The massacre at Sbarro Jerusalem

Newspaper, magazine and other media accounts of the events of 9th August 2001 are below. At 2.00pm on a hot summer's day, a Hamas terror gang executed an attack on a busy restaurant in the center of Jerusalem. The unguarded Sbarro restaurant was filled with patrons, most of them children and young mothers - precisely the preferred target of the barbarians of Hamas and its allies. Fifteen people were murdered there that day. Hundreds of innocents inside and in the vicinity were maimed and injured.

[Frimet and Arnold Roth have written as often as they can on the experience of terror, and about losing their daughter Malki. A  selection of their essays, published articles and speeches, is here.] 

(Above) The Sbarro restaurant, center of downtown Jerusalem, minutes after the horrific explosion on 9th August 2001 that destroyed so many lives.

First, the facts

9th August 2001: A resident of the village of Aqaba, north of Tulkarm, Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri (picture), single and 23 (by some accounts 22), son of a well-to-do land-owning family, entered the busy Sbarro restaurant at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road at lunchtime on a school vacation day in Jerusalem. The restaurant was filled with customers, most of them children and mothers. 15 Jews (picture) were killed, one remains unconscious four years later, and 130 were injured in various serious degrees. In the aftermath of the massacre, Israeli forces initiated certain non-lethal actions [PDF] in the Jerusalem area against the Palestinian terror organizations. (It's been suggested at various times that al-Masri's family were opposed to, or even horrified by, their son's murderous actions. But a Palestinian Authority official source, quoted by the unimpeachable MEMRI, reports that Hamas official Ashraf Sawaftah, speaking  publicly a week after the massacre of a ceremony honoring the bomber, said this: "His relatives distributed sweets and accepted their son as a bridegroom married to 'the black-eyed,' not as someone who had been killed and was being laid in the ground."

The massacre was coordinated and planned by the Hamas terror organization's Ramallah branch. Six weeks later, a triumphal exhibit at Al Najah University, the largest in the West Bank, featured a mock-up of the Sbarro restaurant including gnawed pizza crusts and bloody plastic body parts suspended from the ceiling as if they were blasting through the air. See the New York Times report (PDF version) and this video record of the event.

Hamas, which today rules Gaza with an iron and bloody fist, published a particularly dishonest, self-delusional account here.

The explosive charge was manufactured by Abdallah Jamal Barghouti (2006 picture), the chief “engineer” of the Hamas infrastructure in the Judea region. The bomb, along with screws and nails to magnify the devastation, was assembled inside a guitar case which Al-Masri carried. Barghouti is a Kuwait who settled in the West Bank village of Burqa in 1999. He has been frequently described in the media - and from his own mouth - as the brains behind the massacre.

At his trial, evidence was produced to show that Barghouti's relative Marwan Barghouti - a prominent Palestinian Arab political figure now serving several life senetnces for murder - paid Abdallah $500 build the bomb. This came on top of the $117,000 he received for his troubles from Hamas, according to evidence given to the court.

Others were involved in providing funds - large sums of cash - for the terrorists themselves and for their families. A 2005 news article "Hamas Financier Detained" describes the involvement of Hamas 'activist' Ahmad Saltana [PDF version here] in the financing of the terrorist murders.

The human bomb’s guide was Ahlam 'Aref Ahmad al-Tamimi, also known as Ahlam Tamimi (2001 pic; 2006 pic), a 20-year-old innocent-faced Jordanian national who lived in Ramallah, studied in Bir Zeit, and worked as a journalist. Tamimi was involved in gathering the intelligence for the attack and on the day of the massacre, along with the suicide bomber and the charge hidden inside the guitar, she headed for a taxi-cab station in Ramallah, where they took a taxi to Jerusalem. Tamimi carried a camera and spoke with the suicide bomber in English so that they could inconspicuously pass for tourists. She was arrested on 14th September 2001. For her part, Tamimi was sentenced to sixteen life terms, or 320 years, in an Israeli jail (report and report). She was the first woman to have been recruited by Hamas' Izzadine el-Qassam gang. She has never expressed remorse of any sort. A 2006 report quotes Tamimi saying from an Israeli jail cell: "I'm not sorry for what I did. We'll become free from the occupation and then I will be free from prison."

