Remembering Malki; remembering justice

I am certain that along with all of us, the grieving families, Jews everywhere are taking a few moments today to remember the innocents who were snatched from us before their time through battle and terrorism.

As we do both on Malki's yahrzeit - the 20th day of the month of Av - and on Yom Hazikaron today, we have lit a candle. And I have opened her diary.

I struggle to read the tiny script with which she recorded both her innermost feelings alongside her mundane recollections of every day in her last year. It is nothing short of a torture. Invariably I unearth words that highlight what a uniquely kind, generous, gifted and innocent soul Malki was.

Three days before Yom Hazikaron of that year, 2001, there was a human-bomb attack on a bus in Kfar Saba. As with every terror attack,, Malki recorded the details in red pen: 

"There was a suicide attack this morning in Kfar Saba. Thank G-d there were no fatalities but there were many injured and one is in a serious condition." 

(The corner of Weizman and Tchernichovsky streets in Kfar Sava, April 21, 2001: One innocent person killed, about 60 injured, two severely. Hamas for which Tamimi worked claimed responsibility.)

From Malki's diary, April 2001

She then proceeded in black ink to relate her difficulties in getting to school on time, how exhausted she was, that she reset her alarm, that she waited three-quarters of an hour for her bus which was jam-packed and that she finally arrived at the end of her Literature class.

I flipped a few pages forward and found that on Sunday, the day before Shavuot she had written:

"I finally helped Mommy loads. I truly helped her prepare the food and it gave me a really good feeling. Bubby (Grandma) is coming for the holiday."

Remember, her murderer, Ahlam Tamimi, lives free in Jordan, unrepentant and proud of the massacre she perpetrated which took the lives of sixteen Jewish men, women and children. 

To date, the efforts my husband and I have made to have her extradited from Jordan to the United States pursuant to her indictment in 2017 have borne no fruit. But we have not given up the struggle. 

"צדק, צדק תרדוף!" remains our guiding tenet.