Malki's parents: Letters, interviews, op-eds, essays, articles, speeches

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Chronicle of a Barbaric Massacre

Frimet and Arnold Roth's lives were entirely private up until the murder of their daughter. Since August 2001, each of them - in somewhat different ways - speaks out or writes publicly, trying to alert people everywhere to the ugliness and threat of terror, to remind them of Malki's life and ambitions, and to generate support for the work of the Malki Foundation. This page contains a selection of magazine and news articles, speeches, interviews and essays by the Roths since Malki's murder. [This page is updated frequently, with the most recent article or speech at the top. Last updated 17-May-08]

Project Amnesia In an op ed published in Haaretz newspaper (16-May-08) Frimet Roth writes that Jerusalem's city hall acts as if it would prefer we forget our fallen loved ones. "Somehow we can find a way to survive the diversion of a few prospective tourists to Greece or Turkey. But we cannot survive the consequences of forgetting our terror victims." More

Arnold Roth Addresses Terror Victims (21-Jan-08) The 4th International Congress of Terror Victims took place in Madrid, Spain in January 2008. Arnold Roth's speech is here. Extract: "Your country, like mine, has continued to suffer from the ongoing barbarism and viciousness of the terrorists [and] has found it necessary to take defensive measures which conflict with our desire to live a free and unrestricted life. The tension, the divisions and the debate which result from these measures have become an increasingly weighty factor in the lives of many communities. We have to learn to deal with these issues because they will not disappear in the foreseeable future. We have every reason to believe, in fact, that they will become larger and more serious. This is because the terrorists are not losing the battle..." More

Lethal Word Games Frimet Roth's op-ed appears in Haaretz 4-Jan-08: "We, and the rest of the community of terror victims, must also continue to stir our leaders from their amnesia. It is a sad testament to the morality of our society that nobody else seems bothered by their impending releases. For us, though, the memories of the second intifada's terror tsunami are painfully vivid. We know that the most lethal of the terrorists are not the bombers or shooters. Those are merely the puppets of the true murderers: the leaders and the planners who were always careful to survive - the Ahlam Tamimis." [Click for an offline PDF version. A scanned image of the printed article is here.]

Parents Of Terrorist Victim Comfort Others In its Channukah (5-Dec-07) edition, the Jewish Press (NY) published a profile of Keren Malki. "One very grateful woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Jewish Press that when her three-year-old son was born with cerebral palsy “everyone in the hospital said he would be a vegetable... Against the odds, she and her husband commenced therapy... “then we ran out of money… It was totally beyond me and my husbands’ salaries.” Which is when she discovered Keren Malki." The entire text of the Elliott Resnick piece is here.

After Sbarro’s, A New Resolve  The Jewish Week, New York, in its 16-Nov-07 edition profiles Keren Malki and the Roths in an article by Curt Schleier. "This story doesn’t end where you might expect, with anger and grief alone. As an outgrowth of the tragedy, the Roths founded the Malki Foundation in their daughter’s memory. The foundation helps Israeli families provide home care for their disabled children. But the story didn’t start here either. It began almost 35 years ago in New York City." The full article is here and online on the Jewish Week website here. An offline PDF version of the printed page is here.

Historical Amnesia An op-ed article by Frimet Roth appears in the 23-Sep-07 edition of Haaretz, and reprinted in the ThisOngoingWar blog written by Frimet and Arnold Roth. Under the title The dangers of historical amnesia, Frimet deals with issues of memory and remembering, and about differences between the United States and Israel. "It's been six years since 9/11, and Americans have been reexamining their attitudes toward the victims. Some believe enough energy has been expended on remembering. Last week, for instance, Time Magazine's Jeffrey Kluger asked "when is enough enough?" and noted with apparent agreement: "Some have suggested that we discontinue the moments of silence and solemn speeches and all the other [9/11] ceremonies." I imagine remembering does grow tiresome after six long years. I say "imagine" because, as even Kluger conceded, "The families need no calendrical gimmick to feel their loss." As a bereaved mother, I fall into that category. For us, every day is a fresh reminder." More

