Terrorism, Malki Roth’s murder and questions to answer for the BBC’s Arabic service

Chris Blackhurst begins a new weekly column for Reaction subscribers next Wednesday.

A school friend, Philip Geddes, was killed in the IRA bombing of Harrods in 1983.

We grew up in Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria, and were pupils at the local grammar school. He was the year above and I still have books on my shelves that he passed down to me. My grandmother ran the hat shop, and his father, Michael, was the tailor. They knew each other well – they would supply outfits for the same events and weddings. Philip was an only child.

After he died – it turned out that Philip, a young journalist, was living round the corner from me in Stockwell, South London. But London being what it is, neither of us knew. My grannie said Michael’s heart was broken. He died soon after.

I’ve never forgotten Philip or his dad’s agony. On my old school Facebook page, tributes to Philip resurfaced again recently as the anniversary of the blast that killed three police officers, three members of the public and injured 90, came and went. They were still fresh in my mind when I was talking to Arnold Roth.

In 2001, Roth’s daughter, Malki was one of 15 civilians blown apart in a terrorist suicide attack on the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. Aged 15, she was the middle child of Arnold and his wife, Frimet. “Malki was a wonderful child, full of life, with so much ahead of her, then she was taken from us,” said Arnold.

Even though she died 20 years ago, his pain at her loss is obvious and still raw. It does not diminish. Imagine, then, in October last year, him turning on the BBC Arabic TV programme, Trending, to watch the mastermind of her death being interviewed and treated respectfully. The atrocity was planned by Ahlam Tamimi. She chose the location; she guided the bomber. Tamimi, a senior member of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, was sentenced to 16 life terms by an Israeli court in 2003. The judges recommended she should never be released.

But in 2011, she was freed, as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas when 1,027 Palestinians and Arab-Israelis were traded for the release of Shalit, an Israeli soldier. Tamimi, who proudly proclaimed her involvement in the Sbarro massacre, is a Jordanian citizen and she moved there after her release. She did more than that, living freely and becoming a celebrity with her own TV show that highlights cases of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

In October, she went on BBC Arabic’s popular Trending to appeal to be reunited with her husband, Nizar, also a convicted terrorist, who was deported by Jordan to Qatar. Her appearance was promoted on social media under the hashtag, “Ahlam Tamimi, your voice is loud and clear”.

Roth was born in Australia, while Frimet is from New York. Malki had dual Australian-US citizenship. In 2016, the US Department of Justice issued an arrest warrant for Tamimi on a charge of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against American nationals, including Malki. She is on the FBI’s “most wanted” list and there is a $5m reward for information leading to her arrest. The Roths have been campaigning for her extradition, but so far, the Jordanian government has refused to intervene.

On the six-to-seven minute segment, there was no mention of what she’d done, no description of the popular restaurant, no reference to the victims. Roth could not believe what he was watching. “She was portrayed as a hero,” he says. Worse, it was on the BBC.

When he and the families of Tamimi’s other victims complained, the BBC investigated and found its editorial guidelines had indeed been broken. They aired an apology on BBC Arabic on 29 October, which began with the presenter saying, “I read you a message from the BBC…”.

Roth was furious, again. “It was the same as saying, ‘I’ve been asked to make this statement on behalf of the BBC. I don’t believe it, you won’t believe it, but I will read it and then we can get on with the show’.” The way the apology was addressed, he maintained, was deliberately made to take it away from BBC Arabic and Trending, to indicate that a higher authority had intervened, that they, BBC Arabic and Trending, were not responsible.

He contacted the BBC again and held a Zoom meeting with senior executives from BBC World Service and BBC Arabic. He asked for the opportunity to speak to the BBC Arabic staff in person, to tell them about Malki, her death, and the Malki Foundation the charity the Roths set up in her name, which works with disabled children of all faiths across Israel. He wanted to be allowed to record a section to be broadcast on Trending and social media outlining his objections to the Tamimi interview. His requests were rejected.

“What they did had nothing to do with the rules, values and codes of ethics of the BBC. What is going on at BBC Arabic, such that a fugitive from US justice and a convicted murderer can be turned into a figure of pity and sympathy? I want to ask them, where did you learn that kind of journalism, how is it acceptable?”

Listening to Roth and observing his anger and hurt, you do wonder. One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter and all that. I think of Philip Geddes and the eulogising of the IRA, and the suffering of his parents. This isn’t about IRA versus Britain or Palestine versus Israel; it is about grief and torment. Here, there was not even an attempt at balance, no account of what happened, and Tamimi’s role. That one-sidedness was then compounded by the robotic, distanced apology.

Perish the thought that the BBC’s Arabic service is pursuing a political agenda, at the expense of the Corporation’s mission statement: “To act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain.”

Shame on you, BBC.