Arnold Roth addresses symposium, hopes it will lead United Nations to belatedly define terrorism.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, APsbarro bombin 224(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Arnold Roth, whose daughter Malki was one of 15 people killed in the Palestinian suicide bombing of Jerusalem's Sbarro pizza restaurant in August 2001, on Wednesday praised a UN symposium on victims of terrorism as "strikingly constructive."
Roth, who addressed the gathering on Tuesday, said "It may push the UN towards doing what it has notably failed to do for decades: define terrorism."
Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt implored diplomats Tuesday at the UN's first such symposium to stand up to terrorists while mixing their strategies with humanism and love.
"If there is no political will, there is nothing," said Betancourt, who holds dual Colombia-French citizenship and was running for the South American country's presidency when she was kidnapped by leftist guerrillas six years ago. Colombia's military freed her in July along with 14 other hostages in a daring rescue.
Betancourt was among 18 people summoned from the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas to share their experiences as victims of bombings, hostage-takings and other terrorist attacks in the past several decades.
Another speaker, Ashraf al-Khaled, recalled the shock of losing his father and father-in-law during a suicide bombing attack in Amman, Jordan at his wedding reception in November 2005. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for three synchronized bomb blasts at three popular international luxury hotels that night, killing at least 57 and wounding hundreds more.
"Suddenly everything white turned into red," he said. "My wife and I lost 27 people in our wedding."
Most speakers urged greater international cooperation in fighting terrorists, with greater attention paid to the societal and mental health consequences of the losses and pain caused to victims, their families and the broader communities.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office had to navigate a mine field of political sensitivities in picking who to fly in for the event particularly since the United Nations has never agreed on a definition of terrorism.
"The list keeps growing longer, bringing with it greater pain and grief that cascades mercilessly through families, communities and nations," he said. "And it is for the sake of humanity that we must create a global forum for your voice and listen to you, the victims. Your stories of how terrorism has affected your lives are our strongest argument why it can never be justified."
Ban's top policy official, Robert Orr, who also heads a counterterrorism task force, said the UN decided what should be considered a terrorist act and the participants were then chosen accordingly based on guidance contained in 16 international legal documents.
Arab and Islamic nations have insisted that terrorist groups such as Hizbullah and Hamas, which have taken arms against Israel, should be excluded from the definition and considered "freedom fighters."
Last week, the General Assembly resolved to do more to combat terrorism. The 192-nation assembly agreed by consensus to reaffirm its strategy adopted two years ago to step up border controls, develop a database on "biological incidents," clamp down on counterfeiting of travel documents and develop ways to stem terrorism on the Internet.
Contrary to some reports, Roth said, a Palestinian invitee, Marwan Diab, also addressed the gathering on Tuesday. Diab "spoke as a victim and appears in the official papers of the event." Additionally, said Roth, Diab was set to speak a second time on Wednesday, "as an expert." The "victims" were not invited to this Wednesday session.
An official Palestinian UN delegate also spoke on Tuesday. Said Roth: "He named two, and only two, victims of Israeli 'terrorism' in his speech: Muhammad al-Dura and Huda Ghaliya. Those names are, to say the least, highly controversial. Each is connected to accounts of deaths whose basic facts have been subject to critical analysis and considerable controversy, not to say doubt."
In his remarks on Tuesday, Roth expressed gratitude at being granted "the extraordinary privilege to speak from this place and to invoke international solidarity while raising my voice in condemnation of terrorism and in support of the campaign against it."
He went on: "I don't know a more fitting way to reflect (using the words of your invitation) on the human face of the consequences of terrorism than to speak about my daughter. Malki, my child. Your life ended in a crowded pizza restaurant filled with mothers and children in the center of Jerusalem, the capital city of our country.
"Your school holidays were nearly over. You spent them by helping children with special needs, children with disabilities, to enjoy their summer...
"And then a young man, not very different in his external appearance from other young men but burning with an inner religious passion to maim and hurt and kill, walked into that restaurant...
"Acting in the name of a cause in which he had been instructed to believe, the terrorist faithfully exploded the package on his back. He had no intention of taking strategic control of the pizza restaurant. He did not ask for political concessions from our family, and not even from our government. You and the 130 others who were maimed and murdered by his exploding guitar case were not collateral damage. You were not caught in any cross-fire. You and the other children and mothers were precisely the target of that man and of those who sent him. You were 15 years old..."
Roth added that Malki's death, "and our pain were not the end of the struggle to stop the terrorists... Today, terrorism infects nearly every corner of the world."
The challenge to the nations, Roth concluded, "is to find and adopt policies that will end it. The challenge to individuals, to the victims who endure terrorism, is to find and adopt ways to survive the evil of the perpetrators of terrorism - to reaffirm our humanity, our dignity, our generosity, and our optimism."
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