Knowing the Enemy As an invited speaker and Israel's sole representative, Arnold Roth addressed a 9/11 memorial conference arranged by the French anti-terrorism organization Mouvement Pour la Paix et Contre le Terrorisme in Paris on 11th September 2007. Here's how it starts: "Earlier this summer, my wife and I were stunned to see a photograph of a young woman staring at us from the website of the New York Times. There was an article – a review of a film about Palestinian Arab terrorists who are in Israeli jails. It was illustrated by a glamorous picture of an unusually attractive young woman, nicely dressed and with a gentle, lovely smile. She is a sweet-faced woman of 27. She is in the picture because she was the engineer of a massacre in which a man with a guitar case on his back walked into a restaurant in the center of the capital city of my country and exploded. His guitar case, which she acquired for him, was not for music but for death. It was filled with explosives. The young man went to his 72 virgins happier than at any other moment in his life. And the young woman, who was 21 years old, went from the scene of the massacre in which fifteen people died, mostly children and babies, and rushed back to her job as a news reader for Palestinian television. There, she calmly reported on the carnage and destruction in Jerusalem without mentioning her role. She is the murderer of my daughter. She is today serving multiple life-sentences in jail and, as the article makes clear, she is confident she will be released soon as part of a deal between the Palestinian Authority and the government of Israel. She may be right." The full text of his speech in English is here. The French translation is here.

The sixth anniversary of Malki's death was marked by the traditional azkara ceremony at the graveside on Sunday 5th August 2007 (the actual Hebrew anniversary fell the previous day, which was the Sabbath). The text of Frimet Roth's brief speech (in Hebrew) is here.

Mastermind of bombing that killed Malki to feature on film Australian Jewish News 23-Jul-07 (Melissa Singer) A FILM featuring the mastermind of the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem, which claimed the life of Australia-born Malki Roth, will screen at the 2007 Melbourne International Film Festival. Hot House, by Romanian-born film-maker Shimon Dotan, takes audiences inside four Israeli high-security prisons and inside the minds of convicted Hamas terrorists. One of those featured is Ahlam Tamimi, who is serving 16 consecutive life sentences for her part in organising the 2001 attack, which killed 15 innocent people. The film will screen twice at the festival, on July 30 and August 5. Arnold Roth, the father of 15-year-old Malki, told the AJN this week that while he and his wife hadn’t seen the film – “It’s more than we can face” – the publicity surrounding it is “driven by a malevolent anti-Israel agenda”. Roth, whose family made aliyah in 1988, said Dotan’s “empathetic” view of the prisoners (“He never utters the word ‘terrorist’”) “is completely lacking an encounter with victims”. “It’s as if those pushing the lens onto the practitioners of terror believe the hatred that drives the killers is purifying and noble. The grief and pain of those of us left to mourn the destroyed lives of our loved ones are somehow less pure and discomforting to some. “The degree to which we glorify, sanitise and ennoble terrorists is going to be highly influential in how successful we are stopping them. Hot House should be measured against that test.”

Glamor Pictures Under the headline "Sbarro victim parents counter photo with photo", the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, an international news service, has publicized (21-Jul-07) the efforts of Frimet and Arnold Roth to protest the glamorization of terrorists, and of their daughter's killer in particular. ""It's presumably HBO's publicity department that was responsible for creating and distributing a glamour-style photograph of a smiling, contented-looking young woman in her twenties to promote the movie," Frimet and Arnold Roth say in the email they have asked friends and supporters to forward to others. "That female is our child's murderer." Click to read the article.

Television debate: Should Israel give up Palestinian prisoners in order to secure the release of Israeli hostages? It's one of the most vexing issues of the day in this country: does it make sense to open the gates of Israeli jails and release convicted Palestinian Arab prisoners now. And if yes, what do people hope is going to be achieved by it? Naomi Hazan, former Knesset member and Professor of Political Science and a well known human rights advocate and Frimet Roth, whose daughter Malki was murdered in the suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem's Sbarro cafe in August 2001, discuss with Infolive.tv's Margot Dudkevitch the compelling issue, taking into account that it is a year since soldiers Gilad Schalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted by terrorists. The painful but compelling issue raises many questions. This program was originally broadcast on 26-Jun-07 by Infolive.tv "This being Israel, the debate is a lot closer to the bone than the abstract sort of airey-fairy discussion that sometimes goes on in other places. One of the names being touted for release in the current initiative happens to be that of a convicted murderer who was involved in the murder of the Roths' daughter. Prof. Hazan has very definite views about whether and why that convicted felon ought to go free now, right now. (And about whether he's actually a political prisoner.) Frimet Roth has a different position." The streaming video of the debate was originally posted here.

