MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Daniel Pearl was added to the 30,000 names etched on the
Holocaust Memorial Wall here on Sunday to honor the American journalist who was
abducted and killed by terrorists in 2002.
 Dr. Judea Pearl, center, father of American journalist Daniel
Pearl, who was killed by terrorists in 2002, listens to legendary
violinist Ida Haendel Sunday, April 15, 2007, in Miami Beach, Fla.
[AP]
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Although Pearl's death and the
Jews of the Holocaust were executed by people of different faith, language and
agendas, there is a common thread of hatred, his father Judea Pearl told a crowd
of hundreds as his son's name was unveiled as the first non-Holocaust victim to
be remembered at the wall in Miami Beach.
"The forces of barbarity and evil are still active in our world. The
Holocaust didn't finish in 1945," Judea Pearl said.
Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal's South Asia bureau chief, was abducted
Jan. 23, 2002, while working on a story about Islamic militants in Karachi,
Pakistan.
Four days later, the Journal and other media outlets received pictures of
Pearl with a pistol to his head. A group calling itself the National Movement
for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty claimed responsibility for the
kidnapping and demanded that suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters be released
from U.S. custody.
The journalist's body was found months later in a shallow ditch in a compound
on the outskirts of Karachi. His throat had been slit.
Three Islamic militants are serving life sentences in Pakistan for the
killing; a fourth was sentenced to death. A Pentagon transcript released last
month revealed that suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed
to personally beheading Pearl, among several attacks and plots he took credit
for.
During the ceremony, famed violinist Ida Haendel played a song as Judea Pearl
lit a candle.
He said he would always think of his son, a classically trained violinist, as
"the journalist who is roaming the roads with a fiddle and a laptop spreading
friendship and good will into the human faces behind the news."
Daniel Pearl's last words, "I am Jewish," are the title of a book his parents
wrote in 2004. A movie starring Angelina Jolie based on the memoirs of Pearl's
widow, Mariane, is scheduled to be released this year.
Daniel Pearl's parents also started a foundation that bears his name and aims
to eradicate hatred.
"We have a unique weapon - the legacy of a person that earned respect on the
east, west divide so we feel compelled to use that legacy as much as we can."
Members of Temple Emanu-El also lit candles and sang in honor of other
survivors during the ceremony. Miami-Dade County is home to nearly 3,800
Holocaust survivors, according to the Greater Miami Jewish
Federation.