The family of Malki Roth, who was killed at the age of 15 in the Sbarro Pizza parlour bombing in Jerusalem in 2001, has condemned the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for providing its platform to her remorseless murderer. The condemnation came in the wake of BBC’s Arabic television service that broadcasted an appeal for the mastermind behind that attack, Ahlam Tamimi, to be reunited with her husband following his deportation by the Jordanian government.
Malki was one among the 15 people killed and more than 130 wounded by terrorist Ahlam Tamimi in a 2001 bombing attack at a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. The family has called upon the BBC to issue an apology to the family and the kin of other victims of the attack for allowing their platform to be used to garner sympathy for the murderer.
Ahlam Tamimi appeals to Jordan King Abdullah II for uniting her with her husband
Malki’s father, Arnold, wrote a piece published by Palestinian Media Watch last Tuesday. He had written: “On Oct. 8, 2020, a program called ‘Trending’ on BBC’s Arabic TV service beamed throughout the world an item about Tamimi for the purpose of creating sympathy for the child murderer.”
Arnold added that how Ahlam’s husband, Nizar Tamimi, who is also a released terrorist, was pressurised by the Jordanian authorities to leave the country for Qatar on October 1.
About 7 days later, BBC’s Arabic TV service broadcasted a report painting Tamimi as a victim and detailing how she was called into a famous Amman-based radio station in order to seek King Abdullah II’s intervention to have her husband returned to Jordan.
Tamimi’s 16-year prison sentence was cut short for a prisoner-exchange program with Hamas
About two decades ago, in August 2001, Ahlam Tamimi brought a guitar filled with explosives in a Sbarro Pizza shop in Jerusalem. She gave the guitar-laden with explosives to a suicide bomber, who detonated the bomb in the shop, killing 15 people, 8 of them children. When asked about the families and children she murdered, Tamimi unrepentantly said she had “no regrets”. Tamimi smiled from ear to ear when she was informed that 8 of the 15 murdered by her bomb were children.
Tamimi was sentenced to 16-years of rigorous imprisonment after her role in the bombing came to light. However, she was released after 10 years of incarceration as a part of a prisoner exchange deal for captured Israeli Defense Forces’ soldier Gilad Shalit between Israel and Hamas.
Ahlam is in the United States’ list of “Most Wanted Terrorist” but Jordan has contended that it cannot extradite her to America since she has Jordanian citizenship, and a 1995 extradition agreement with the United States was not yet formalised by Jordan’s government. The US has offered a bounty of $5 million for her capture and conviction.