Diary Each June, Jerusalem's Ramot Community Centre holds a musical concert in memory of Malki z"l. Frimet Roth, Malki's mother, was the guest speaker at this year's concert on 21st June 2007. Frimet spoke in Hebrew about the hand-written, and very moving, diary that Malki left behind when she was murdered. (Text of Frimet's speech here.)

Talk Radio Looks at Terror: On 20th March 2007 Arnold Roth was a guest on the Janet Parshall's America syndicated national talk-radio program (Salem Radio Network). The program's website calls it host, Janet Parshall, "one of the only conservative talk shows in America hosted by a woman. A thought provoking, interactive radio that allows listeners to exchange information and learn. Guests include Senators and Representatives; authors and film producers; Catholics, Protestants and Jews; pro-family advocates, historians, public policy experts and national leaders." The first part of the 30 minute interview is here as a digital stream (MP3). [Offline version here.]

Speaking on Behalf of Victims of Global Terror Arnold Roth was invited to speak to audiences in several cities of the United States during March 2007 as a guest of Camera, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. CAMERA is a media-monitoring, research and membership organization devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East. "Those who were and are desperate are people like my wife and me; like the five or six thousand other Israelis who have lost a parent, a sibling or a child since the start of the Arafat War of Terror in September 2000. Desperate is the right word, the only word, for people who will do anything, and are willing for anything to be done, if only there will be peace with the people who live on the other side of the fence, and an end to the hateful destruction of constructive, useful, beautiful lives... If terror victims have a voice, it's a voice of clarity and determination, of optimism and hope. But it's not heard much and our societies are paying a steep price for that." The text of Arnold Roth's speech is here.

"Disabilities are not just willed away" The case for Israel's disabled suffered an embarrassing setback as a result of an even more embarrassing Israeli political scandal. Frimet Roth expresses her repugnance in this op-ed article originally published in the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz (6-Mar-07). It's republished here.

"We're Desperate for Peace" Arnold Roth is interviewed by Ritula Shah of "The World Today" on BBC radio, commenting on the visit to the Middle East of US Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice (5-Oct-06).  The audio interview is here (requires MP3-capable player)

Longing and Remembering Monday 14th August 2006 marked the fifth anniversary of Malki's death. As every year, the family and friends gathered at the gravesides of Malki and her friend Michal Raziel z"l. Frimet Roth delivered a brief eulogy in Hebrew. The text is here.

A Caring Legacy of the Sbarro Bombing The Jewish Chronicle (London, 11-Aug-06) looks at the evolution of the Malki Foundation, formed in the wake of a tragedy. The profile includes an interview with the foundation's co-chair, Arnold Roth. "How the parents of a girl killed in the blast overcame their grief to help disabled children." [Text of article] [PDF] [JPG] The full text of the article is reproduced on our site here.

India Focuses on Terror Like Israel, India finds itself in the cross-hairs of terrorists, the depths of whose hatred and barbarity defy comprehension. Last month in Mumbai, India's most important commercial centre, 207 people were murdered in a series of co-ordinated terror bombings on commuter trains during a period of eleven minutes in the morning rush hour. Thousands more were injured. And hundreds of millions of Indians were left wondering - along with the citizens of Bali, Madrid, London and Tel-Aviv - what could possibly motivate such boundless, unfathomable contempt for human life. A few days later, a journalist for the Times of India, visited Israel and interviewed Arnold Roth. The interview was published in the 25th July 2006 paper edition of the Times of India (click here for online vrsion). The full article is here.

