From terror's toll, a gift of life

Jewish bombing victim's kidney given to Palestinian woman

Vider's kidney was used to help save the life of a Palesitinan woman who had been waiting for a transplant for two years.

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Zeev Vider lost his life as he sat down with his family for a Passover Seder, the victim of a March 27 suicide bombing in a Netanya hotel that took 25 lives.

Zeev Vider clung to life for a week on life support before dying. His family -- some of them still bearing their own scars from the bombing -- donated his organs. His family buried him in a Tel Aviv cemetery alongside his daughter, Sivan, who died in the same blast.

On Wednesday night, Aisha Abu Hadir received one of his kidneys. Hadir, a Palestinian woman from East Jerusalem, was saved by a Jewish victim of a suicide bombing.

"He's like my son, [like] all our sons," Hadir, who had been waiting two years for a transplant, said from her hospital bed. "Don't think I discriminate between a Muslim and a Jew. It's all the same."

CNN NewsPass VIDEO The death of an Israeli at the hands of a suicide bomber brings life to a Palestinian woman in need of a kidney transplant. CNN's John Vause reports (April 4) Play video

Israelis have no say who receives a relative's organs. They are given out on the basis of need.

"It's kind of life here in Israel. We are all mixed together. Patients, physicians, victims. All together," said Dr. Shaharabani Ezra, Hadir's doctor.

Zeev Vider's son says his father would be happy to know that he has saved a life -- any life.

"Even if it [means] to give his organs to one of the families that were connected to the suicide bomber, I'm sure that he will give it," Nimrod Vider said.

Aisha Abu Hadir

According to his family, Zeev Vider believed that Israel could live peacefully with its Arab neighbors. They say now, as part of him still lives, so too, do his hopes for Israel.

"I don't believe all Arabs are suicide bombers. I have Arab friends, we work with Arabs, I live around Arabs in the Jordan Valley. My father taught me all the time that if you are Jewish, or Arab, it doesn't matter," Nimrod Vider said. "Life is life. That is what he taught me."