to make sounds, it turned really easy. I just used to put some olive oil on it and it opened really smooth.</s>PENHAUL: At the entrance to Aida Refugee Camp, where Abu Srour has lived since soon after he was displaced, you can see how keys are the symbol of Palestinians' desire to return home. Antique seller Akram Warah was born in the camp. He says his father, like so many others, was forced out of his home near Jerusalem by Jewish militias.</s>AKRAM WARAH, PALESTINIAN ANTIQUE SELLER: They took their key, they locked their home in 1948, and they left their village.</s>PENHAUL: The UN recognized Palestinian refugees' so-called right of return, but Israel rejects the UN's resolutions that Palestinians have any automatic right to go back to areas that are now modern-day Israel. They say that issue must be part of a political deal. And so, Abu Srour has no choice but to wait. At the end of the road, a huge wall built by the Israelis stops him traveling outside Palestinian territories into Israel proper, where his village used to be.</s>ABU SROUR (through translator): Sure, I remember the old days. The old guys come, and we talk and reminisce. But maybe my time will soon be up.</s>PENHAUL: Abu Srour knows he may never go home again, but he still cherishes the memory of the clank of the key in his door.</s>PENHAUL: Now, one of the other core issues at the heart of any peace process between the Palestinians and Israel is the issue of Israel's security. What really does that mean, and where does this insistence come from? Perhaps boiled down in human terms, what Israeli security means is simply having a safe place to live.</s>PENHAUL (voice-over): Lest she ever forget.</s>ELIE SAGIR, GRANDDAUGHTER OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: One-five-seven-six-two- two.</s>PENHAUL: A number that once replaced a name.</s>SAGIR: It was an inhuman act. They did it like cows. They felt like cows, like you go, this is your new name, a number.</s>PENHAUL: But Yosef Diament was a number that beat that beat the odds. He survived extermination camp at Auschwitz. His daughter Yona and granddaughter Elie tattooed themselves with the same death camp number the Nazis had branded on him.</s>SAGIR: To never forget, to never let it happen again. This is why I love Israel so much, because this is our place. If people forget the Holocaust, I think, it will be happening again.</s>PENHAUL: The sign of the Auschwitz gate read "Work will set you free." The Nazis gassed Diament's mother and three siblings.</s>YONA DIAMENT, DAUGHTER OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: The children were destined to death. To burn. And she didn't want to leave them, so she went with them.</s>PENHAUL: She says her father escaped by hiding among other prisoners. Later, he dodged a firing squad by faking death. He came to the state of Israel as soon as it was declared in 1948.</s>SAGIR: He really survived. He really fought for living.</s>PENHAUL: Across Jerusalem, a year-end school play tells of other survivors. A group of Jewish children, transported to Auschwitz in winter 1944. Some Israelis say the lessons of the Holocaust are key to understanding the identity of Israel.</s>ODED WERTHEIMER, STUDENT ACTOR: Israel is not just some place that Jews go to after the Holocaust because of the horrors. Israel is what it is even without the Holocaust. But it would have been a different Israel.</s>PENHAUL: Elie knows that to make peace, both Israelis and Palestinians must compromise, but she says the existence of Israel and its security is not up for negotiation.</s>SAGIR: The Jews have literally a dot in the map. At least you can see it. It's so small, it's so -- this is the only place is ours. This is why we are fighting, and I think we will fight forever.</s>PENHAUL: Her grandfather died three years ago at age 85. He'd come from the hell of Auschwitz to his promised land.</s>SAGIR: The number is written on his grave. He asked.</s>PENHAUL: I think when you hear those very personal stories, it's quite clear that people must be at the center of any peace process. It's easy also to understand that in this corner of the world, at least, politics is not just a matter of the head, but very much a matter of the heart. Becky?</s>ANDERSON: Absolutely. Karl Penhaul in Jerusalem for you this evening. Super stuff, Karl, thank you very much indeed. Coming up after this short break on CNN, we gaze into the future of fashion with help from two editors of the world's most famous style magazine. And he left his mark on Hollywood, and now they say goodbye. We remember Peter O'Toole's acting career. That after this.