A Palestinian student remembers his Israeli friend

Published Feb. 24, 2010 at 11:18 p.m.
Crossing Lines
...Schaefer, the Brown University student recently killed by a suspected drunk driver on the streets of Providence, left behind hundreds of friends, including soldiers in the Israeli army, with whom he served for three years before coming to Brown...

BEYOND THE CONFLICT Jarbawi.

The morning he found out that Avi Schaefer was dead, Sami Jarbawi thought of all the things the two men had hoped to do together and now wouldn't — cook, run, maybe hike. Along the way, they would teach a skeptical world how a Palestinian and an Israeli soldier can make peace.

Schaefer, the Brown University student recently killed by a suspected drunk driver on the streets of Providence, left behind hundreds of friends, including soldiers in the Israeli army, with whom he served for three years before coming to Brown.

But perhaps one of his more compelling friendships was with Jarbawi, a 20-year-old Brown sophomore and Palestinian who says the bond he forged with Schaefer was nothing short of remarkable.

"The extraordinary thing is that the friendship managed to go beyond the conflict, to just take place, to crystallize, to just be friends, which takes a lot of guts and courage," Jarbawi says. "We put the conflict aside."

Police say Daniel Gilcreast, 23, of North Providence, struck Schaefer and another Brown student as they were walking in the breakdown lane at Thayer and Barnes streets about 1:45 am on February 12. The other student, a woman, was treated for injuries at the hospital and discharged. Gilcreast was arraigned for driving under the influence, death resulting, and driving under the influence, causing serious bodily injury, and released on $25,000 surety bail, under the condition that he doesn't drive or drink alcohol.

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