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| At a friend's birthday party in Jerusalem on August 8, 2001. Malki was murdered the following day. |
In terror victimhood, all are equal
FRIMET ROTH
Times of Israel | November 27, 2015
Today is my
daughter Malki’s birthday. As in each of the past fifteen years, it will be
marked with a visit to her grave. The one other time we go there is to mark the
anniversary of the day she was murdered.
I have always
insisted on using that word, jarring though it is. I never say that Malki died.
Or that she was killed or perished or passed away. It is significant to
remember that she was snatched from us in that manner. And it is crucial to
specify that her murderer was not your garden-variety blood-thirsty psychopath,
but rather an Islamist terrorist.
Nowadays, my
husband and I feel especially compelled to publicize that last point. We and
the rest of the world must be reminded – and in some cases convinced — of
how Jewish terror victims are one with terror victims of other nationalities.
Sadly, this is
not a given. Many, even some Jews, view our victims as the collateral damage of
a territorial conflict only vaguely connected to the terror threat confronting
the rest of the world. The inference, of course, is that unlike the victims in
Paris last week, my child’s murder had an explanation, a justification. Implying
that as Jews residing in Israel, we invited our tragedy upon ourselves.
Unfortunately,
the task of rectifying this abominable misconception has fallen to the victims
themselves. We cannot rely on our prime minister to spread this message.
It would be hard
for him to assert that Israel is suffering from the very same terror plaguing
the world. That’s because, on October 18, 2011, he himself underlined the
idea that ours is a milder version of terrorism. On that day, he
freed hundreds of self-confessed, unrepentant, convicted murderers in a
travesty of justice that no other free world leader had previously committed,
has committed since or will ever commit in the future.
That day, the
chasm between himself and other world leaders confronted by terrorism grew
exponentially.
It is left to
us, Israel’s terror victim families. We are among those who publicly decried
the decision in 2011 to ride roughshod over basic notions of justice.
We need to
demonstrate to the world that our children were as precious, as innocent and as
randomly targeted as the victims of ISIS terrorism.
We carry the
burden of proving that Palestinian terrorists are as indiscriminately barbaric
and hateful as the beheaders of journalists and the rapists of Yazidi women.
A mere glance
at the video [here] of Malki’s murderer, Ahlam Tamimi, as she
rejoices in her prison cell to hear that she murdered not “merely” three, but
eight children along with her eight other victims, makes that abundantly clear.
In interviews
she gave to Arab journalists after being released in the Shalit Deal,
Tamimi gleefully boasts of her accomplishment. Her blood-thirstiness is
palpable.
Today, but for
the evil of Islamic terrorism, our Malki would have been a thirty year old
woman, probably a loving wife and mother and — as always — a dear daughter and
sister. Instead, her murderer is free, married, a celebrity with a high-profile television program of her own, freely
inciting other Muslims to follow her example.
And she is not
the only one of the Shalit Deal releasees who returned to terrorism. While
Israeli officials refuse to divulge the precise number, Palestinian sources reported in
August 2015 that at least 63 of them had been rearrested by Israel up at that
time.
The Shalit Deal
is clearly a fiasco that our government is anxious to bury. Instead, we are
burying the victims of that deal.
Today on Malki’s
birthday, please help us in our quest to educate others about terrorism in
Israel. Remember her, remember her purity and kindness and remember Ahlam
Tamimi, the Islamic terrorist who murdered her.
The Malki Foundation is a memorial to our daughter's life. It does invaluable, practical good for families in Israel - Jews, Christians, Moslems, Druze, uncommitted - who care at home for a child with severe disabilities and who could benefit from a non-political, non-intrusive helping hand. Thousands of such families have been helped since the foundation was established on September 11, 2001. MORE
1 comment:
May you be comforted among the other mourners of Israel and Jerusalem. The goodness of Malki's life comes out of your writings. May you lead all of us to an Israel where terrorism does not exist.
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