|
The Editors
Time Magazine
My 15 year-old daughter
Malki was murdered in the Jerusalem pizza shop bombing last
Thursday.
When my family and I got up
yesterday from the shiva, the seven-day mourning period, I thought
nothing could distract me from my grief. Then someone read me the
headline of TIME's August 20th article about the bombing: "A
suicide bomber's desperate final act sparks another round of
retaliation".
Your glorification of the
act that took my precious 15 year old daughter is unforgivable. What
happened was barbarism. To think of it in any other way is to give it
meaning.
Malki was a loving,
generous angel of a girl, the one you write "had just zipped a
cell-phone text message to a friend". Yesterday her older brothers
collected that cell phone and some other personal belongings from the
police. Inside the phone's protective pouch I saw two things. One was an
ugly inch-long nail which formed part of that "desperate final
act" and which completely shredded the pouch. The other was that
written on the phone mouthpiece in Malki's tiny writing was a Halachic
note to herself: "Never speak badly of anyone". (In Hebrew:
Asur ledaber lashon hara.)
Malki's life was filled
with acts of helping others, including her own profoundly handicapped 6
year old sister, and other children with special needs. In addition, she
adored the challenge and responsibility of being a youth leader, a role
she took up only eight months ago.
To her many close friends
who sobbed uncontrollably at her funeral and to me, her mother to whom
she was much more than a daughter, Malki's loss is not measurable, not
bearable. She was my friend, the sister that I never had, my confidant,
the main source of support for me in caring for our youngest
child.
I wish you would first
consider the pain caused by such reporting before granting suicidal Arab
fanatics their moment of glory.
Sincerely,
Frimet Roth
Last revised: December 21, 2007 02:33:43.
|
|
This is the text of Frimet Roth's letter
to the editors of TIME. It was published, in a modified form, in their
edition of 17th September 2001
|
to
receive Frimet and Arnold Roth's occasional published articles,
sign up for the Friends of the Malki Foundation Email List. [