For some additional, deeply disturbing, background about this female, see "The Real Ahlam Tamimi You Didn't Read About In The Times" by Noah Pollak (published 3rd August 2007).

Another co-conspirator was Mohammad Daghlas (2006 picture), a "student" who delivered the bomb that was used in the massacre. He is now in an Israeli jail.

Abdallah Barghouti's counsel said Barghouti felt "his actions were legal as part of the game Israel is playing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip". Barghouti himself pleaded guilty and told the court he "did this to kill as many Israelis as possible". He was rewarded in December 2004 with a sentence of 67 life-terms in an Israeli prison (report). In a later interview, he said: "I do not accept responsibility for their deaths. I feel pain, of course. They are little children. But the government of Israel is solely responsible." Interviewed in April 2006 by CBS' television program "60 Minutes", Abdallah Barghouti said of the death toll in the Sbarro massacre and the other bombings he engineered: ""I feel bad because the number is only 66."

At right: A poster appearing in a special memorial scrapbook dedicated to Palestinian martyrs (shahids). It is dedicated to the memory of Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri, “who carried out the heroic act in Jerusalem”. (Source: “Albums and school notebooks imbued with messages of admiration for Palestinian martyrs (shahids), portraying them as role models to be emulated”, a special information bulletin published by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)

Media reports from Israel and the West

(Oldest at the top; newest at the foot of the page)

What the media in the Arab world say

Jerusalem Post: Name of Fifteenth Bombing Victim Released (10-Aug-01) "Malka Chana (Malki) Roth, 15, from Jerusalem's northern Ramot neighborhood, is the 15th victim in yesterday's suicide terror attack at a downtown pizzeria in the capital."

Melbourne Age: "My Daughter Was Murdered Today" (10-Aug-01) Arnold Roth " contacted The Age because he didn't want his daughter to become just another statistic in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians." [If the original page is inaccessible, a copy of the text is here.]

Here, according to Moslem World Today, is how the emerging leaders of the Palestinian Arabs relate to the massacre at the Sbarro restaurant in 2005. Read and weep.

Hamas Calls For More Suicide Bombings Friday, January 14. 2005 / Khaled Abu Toameh / BIR ZEIT / ...Hundreds of students attended a rally organized by Hamas at Bir Zeit University, where they called for more suicide attacks against Israel. "Oh suicide bomber, wrap yourself with an explosive belt and fill the scene with blood," chanted a chorus of five male students at the rally, held by the Hamas-affiliated Islamic List to mark the ninth anniversary of the killing of Hamas bomb-maker Yehya Ayyash, better known as "The Engineer." Green Hamas flags and large portraits of slain Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi decorated the campus and the hall where some 500 activists gathered to honor the former university student responsible for a string of suicide bombings that killed at least 100 Israelis in the mid-90s. Organizers said the timing of the parley was not linked to the election of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as Yasser Arafat's successor. Speakers refrained from making any reference to the election, pointing out the event, approved by the university administration, had been planned long before the vote. They also refused to comment on the results of the vote. "Ayyash is alive and don't say that he's dead," a speaker told the crowd, who responded by shouting "Allahu Akbar! (God is great)." Another speaker described the Hamas bomb-maker as "the engineer of death for those who deserved to die."
The students also paid tribute to another colleague, Izzaddin al-Masri, who carried out the suicide attack in Jerusalem's Sbarro restaurant in 2002, killing 16 people and wounding more than 100. The Hamas rally was seen as a show of strength in the wake of Abbas's victory and a reminder of the tough challenges he faces from the Islamic group and its allies... [More]