Does Interpal Fund Terrorism? In an extraordinary Panorama programme, the BBC exposes what the UK authorities have been unable to see for years; the blatant exploitation of a charitable guise by Interpal and other Hamas-related bodies. We have the full transcript of the television programme here and a link to a streaming video of the entire highly-disturbing one-hour film. Hamas and its tentacles planned and executed the massacre at the Sbarro restaurant. The BBC makes a persuasive case that some of the people exposed in this programme are supporters of terror and financiers of Hamas's global activities despite their protestations to the contrary. Panorama's investigative journalism raises - and by implication, answers - serious questions about their involvement in the murderer of hundreds of Israeli civilians, including Malki Roth. More.

Remembering - Five Years after the Sbarro Massacre Frimet Roth interviewed several families who, like her own, still grieve after the deaths of their loved ones in the Sbarro restaurant massacre of 9th August 2006. Marking the fifth anniversary of the day on which fifteen innocent people were murdered (a sixteenth remains unconscious five years later), Frimet's article appears in Haaretz and (in slightly shorter form) on the website of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The full text of the article is here.

Radio Round Table Arnold Roth took part (27-Jul-06) in a round-table discussion on the Lebanon Hezbollah war situation on Australia's ABC National Radio. The program is called Late Night Live with Phillip Adams, and it's available for audio-streaming. More details here. Other guests: Isabel Kershner, Associate Editor at the Jerusalem Report; author of "Barrier: The Seam of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict". And Prof. Naomi Chazan, professor of political science at Hebrew University; former senior member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) between 1992 and 2003.

Arnold Roth was an invited speaker at the opening of the One Family Center in Jerusalem on May 16, 2006. His comments are here. Extract: "What is the comfort for loss of one’s child?" Two years ago, I had the privilege of traveling to a European city with three other Israelis; all of us victims of terror through losing friends, family or limbs. This was the first ever gathering of victims of terror from all over the world. We hardly knew what to expect. For myself, the only terror victims I had come to know since the murder of my daughter were people who live in my immediate neighborhood – there are six such families – or other Israelis whom I met through gatherings of bereaved families arranged by One Family, by Bituach Leumi and by other local organizations. I wondered whether we would find a common language; whether the fear and the pain we have gotten to know in our own lives would be reflected in the lives of others from different places and different backgrounds." More

Remembering Our Children Arnold Roth delivered an invited speech in Jerusalem on 1st May 2006 to a Yom Hazikaron (memorial day) event arranged by Keren Hayesod and United Israel Appeal groups from Canada and Australia. "Remembering has always played a focal role in Jewish life, irrespective of how religious or nationalistic or secular we may be as individuals. Yom Hazikaron became a formal institution fixed in the national calendar by a law of the Knesset with a date of its own, only in 1963. As the national day on which we remember those who died saving our country, it is placed as close as a day can be to Yom Ha’atzma’ut – establishing a very Jewish and a very Israeli tension between public celebration and mournful solemnity. I don’t know of another society on earth - or in history - that has deliberately set out to highlight the proximity of two such sharply opposed states of mind." More

Institutionalization Is Not the Answer "Profoundly disabled people progress faster and better, maximizing their potential, in small community-based settings." The Jerusalem Post, in a Friday magazine cover story, gives an entirely uncritical promotion to a new and very large institution for disabled people located far south of Beer Sheva in Israel's Negev desert. Frimet Roth's article, published in the Jerusalem Post (29-Jun-06) is critical of the planners and supporters of the Aleh Negev facility. Her article is here.

Keep Barghouti in Jail (Jewish Press NY 28-Apr-06) Frimet Roth writes: "Will last week's Tel Aviv suicide bombing bang some sense into this government's treatment of jailed terrorist Marwan Barghouti? It's not very likely. Nothing, it seems, can derail Israel's plan to release Barghouti, a convicted murderer... Unless we speak out, Barghouti will be released and our government will "fail better" than in the past. The consequences will be far grimmer than they were this Passover."

