A plaque at Sbarro

On 23rd September 2003, after prolonged efforts by the Roth family and others, the Jerusalem municipality finally arranged a formal unveiling and dedication of a plaque on the outside wall of the Sbarro restaurant in the heart of Jerusalem. The plaque commemorates the massacre carried out on the premises of the restaurant by Palestinian Arab terrorists a little more than two years earlier.

No explanation was ever offered as to why the process of arranging for a plaque to be created and affixed was so prolonged and so painful.

From various individuals on the staff of the municipality, the Roth's heard suggestions that there had been obstruction by the owner of the building and a general lack of co-operation by all concerned with the obtaining of the necessary permissions. But in the end, the staff of the municipality's Commemorations Dept. were helpful and supportive and the plaque was finally created and mounted.

(Sbarro subsequently moved its local restaurant operations to a different address on Jerusalem's Jaffa Road in the summer of 2004, long after this ceremony.)

The modest unveiling and commemoration took place at the Jaffa Road/King George Ave corner on the afternoon of Tuesday 23rd September 2003.

Frimet Roth, Malki's mother, spoke briefly in Hebrew about the importance of remembering. Her words, rendered into English, are here.

	The original Hebrew text of Frimet's address is here (the PDF file requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).
	So far as we know, the Australian Jewish News is the only publication to publish a report of this event. Their article is here and the photo accompanying the story is here.
	Frimet Roth's earlier published essay about the failure of the municipality to honor the memory of the dead at the Sbarro massacre is here.
	The names and brief background information on all of the innocent civilians murdered in the Sbarro massacre are here.

Click on the thumbnails below to see larger pictures snapped by Arnold Roth.

Speaking: Frimet Roth. In the front row: Mayor Uri Lupolianski, chief of the Jerusalem police Mickey Levy, the heads of the fire and rescue squads in Jerusalem, and Rabbi Rabinovich, the official rabbi of the Kotel.

An armed IDF sniper stands guard on the rooftop next to the gathered guests... sad commentary on life in Israel's capital city today.

Frimet Roth addresses the assembled family, friends, dignitaries and guests briefly about Malki and about the significance of memory

Outside Sbarro after the unveiling of the plaque

The Jaffa Rd frontage of the Sbarro restaurant. The plaque was mounted on the left-most column of the building's facade.

The memorial plaque with fifteen names.

Sbarro announces its reconstructed Jerusalem branch

When the Sbarro Israel management reconstructed their restaurant and re-opened it in Sep. 2001, thirty days after the terror attack, this is the advertisement they ran in all the local Jerusalem newspapers. The Roths felt this was a disgrace. No mention of why the restaurant needed to be rebuilt; no mention of the murders, or of the victims alive or dead, or of the pain of the families. The headline reads: "For you, the best!" The sub-heading: "The Jerusalem Sbarro branch which opens on 12 Sept. is the fanciest in the country, and you're invited to come along and get a 50% discount".

And on an entirely different note...

The scene outside the Sbarro restaurant in the center of Jerusalem, the early afternoon of 9th August 2001

Not everyone has the same opinion about acts of barbarism...

Palestinian students celebrate the massacre

A month after the murders, Hamas and its supporters in Nablus at the notorious An-Najah University erected a crude reproduction of the destroyed Sbarro restaurant to celebrate the massacre, and to rejoice in the deaths and the maiming of innocent civilians