Suicide Bombings are Legitimate Even if Children Are Killed: An editorial in the Egyptian government daily Al-Masaa praised suicide/ martyrdom operations. Here is an astonishing report - translated from the Arabic by Middle East Media Research Institute MEMRI,  describing lavish, virtually unlimited, praise heaped on the heads of people like Malki's murderers in January 2004 (!) Al-Masaa is a daily Egyptian paper controlled by the government of Egypt. Excerpt: "Even if during [a martyrdom operation] civilians or children are killed – the blame does not fall upon the Palestinians, but on those who forced them to turn to this modus operandi... Ultimately, we should bless every Palestinian man or woman who goes calmly to carry out a martyrdom operation, in order to receive a reward in the Hereafter, sacrificing her life for her religion and her homeland and knowing that she will never return from this operation." The  government of Egypt receives more than $2 billion in foreign aid each year from the US.

Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem (Includes names and photographs of all victims)

Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press Release: I am horrified by the terrorist attack in Jerusalem (Statement of Foreign Minister Downer, 10-Aug-01): "I wish to convey personally, and on behalf of the Australian Government, my sincere condolences to the families of the killed and injured, particularly the family of 15 year old Malki Roth, originally from Melbourne. I have directed the Embassy in Tel Aviv to provide whatever support they can in this dreadful situation." [PDF]

Melbourne-born girl was one of those killed as she met her best friend for a pizza lunch in central Jerusalem Sydney Telegraph (11-Aug-01) "Izz-el-Din al-Masri, holding an M16 rifle and a Koran, is thought to be the bomber who blew himself up and killed at least 15 people... He realised his dream this week, taking along with his own the lives of 15 Jewish civilians, six of them children. Eighty more were injured of whom 44 remained in hospital last night. Australian teenager Malki Roth, 15, from Melbourne, was among his victims. She was waiting for friends at the inter-section of Jaffa Rd and King George V Streets..." [PDF]

"My daughter was victim of barbarians' baseless hatred, says Australian father" Sydney Morning Herald, 21-Aug-01 "What we see is a colossal, catastrophic failure of leadership on the part of our neighbours, and something which must change because it's inconceivable that it would continue for another minute... No leadership can lead its people to such a historical catastrophe for long without the system rising up and reacting. But... there's no dialogue with barbarians."

The original online article was published here. If it has been archived, a stored copy is here.

Melbourne Age: Born Here, Killed Far Away (10-Aug-01) After a frantic afternoon and evening, her family found her body in the pre-dawn hours at the coroner's office in Tel Aviv . If anything could deepen their grief it is this: the world forgot that behind the statistics of body counts and reprisals was their lovely daughter and sister. [PDF]

Melbourne Age: "Malki Roth's father, Arnold, talks to The Age Online's Hamish Fitzsimmons" Audio interview 10-Aug-01

Melbourne Age: Member of Parliament Michael Danby Expresses Condolences (11-Aug-01): "Your pain was evident from your note and the picture published on The Age website. I wish to express my deep shock at the tragic loss of life in the heart of Jerusalem overnight and in particular, the futility of innocent people being the victims of a suicide bomber..." (Originally published here.)

Jerusalem Post: "Friends in Life and Death Etgar Lefkovits (13-Aug-01) "They were the best of friends. Two teenage girls, both 15, from the same neighborhood, the same Ezra youth movement. Malka Roth and Michal Raziel of the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot were constantly at each other's homes. They shared everything." [PDF]

Haaretz: "She Isn't Just Another Statistic" (Charlotte Halle) (13-Aug-01). Although it was just three days since Arnold and Frimet Roth had learned that their oldest daughter, Malka Chana, was among the 15 fatalities in Thursday's bombing of the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem, the mood in the household was not one of anger.

