The parents of U.S. teen Malki Roth, murdered in the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem in August 2021, met with Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, in a July 17 video conference to discuss the extradition of their daughter's killer from Jordan.
Other senior members of the U.S. Department of Justice involved in the case took part in the meeting in Washington, D.C., which focused on what the Roths termed "concrete steps" to advance the extradition of Ahlam Tamimi.
Although an extradition treaty exists between the United States and Jordan, the Roths have struggled to obtain justice.
"My wife Frimet and I have been unsuccessful for more than a decade in our efforts to engage with any senior U.S. official. We have wanted them to hear us directly, to look us in the eyes as we speak of our daughter, Malki Roth, a 15-year-old American citizen murdered in a horrific terrorist attack," Arnold Roth said at the meeting.
Pirro assured the Roths that the case remains a priority for the Justice Department and that she would do everything in her power to make the Tamimi extradition happen.
She expressed "in strongly emotional terms identification with our cause and understanding of what we've been through," Roth told JNS.
However, Pirro noted that it wasn't entirely up to her, as other departments of the U.S. government were involved.
While the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia plays a key role in extraditions, particularly those with implications for national security, it works in conjunction with other agencies, including the U.S. State Department.
The Roths have not been successful in meeting with a U.S. Secretary of State to press their case, despite efforts over the years to do so. The State Department's Rewards for Justice program has offered up to $5 million for information leading to Tamimi's arrest.
"The Jordanians are in breach of their extradition treaty with the United States, and have never once been called out on it," said Roth. "I don't know of another case like it where the U.S. sees itself as blocked from bringing a fugitive to U.S. justice by a treaty-partner and recipient of lavish foreign aid." (Jordan receives $1.45 billion in U.S. aid annually.)
Roth told Pirro that they understand the "geopolitical realities," that Jordan is a close U.S. ally and "seen as a moderate, a partner in a volatile region." But as someone who monitors King Abdullah II's speeches, Roth said that the reality "is very different from the packaging."
Abdullah hasn't fought antisemitism in Jordan, nor his country's love for Tamimi. "She's a celebrity because the royal court has allowed that to be the case," he told JNS.
'All the victims deserve justice'
Tamimi, 44, a Hamas terrorist, helped plan and engineer the Sbarro bombing, which killed 16 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman. Some 130 were injured.
Three Americans were killed in the attack. Two died on Aug. 9, 2001, the day of the bombing: Roth's daughter, Malka, and Judith Shoshana Greenbaum, a pregnant 31-year-old teacher. A third American, Chana Nachenberg, died in May 2023 after 22 years in a coma.
"All the victims deserve justice," Roth told Pirro, asking that Tamimi's extradition become a "true priority" for the DOJ.
"We realize that policy considerations and political expediency can dictate that justice for terrorism victims is sometimes sidelined," Frimet Roth told Pirro. "But as bereaved parents, we cannot accept that our daughter's killer is free because of the perception that it's inconvenient to press this specific U.S. ally. The truth is, Tamimi's freedom is an affront to every American."
Noting that the 25th anniversary of the Sbarro bombing is approaching, Frimet said, "We cannot carry this fight alone any longer. Judge Pirro, please, be the voice for Malki and the other American victims. Be the advocate for justice that has been denied for too long. We beg you to act, not for our sake alone, but for the integrity of American law and the sanctity of every life lost to terror."
The Trump administration has been more responsive to the Roths than past administrations. On May 13, they met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, presenting him with a petition bearing some 30,000 signatures during a private meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
The petition urged Washington to pressure Jordan to extradite Tamimi.
Tamimi was convicted in an Israeli court in 2003. She was sentenced to 16 consecutive life terms. The three-judge panel that sentenced her warned that she must never be set free as part of any agreement. Israel released her in the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011.
"At the time, Frimet and I called the deal a catastrophe," Roth told JNS.
"It was made by a prime minister who built his reputation by writing the book about how to deal with terrorists. And the most important premise in his book was you never deal with terrorists. As soon as he faced the issue in reality, he did the exact opposite," Roth said of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was premier at the time of the Shalit deal.
"It's outrageous what the government of Israel did. And a lot of people were killed in the aftermath," he said.
Roth also expressed disappointment in the silence of significant parts of America's Jewish leadership. He said there's a reluctance to address the issue and "the weighty questions of justice it throws up" because, for some, there's a degree of embarrassment that Israel released Tamimi in the first place.
He also sensed that there's a strong desire in American Jewish circles to avoid antagonizing Jordan, an attitude "for which he has no sympathy."
Roth said he would focus his current efforts on convincing American Jewish leadership to become active on the issue.
Republished with permission from Jewish News Syndicate