Passover Bombings... Again "Sitting at my desk in Jerusalem tonight, I am thinking about the media and trying to make sense of two events. The larger by far is that, again, a Palestinian Arab walked into an Israeli restaurant this afternoon and detonated a bomb. The reports say nine dead, sixty injured." An open letter from Arnold Roth to the Friends of Keren Malki email list on 17th April 2006, a few hours after the bombing of a restaurant in Tel-Aviv. More

A White Rose in the Arab World  Frimet Roth wrote this essay for Front Page Magazine (6-Apr-06): "While Palestinian terrorism rages on, a new Arab “White Rose” – much like the World War II German student Nazi resistance of that name – has been sprouting. Not many Israelis have acknowledged its existence. But it is high time we did our bit to help this brave flower blossom." More

Aggressors and Victims on Both Sides of the Wall Freelance journalist Vincent Graff, writing in The Independent (UK) says "in election week, Israelis and Palestinians agree on one thing: the Western media is biased". Quoting Arnold Roth: "In Western countries, the broad perception of Israel is of it being powerful and privileged," said Roth. "For someone like me, whose daughter was murdered by people who danced in the street afterwards, it is hard to take that viewpoint." [PDF] If the article is no longer online, view a local copy here. Roth's letter to the editors of The Independent was published in the print edition of the paper on 9-Apr-06. A faxed copy of that page is here [PDF].

"Is the Voice of the Terror Victims Being Heard?" Julian Marshall of the BBC's Newshour program (14-Feb-06) interviewed Arnold Roth and a Colombian terror victim, Jaime Felipe Lozado, both of them attending the Valencia congress of terror victims. Hear the 8 min. radio interview.

'Kid-driven' Philanthropy The inspiring story behind 'Points for Peace', a basketball tournament organized by Jewish students in Dallas, Texas, that raises money for good causes - this year, for Keren Malki [Dallas Morning News, 24Feb-06] See also "Students Against Terrorism Will Shoot Hoops for Hope" (Richardson Neighbors - Dallas News, 26-Feb-06; go to page 25 of the pdf edition)

"Time for the United Nations to Finally Condemn Terror Uunequivocally"  Addressing the 3rd International Conference of Terror Victims in Valencia, Spain on 13th Feb 2006, Israel's representative Arnold Roth reviewed the UN's history of failures to condemn terror and called for terror victims to find their voices and demand to be heard. More

Free Barghouti? FrontPage Magazine's website carries an essay by Frimet Roth (21-Feb-06): "Two years ago this government entrusted Barghouti to Israel’s criminal justice system. It is high time for him to serve out his sentence in the manner envisaged by those judges without any interference from our politicians. How encouraging it would be for justice to prevail over short-sighted politicians in this region. It so rarely happens." More

Terrorist Victims Gather in Valencia, Spain (Associated Press syndicated report from Valencia, Spain, 13th February 2006) "When you bring terrorism victims together, you find that we have a common language, a common pain," said Arnold Roth, an Israeli who lost his 15-year-old daughter in a suicide blast at a Jerusalem restaurant... Terrorism has changed almost everything in my life, and since then I remind people, even in my country, how essential it is to stop terrorism," Arnold Roth said, adding: "Terrorism goes beyond politics and that's what victims are totally aware of." [PDF version here] [This syndicated news report was re-published widely in the Washington Post, ABC News in the United States, CBS News, Guardian Newspaper, BBC and many other media channels.] Immediately after the completion of the Valencia congress, the BBC interviewed Arnold Roth for the daily Newshour program on the BBC World Service. The audio interview is here.

Put Marwan Barghouti Back in Jail (7th February 2006) Frimet Roth, writing in Israel Insider: "The hot and heavy courtship of Marwan Barghouti by the Israeli government is no secret. After Hamas' victory, to court Barghouti is to court disaster. Barghouti  Click for the full Israel Insider article: Put Barghouti Back in Jail. Or go to the same op-ed article on the Keren Malki site.

Frimet Roth is interviewed in the Times Newspaper, London (28th January 2006) "In a country that has lost more than 430 citizens to Hamas suicide bombs in the past five years, many believe the decision to withdraw from Gaza gave Hamas a huge boost. “For them, that was a clear indication that the way of terror was worthwhile,” Mrs Roth said." More

Hamas and the Palestinian Elections On the eve (24th January 2006) of the Palestinian elections, Arnold Roth was interviewed by James Reynolds of BBC24 television and, as well, by Roger Hearing of BBC World Service. Excerpt: "The Palestinian leadership for years has engaged in corruption of a kind that most people living outside the area don't understand. Whatever you say about Hamas, they mean what they say and they say what they mean. They're not interested in reaching an agreement with Israel... they want us dead... We should have nothing to do with Hamas." Hear the BBC radio interview from here [MP3].