Washington Post: The Suicide Bomber Took Our Daughter's Life But Not Our Convictions (Lee Hockstader) (18-Aug-01) When I interviewed Arnold Roth the other day, his modest apartment in northern Jerusalem was teeming with grieving visitors: Roth's teenage daughter Malki was among the victims of the pizzeria bombing. Roth is a 49-year-old lawyer who manages a pharmaceutical technology company, a thoughtful man whose dignity was as evident as his despair. (If the article is not accessible via the Post's site, click here for an offline copy.) [PDF]

Jewsweek: Shimon Apisdorf's Tragic Trip (August 2001) Hours after hearing about the Sbarro bomb, author Shimon Apisdorf was on a plane to Israel. While there, he filled a journal with anecdotes, personal thoughts, and poems. 

Melbourne Age: Victim's Mother Shares Grief (21-Aug-01) Speaking from Israel via satellite, Frimet Roth shared her grief with an audience of more than 3000 - many in school uniforms - at the Caulfield Hebrew Congregation hall. [The original article has been removed from the Age website. This link takes you to an offline PDF copy.]

Melbourne Age: Malki: Her Father Speaks (Ian Munro) (21-Aug-01) Malki Roth was 15 years old, an accomplished musician and youth club leader, heading into year 11 at school and thinking about studying at university. (The original has been removed from the Age website. This is a PDF version of the Google cache of the page.)

Haaretz: Disproportionate Number of Anglos Slain (Charlotte Halle) (24-Aug-01) After paying several condolence calls to bereaved Anglo families in recent months, Olmert said he admired them for "the restrained way they deal with their pain." The mayor observed that the families he had met, many of them Orthodox, seemed fully aware of the "dangers, difficulties and risks" of life in Israel

Baltimore Sun: "Terror Tables Turned for American Journalist in Israel", Peter Hermann (13-Sep-01) (The original article has been removed from the source website, but remains accessible via Google's cache)  "A week after Malki Roth's death, police gave Mr. Roth his daughter's nylon bag, which she used to hold her cell phone. Mr. Roth carefully opened the torn remains. Out fell a nail. "A calling card of the barbarians," he said." 

Time Magazine: Frimet Roth's letter to the Editors was published in their 17th September 2001 edition. The original text, as submitted and before Time's editing, is here.

Haaretz: Shin-Bet Arrests Perpetrators of Sbarro Bombing (17-Sep-01) Arrested were Muhammad Douglas, 30, who in addition to being a member of Hamas is an activist in Force 17; and Ahlam Tamimi, 21, a female Jordanian citizen who in recent years has lived in the Ramallah area. Both are students at Beir Zeit University.

Jerusalem Post: Sbarros Recreated by Palestinians (23-Sep-01) (PDF file - requires PDF viewer software) Visitors crowded through the doorway to see a recreation of the August 9th suicide bombing, complete with body parts and pizza slices strewn all over. In the downtown Jerusalem attack, the bomber and 15 other people were killed. An AP picture of the Sbarro recreation is here. The New York Times reported on the exhibit in a 26th September 2001 article entitled "An Exhibit On Campus Celebrates Grisly Deed" here.

And it's captured on video here (see the link at the top of that page).

ABCnews / Nightline Martyr Mindset Some See Growing Suicide Bomber Aspirations Among Palestinian Kids The bomber was assisted by Mohammad Daghlas, a 22-year-old college student from the West Bank village of Burqa who provided the bomb involved in the attack. Via a cell phone smuggled into a prison where he's serving a 1,500-year sentence, Daghlas told ABCNEWS he regrets nothing. (Originally published here.) [PDF] [Full text here in PDF form]

The Times (London) published a lengthy analysis of the state of mind of the barbarians who engineered the Sbarro massacre. It's no longer on-line so we have replicated it offline here.

