Journalist Amnon Kapeliouk, 78, laid to rest in his native Jerusalem

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Amnon Kapeliouk, one of Israel's most veteran working journalists, passed away on Friday at age 78. Kapeliouk was buried on Sunday in Jerusalem, the city in which he was born and to which he returned from his many overseas assignments. A journalist of the old school who believed that one had to be out in the field to get to the nitty gritty of a story, Kapeliouk, by virtue of the fact that he had a French passport, was able to report from the Soviet Union and Soviet satellite countries during the years in which Israelis who had only one passport could not obtain entry visas. He also reported extensively from Arab countries, visiting all with the exception of Syria and Saudi Arabia. In the aftermath of the Six Day War, he spent a lot of time cultivating the Palestinian leadership, developing a close relationship with Yasser Arafat, whom he interviewed in Beirut during the First Lebanon War at a time when it was illegal for Israelis to meet with members of the PLO. The now defunct Al-Hamishmar where Kapeliouk was then employed, refused to publish the story, as a result of which he moved to Yediot Aharonot. He was probably best known for his scoop on the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre in which he disclosed the involvement of then-defense minister Ariel Sharon, who was later held indirectly responsible. Kapeliouk's articles and books were translated into many languages, and he was also a long time foreign correspondent for Le Monde and Le Monde Diplomatique, which on Friday ran a headline "Amnon Kapeliouk est mort." The obituary, which described him as an indefatigable journalist and a determined man, ran the headlines of some of his most outstanding articles since he began working for the publication in January 1969, noting that his last published piece was in March of this year. Kapeliouk made no secret of the fact that his political leanings were very much to the left but did not allow his political opinions to overwhelm his journalistic integrity.