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Bereaved Son and Brother: We Received Death Threats

October 17, 2011

Meir Schijveschuurder, who lost his parents and three of his siblings in the suicide bombing in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001, appealed to the Supreme Court on Sunday in an attempt to prevent the release of Ahlam Tamimi, the female terrorist who drove the suicide bomber to the scene of the attack.

Tamimi is one of 27 female terrorists to be released from prison as part of the deal to release abducted soldier Gilad Shalit.

Israel’s Channel 2 News quoted the bereaved son and brother as telling the court on Sunday, “We, as victims and as families of victims, cannot understand why they picked a small group of 27 arch-terrorists, making them celebrities in the Arab world abroad.”

“At worst, some will join Hamas’ political wing and they will call to destroy the Zionists, and they will stand on each stage with a picture of my parents who they murdered with pride, and explain that it’s possible to murder Jews in Israel and not to pay a price,” Schijveschuurder added.

He said that he and his siblings filed the appeal “thinking to stop the madness affecting us these days, thinking that perhaps the Supreme Court will intervene and stop the return of terror to the streets, of buses and restaurants exploding, of people who die in bed at night only because they are Jews here in Israel.”

Schijveschuurder noted that his family intends to leave the country. “As soon as this deal is completed, we intend to leave the country and take with us the graves of our family members,” he said, adding: “My father came here to Israel thinking this would be a safe place after what happened to his family in the Holocaust, but unfortunately we were slaughtered here for the second time and we get a feeling it could happen again.”

Schijveschuurder also told the court that he and his family have received death threats.

“Last night, the family of Abdullah Barghouti, who is not being released as part of the deal, called to threaten us personally, and said they’ll slaughter us,” he said. “My little sisters are really scared to go outside the house after these threats. We feel like a man who woke in Germany a day after World War II.”

Meir Schijveschuurder’s brother, Shuvel Schijveschuuder, was questioned by investigators last week for spray-painting the words “Free Yigal Amir” on the Rabin memorial in Tel Aviv.

Schijveschuuder confessed to the vandalism, and told investigators that he was motivated by pain over the release of his family’s murderers.

Meanwhile, Arnold and Frimet Roth who lost their daughter Malki in the same terror attack have launched a last-minute petition to convince the government to keep Tamimi in jail.

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