With Tributes Like This, Who Needs Terror Attacks? Spielberg's Munich "This film is bad news in itself. Let's not exacerbate the damage, as the Prime Minister's office already has, by joining the sycophant bandwagon." A 26th December 2005 op ed article by Frimet Roth, first published on Israel Insider. More

"Israel Prepares to Release Palestinian Murderers": In a front-page article in Israel Insider, Frimet Roth raises a very troubling concern: "Voices within the Israeli government and media are doggedly whittling away at a long-standing cornerstone of Israeli policy: No pardons for Palestinian murderers... It is my hope that those of us who do still remember and grieve for our losses, will not sit silent. Those who have not yet joined Sharon on his suicidal slide down the slippery dip of unrequited concessions must block this impending move. We who know what the toll of Barghouti's recidivism would be, must make our protests heard. " More

"The Checkpoints are Absolutely Essential" Letter from Frimet and Arnold Roth to the editors of "In Jerusalem". Subject: "School Crossing", an essay by Nathan Burstein on the Kalandiyah Crossing. "How we wish we could escort our child, Malki, to school and wait with her on line like Fuad and his daughter Aris.  But we never will." More

Revealing a Modern Blood Libel: Frimet Roth's letter to Jerusalem Post, 16th September 2005: "If there was any single cause of this intifada, it was that [France 2 television] al-Dura footage. More

Azkara 25-Aug-05: At the graveside ceremony (the Azkara) marking the fourth anniversary of Malki's death, Frimet Roth made a brief speech in memory of her greatly-loved daughter. (The text is in Hebrew.)

On the 4th anniversary of Malki's death, her mother wrote for the Jerusalem Post: My Daughter's Yahrzeit. "Malki suffered through 10 months of Palestinian violence before she perished in the suicide bombing... She would note in her diary the details and victims' names in every terror attack the day they occurred. In one entry she explained: "I experience it [the war] on my flesh." Malki was only 15 when she felt that empathy with her people. If only our elderly decision-makers could demonstrate her maturity. [View the Jerusalem Post's printed page in PDF and JPG forms] 22-Aug-05

Frimet Roth writes about the lessons learned from the massacre at the Sbarro restaurant four years earlier: Nine Reasons to Remember Ninth August "Four years ago, Hamas taught the world some valuable lessons. On Aug. 9, 2001, the terror organization dispatched a suicide bomber to the center of Jerusalem where my family and I live. Fifteen innocents were killed, and 150 wounded at the Sbarro restaurant. My precious 15-year-old daughter, Malki, was one of the dead. The Sbarro massacre shattered the following myths about terrorism and how to thwart it." An edited version, under the title "Lessons From The Sbarro Bombing" is published in the 12th August 2005 edition of the New York Jewish Week.[View the Jewish Week's printed page in PDF and JPG formats.] [Hebrew version]

With Blood on their Hands? The plan for a third mass-release of Palestinian Arab prisoners from Israeli jails has Frimet Roth, like many other Israelis, deeply worried and disturbed. "Every aspiring terrorist-in-training now understands the new rules of the game. Israel, which has long refrained from imposing the death penalty, has now removed the one meaningful deterrent in their path: extended prison terms. How much time will the perpetrators of next month's terrorist bombing spend in Israeli prison before their early exodus?" Frimet's op-ed piece, "Our's is a Life Sentence" is here and is published by Sydney University's Online Opinion.

The Netherlands-based Christians for Israel organization (with operations in the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia) reprinted a speech by Arnold Roth in the Spring 2005 edition of its quarterly newsletter: Terror Victim's Message to Europe: Desperate for Peace: "Like almost every Israeli I have ever met, terror victim families want to see the Palestinian Arabs live productive lives, travel in safety, obtain a good education for their children, make money, receive good medical care. The miserable reality of their daily lives is far from what we wish them - and this brings absolutely no happiness or comfort to our side. The opposite is true."

