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US AFFAIRS: Trump’s return to the White House renews hope for Malki Roth’s family as they push for the extradition of her killer, Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, from Jordan to the US.
By YUVAL LEVY FEBRUARY 7, 2025 20:20
ARNOLD AND Frimet Roth have spent over two decades fighting to obtain justice for the murder of their 15-year-old daughter, Malki Roth, a victim of the Sbarro restaurant bombing. Here, the scene of the attack in Jerusalem’s city center on August 9, 2001.
(photo credit: NATI SHOHAT/FLASH90)
President Donald Trump’s entry into the White House has provided fresh hope for Arnold and Frimet Roth, who have spent over two decades fighting to obtain justice for the murder of their 15-year-old daughter, Malki Roth, a victim of the Sbarro restaurant bombing in 2001.
Up until now, all previous US presidential administrations have failed to extradite the terrorist from Jordan.
According to Reuters, Trump has invited Jordanian King Abdullah for a meeting at the White House on February 11. However, it is unknown whether the terrorist will be a topic of discussion.
“We’re already into the second decade after the [Gilad] Schalit deal of doing whatever we can to have this awful woman brought to justice,” Arnold Roth told The Jerusalem Post. “And it’s one of those rare situations where we’re completely right.”
On August 9, 2001, an Islamic fundamentalist by the name of Izz al-Din Suheil al-Masri entered the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem with a guitar case full of explosives and an objective: kill as many Jews as possible. The suicidal human bomb detonated, wounding over 130 individuals and killing 16, seven of whom were children.
The mastermind behind the attack was Ahlam Aref Ahmad al-Tamimi, a 20-year-old Jordanian journalism student and Hamas jihadist recruit, who accompanied the suicide bomber to the crowded restaurant in the heart of Jerusalem.
According to the US Justice Department, Tamimi was given 16 life sentences by a judicial panel in an Israeli court, pleading guilty to all charges. However, in 2011, Tamimi was released along with over 1,000 other convicted terrorists as part of the Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange. Today, she lives freely in Jordan as a television personality, having hosted her own talk show on Al-Quds TV.
ROTH AND his wife have attempted to contact members of multiple presidential administrations to pressure the United States government to extradite Tamimi.
“We have never had a Democrat who has even pretended to say ‘I’m going to speak out about this.’ Not one,” he said. “There have been a dozen or maybe two dozen Republicans who have said ‘Okay, this is an issue we want to speak about’ – and they haven’t done it,” Roth added. “We need Congress to act.”
The US State Department told the Post that it has emphasized to the government of Jordan the importance of holding Tamimi “accountable in a US court for her admitted role in a 2001 bombing in Jerusalem that killed 15 people, including Americans Malki Roth, Shoshana Greenbaum, and Chana Nachenberg,” and that it “continues to impress upon the government of Jordan that Tamimi is a brutal murderer who should be brought to justice.”
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Despite promises to take action, Roth expressed frustration at the lack of progress made by previous American presidential administrations in extraditing the killer.
“How can it be that this case, this case in particular, doesn’t deserve to be turned into a really serious issue?” Roth said.
In an interview with the Center for Near East Policy Research in 2011, Tamimi said that she “knew there was a Jewish religious school near[by],” making it clear that she had selected a location with a high density of children for her attack.
“I admit that I was a bit disappointed, because I had hoped for a larger toll.... Two minutes later, they said on the radio that the number had increased to five. I wanted to hide my smile, but I just couldn’t. Allah be praised, it was great,” she told Al-Aqsa TV, according to a broadcast translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“She’s a living embodiment of the idea that if you believe [you can kill Jews], you can do it,” Roth said.
Justice Department interest
Tamimi became a person of interest in the Justice Department in 2013. When asked if he was involved in the process of publicizing Tamimi’s crimes, Roth said: “I was warned that nothing would be shared with us until they could share everything with us, and that we needed to be patient,” and added “I thought they meant weeks. In fact, it turned out that they meant years.”
Tamimi’s charges were made public in 2017, with the State Department citing a 1995 extradition treaty with Jordan as justification for her transfer to the United States. Tamimi is one of 23 individuals (one of two women) on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list. The Rewards For Justice Program is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information that leads to her arrest or conviction.
Eight years later, Tamimi still has not been extradited. AP News reported that in 2017, Jordan’s Court of Cassation upheld the decision that Jordan does not have a valid extradition treaty with the United States. However, after suing the State Department under the Freedom of Information Act, Roth was informed that Jordan’s former King Hussein had personally ratified the treaty. “They have created a completely bogus narrative which everybody who wants to not bother Jordan and upset the king chooses to adopt,” Roth said.
Despite controversy over the treaty guidelines, former president Joe Biden referred to King Abdullah of Jordan as a stalwart ally in a “tough neighborhood,” at a White House meeting in 2021, AP news reported. “Anybody can now see that the people mentioned aren’t really against terrorism,” Roth remarked. “They’re against terrorism provided that the price of being against terrorism is something they feel they can pay.” The US Embassy in Jordan reports that it receives $1.45 billion in American aid per year.
In 2022, things appeared to change for the bereaved Roth family when a letter from Victoria Nuland, former State Department spokesperson, arrived at their home. In the letter, Nuland wrote on behalf of president Biden and stated that “this case is a foremost priority for the United States,” adding that “we will stay in contact with you regarding our ongoing efforts to ensure Tamimi is held accountable for her despicable crimes.”
“We waited a month and then a second month and then a third month. [I sent] 12 letters to Victoria Nuland, both directly to her email and via the American Embassy in Jerusalem. Not a single response from that day until today,” Roth said. “I’m very bitter. I’m bitter, not because anybody has done anything insulting, but because it’s us, a bereaved couple sitting in Jerusalem trying to remind the most senior figures in the United States government [to take action].” Roth added that “being in the situation is enraging. We’re not pushing a political barrel. We’re trying to get basic justice, and everyone says, you’re right, you’re right, you’re right, and then stops talking to us.”
According to Roth, there has been very limited media coverage of his attempts to bring Tamimi to justice. “On the Israeli side, the story is, I would say, entirely untouched by the Hebrew media,” he said. “In the United States, it has been entirely untouched by the mass media.” As for the few publications that did interview him, Roth said that his story was “always being presented not as news but as opinion.”
MANY OF the American Jewish organizations that Roth contacted for help refused to get involved in his efforts, he said, but he emphasized that a major exception was the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which issued a statement last month on Inauguration Day urging Trump to take action. Roth and his wife have yet to hear from the current US administration.
“Going into a Trump administration, we have some significant plans in place, but we are not a major American Jewish organization; we’re doing this out of passion and out of heartbreak, and what we want is justice, not revenge,” Roth said.
He stated he’s had several meetings with government officials in Washington and is feeling more optimistic going forward. “We believe that the chances of having US officials doing what US officials were supposed to do at the beginning – those chances are good,” he said.
Last Sunday, Jordanian authorities informed Hamas that they would be deporting Tamimi, according to the Qatari-owned Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. Allegedly, Jordan told the terrorist organization that if it failed to relocate her, Jordan would hand her over to the United States. The reports notably come amid King Abdullah’s planned visit to Washington next week.
“Jordan has spat in the face of its US treaty partner for more than a decade. This is not the time for Jordan to be allowed to disconnect from Tamimi who must stand trial in Washington,” Roth posted on X/Twitter on Tuesday. “Tamimi must be extradited. Now. Today.”
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