Irish Sunday Business Post Death of innocents Niall  Stannage (3 Feb 2002) "The duo had spent the morning helping to decorate another friend's bedroom. They planned to attend a meeting of Ezra, a Jewish youth movement, in the afternoon. They were looking forward to it. But first, they thought, they should have some lunch. They chose Sbarro, a city centre pizza restaurant popular with teenagers, as the venue. A young man arrived at Sbarro around the same time as the girls." (An offline version is here.)

Melbourne Age: A man who seeks light from his darkest hour (15-Aug-02) "Arnold Roth's daughter died in a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem pizza restaurant. Now, he uses his grief to help other Israeli parents whose children have been murdered. Julie Szego reports." [If this article is taken off the Age website, click here for an offline PDF copy.]

Christian Science Monitor: "Families mourn loves, not heroes, on Israeli retreat" Ilene Prusher (30-Oct-02) "They were neighbors. They were counselors in the same youth group. They even shared the same initials. And they were heading to a meeting for their volunteer work when they stopped off to get a slice of pizza in downtown Jerusalem. There, a year ago Aug. 9, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a Sbarro restaurant, killing both of them and 13 others. Now, it is the families of Malki Roth and Michal Raziel who have something in common – an unbearable loss that they feel few around them understand." [PDF]

Jewish Week (New York): Remembering Malki (Yaeli Bronstein) (October 2002) "From the moment my father walked into my room last summer, I knew something horrible had happened..." 

ABCnews / Nightline Interview with Frimet and Arnold Roth / "Frimet: I don't think anyone would describe me as hateful. I'm just aching - that's what there is in my heart." (29-Oct-02) [This interview appears to have been removed from the ABC News website and is currently not accessible elsewhere.]

Jewish Bulletin of Northern California: Foundation continues work of a murdered daughter (25 Apr 2003) "How do you memorialize your beloved daughter, murdered by a terrorist when she was only 15? How best to celebrate her life and carry on her good works?... Inaugurated in January, the Malki Foundation was created to enable families of very ill or disabled children to care for them at home."

The Scotsman: "Palestinian Sentenced to 320 Years for Bombing" (23-Oct-03): "A Palestinian woman was sentenced to 320 years in prison by an Israeli military court today for her role in a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem pizzeria that killed 15 people. Jordanian-born Ahlam Tamimi was the first woman to be recruited by the Izzadine el-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the violent Islamic Hamas movement... Among the dead in what the court judgment called “a satanic act” were toddlers, teenagers and elderly." More.

The Role of Arab Bank: Terror ties at a Middle Eastern bank? The FBI is Investigating

"[Jordan-based] Arab Bank denies ever knowingly doing business with terrorists. And officials insist the bank has never moved money for anyone officially designated a terrorist by the U.S. government. However, NBC News provided the bank with documents showing it dealt with three Hamas terror groups even after they were blacklisted by the United States. It's against the law for banks in the United States to handle transactions for terrorists on the blacklist." Lisa Myers and the NBC Television Investigative Unit, report (May 11, 2005): "FBI investigates Arab Bank for allegedly supporting suicide bombers and doing business with suspected terrorists..."  [More]

A Year Later: Still Struggling to Recover An important article (offline version here) by Tamar Rotem in Haaretz examines how life looks to families impacted by a terrorist massacre. [View the PDF version here if Haaretz has archived it.] "The way children react to a traumatic event is altogether different from that of their parents... Children are not little adults... They may seem easygoing, laughing and playing with everyone. The signs can be a lot more suggested: the nature of the game changes and becomes less complex, their drawings become monotonic and repetitive. Babies and toddlers develop eating and sleep disorders, and cry more often. Kindergarten and school-age children who have been exposed to trauma will express their distress through fears of abandonment. In school, children are liable to present behavioral problems.

The Red Carpet: Angela Bertz describes the events of a fateful afternoon in Jerusalem, 9th August 2001 "It was barely 48 hours after the bombing that Izzedine’s sister would give birth to a son. She named him after a man that had killed 15 innocent people. When asked what hopes she had for the child, she said she wanted him to be “like his uncle.”