Frimet Roth's essay Keeping Murdered Israeli Children in Our Hearts appeared on Israel's Memorial Day, 11th May 2005, in Front Page Magazine: "Nobody wants peace and calm here more than the parents who know what losing a child is like. It is the continued grief and remembering that will spur us to strive to achieve that goal."

The Herald-Sun (Melbourne, Australia) daily newspaper profiled the Malki Foundation and interviewed Arnold Roth in this Mark Dunn article (2-Apr-05) under the title Turning Grief into Relief: "The Malki Foundation helps several hundred families care for their severely disabled children at home rather than be forced to place them in institutional care in Israel." (A scan of the published page is here.)

Aish.com published (20-Mar-05) Arnold Roth's essay on Jewish history, Purim, and the mysterious significance of the age 15 in the lives of Malki Roth, her father and her grandmother. "Those of us raised in the shadow of the Holocaust, and who have experienced the tragedy of a child's death by hatred, struggle to understand the nature of the Divine role in our lives as individuals and as a people. There are times, according to Jewish wisdom, when you need to know that G-d's hand is at work even when the evidence is difficult to see, even when there are more questions than answers." Click to go to the article on the Aish.com website.

► The same article, translated into Dutch, is here.

Arnold Roth represented Israel at the Second International Congress of Terror Victims which took place in Bogota, Colombia during February. Arnold Roth's speech to the congress is reproduced here. (Spanish language translation here.) A New York Times (20-Mar-05) report provides the context (NYTimes.com registration required). 'Arnold Roth, whose 15-year-old daughter, Malki, died in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, said he was appalled when television news producers wanted to pair him in interviews with the father of the bomber who killed his daughter. "It is an entirely bogus comparison, creating a false symmetry between the person who did the killing and the victim," he said. "It betrays a factual and moral confusion in the media that leads to the dehumanization of the victims." ' [An offline version of the NYT article is here.]

In an essay, Terrorism and Art, Frimet Roth writes for FrontPageMag about recent disturbing developments in the world of theatre and art. "If Israel's friends would show a smidgen of that zealousness in addressing the hearts and minds of the European and American public we might not be in our present predicament. One opinion poll after another has revealed that Europeans hold Israel in rock-bottom esteem." More

13-Jan-05 Arnold Roth is interviewed in a Jerusalem Post feature story "UN creation of register for fence claims raises ire". "...Our concern for the lives of our children forces Israeli society to take a much more balanced – I would say a more honest and mature – approach. This is not the UN's finest hour," he said." Offline copy is here.

Letter to editors of Co-op News (UK) 10-Jan-05: 'A "right of return" if it means anything at all can only mean injecting Palestinian Arabs into Israel, and not into that emerging Palestinian state. Can you see how unhelpful to peace such a slogan is?' Arnold Roth. Full text here. Click for a scanned copy of the original published page.

A Message for Europe: Arnold Roth was invited (12-Dec-04) to address the opening dinner of a mission to Israel and the Palestinian territories of parliamentarians from all over Europe. The mission was organized by the Paris-based Med Bridge Strategy Center (under the leadership of its chairman M. Francois Zimeray) and the Transatlantic Institute. The full text of his speech is here.

The Violin and the Guitar (Israel Insider). Frimet Roth (3-Dec-04) responds to a very public claim by a Machsom Watch activist, published in Haaretz. "One day, an IDF soldier, distracted and intimidated by camera-clicking, note-scribbling activists, is going to cut short a security check to appease them." [ PDF ]. Frimet's Letters to the Editor of the Haaretz newspaper were published the same day (3-Dec-04) in Hebrew and in English. The English version of Frimet's letter is here [ PDF ] and the Hebrew version is here [ PDF ]

