A mother’s reflection on Remembrance Day

Like many other bereaved parents, I desperately want the memory of my angel to live on.


Frimet Roth
Op-Ed/JPost
18 April '10

A decade after the start of the worst civilian war Israelis have known, the second intifada, the memory of its victims is endangered. With few soldiers, celebrities or heroes among them, they were always step-victims: anonymous men, women and especially children who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

My daughter Malki was 14 when the war started in 2000. She kept a private journal of her activities, which unknown to me, included her thoughts about the turbulent news.

• “Today the disturbances in the territories continued and the roads leading to the settlements were closed, including the Givat Ze’ev-Ramot road. A soldier was killed because he was trapped at Joseph’s Tomb and they couldn’t manage to rescue him. Just shocking and frightening...” Malki’s journal entry – October 1, 2000.

The details of the ordinary Israelis killed by the terrorists were doomed to fade away for other reasons too. Their fates highlighted the initial inability of the government to confront the terrorist onslaught. Until Operation Defensive Shield was launched on March 29, 2002, Palestinian terror groups were acting with essentially a free hand. The “omnipotent” IDF seemed unable to stop them. In these circumstances, it is no surprise that governments have been reluctant to highlight this sorry chapter in our nation’s history.

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