Sgt Julie Weiner

Feb 14, 2001 - Sgt. Julie Weiner, 21, was one of 8 Israelis killed when a Palestinian crashed a bus into a crowded bus stop at Azor junction, south of Tel Aviv. It was the deadliest Palestinian attack on Israelis in four years.

Sergeant Julie Weiner immigrated alone from France in 1999 and served in the air force. She was killed while waiting for a bus at the Azor junction that would take her to the base where her officers' training course was set to begin, her lifelong dream.

Having first settled in Jerusalem, just four months ago Julie moved in with a family in Kibbutz Zikkim in the south. "I expected to see her become an important figure one day," her adoptive father at the kibbutz, Nachche Lior, said. "She was knowledgeable about whatever you talked to her about, especially literature, art. Her idealism reminded me of what we used to be like," Lior added. "Now her dream has been shattered."

Ruthie Klein, Weiner's roommate from Jerusalem, said she was "a consummate European: polite, smart, and informed." All Julie thought about was volunteering for the army, Klein said, and made do without visiting her family in France - consoled by the thought of them one day seeing her in uniform.

She was laid to rest in Jerusalem, after the arrival of her parents, brother and sister from France. At her funeral, her adoptive kibbutz parents stood alongside her parents.