A letter to the editors of The Independent (UK), published 13-Nov-04. "Arafat, murderer or man of peace "Sir: If you can find a single achievement towards peace - something concrete, something that showed respect for Jews and for Israel - please take the opportunity to talk about it on the pages of your journal. I believe Arafat's entire life's work was driven by hatred. Like other Israelis, I looked hard at everything the man did (not said - but did) for signs that behind all the vicious rhetoric he actually wanted peace. I never found it. My teenage daughter died as an innocent victim of an elaborate act of cold-blooded murder at the hands of Arafat-inspired terrorists. This was an act which the man himself could have prevented (I speak with some authority on this) but explicitly decided not to. You'll forgive me, and millions of other rational people who love peace and harmony, who focus on what Arafat's life actually achieved - hell on earth, and especially for his own people. ARNOLD ROTH Jerusalem"

Frimet Roth: Remember Arafat, The Man, Not the Legend (Jerusalem Post 12-Nov-04). "Any respect given to the dying or dead Arafat offends not only the memory of his Israeli victims, but the Palestinian people themselves. In honoring him, in accommodating his family and cronies, the world informs the Palestinians that their suffering at Arafat's hands doesn't rate; that ultimately what matters, what will be recorded in the history books, is not the truth but the legend of Arafat." (For an offline version of the online JPost.com article, click here.)

5-Nov-04 Arnold Roth is interviewed about what he calls an "odd" decision of the Australian Press Council into a complaint by the ABC's foreign correspondent Tim Palmer against an opinion column by the Sydney Daily Telegraph's opinion writer, Piers Akerman. The Australian Jewish News reports on the outcome of the APC's hearing (Requires Adobe Reader - if it is not installed already on your computer, download it at no cost by clicking here). There's more about Palmer, Akerman, the ABC and the treatment Malki's murder received on Australia's most important media channel here. Update June 2005: The Australian Press Council was asked once again by Tim Palmer to make a ruling against Piers Akerman, but declined: "The Council does not see any advantage in revisiting a matter already dealt with in its previous adjudication, which is available on the Council's website."

4-Nov-04 Arnold Roth is interviewed in Hebrew on Elihu Ben-Onn's "Miboker Ad Erev" program ("From Morning Till Evening") and again on his "HaKesher Hayisraeli" program. The interview (50 minutes) covers issues related to how Israel and its terror victims are perceived by international media, and the work of Keren Malki. It was broadcast on Israel Radio's Reshet Alef. Click to hear the audio (needs an MP3 or streaming audio player).

"A Partisan for the Other Side", written by Frimet Roth, is a critique of the writings of Amira Hass. Hass is a widely published Israeli journalist who lives in Ramallah. Frimet's op-ed article was published in the 'Viewpoint' section of the Jerusalem Report magazine, 18-Oct-04. A scanned copy of the published article is here while the full text of the article is here.

Matthew Price of the BBC interviewed Arnold Roth and a Palestinian Arab, Ali Abu-Awwad outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City on 28-Sep-04. The article marked the fourth anniversary of the start of the Arafat Intifada war. Click here to view the interview. (Requires RealOne media player software installed on your PC).

In the wake of the Beslan (Ossetia, Russia) school massacre, Israel Insider published an essay by Frimet Roth, "Children in the Bullseye" (24th September 2004): "Nothing exacerbates the anguish of a bereaved parent more than sympathy for his child's murderer. If we cannot achieve an end to terrorism in the coming year, let's hope at least for this universal New Year's resolution: the drawing of a red line- the murder of innocent children. And zero tolerance for crossing it."

"Music From Hell" - The Hungarian publication, Hetek, published an interview with Arnold Roth in its 10th September 2004 edition. In Hungarian, it's here. The English-language translation provided by the journalist Eperjesi Ildikó who conducted the interview is here.

Arnold Roth was interviewed on The Stutz and Fleisher Show on Arutz Sheva, 6th August 2004. Click to hear the audio (needs an MP3 or streaming audio player).

A series of interviews in the Orthodox Jewish weekly Hamodia focuses on families who are dealing with the aftermath of the death of a loved one by terrorism. The 4th August 2004 edition includes an interview with Arnold Roth under the headline "Her Chessed Lives On". A high-quality scanned copy of the article is here. (An earlier, less-clear but smaller version in PDF Adobe Acrobat Reader form is here). Hamodia does not publish on the web.

In Zaragoza, Spain, on June 21 to 23, 2004, the Manuel Giménez Abad Foundation held a