The Bus on Jaffa Road

On February 25, 1996, Sara Duker and Matthew Eisenfeld, an American couple visiting Israel and who had just secretly become engaged, were on Jerusalem's Number 18 bus on the city's Jaffa Road. At a stop, a young man carrying an Israeli army backpack got on, but wasn't an Israeli soldier. He reached into his knapsack, pulled a cord, and set off a huge bomb. Sara and Matthew, the bomber, and 21 others, died instantly. Their grieving families set out to get answers and justice. They discovered that Iran had financed the bombing as well as others that preceded it. They filed a lawsuit in U.S. courts against Iran, asking for money from Iranian assets that had been frozen in the U.S. since the late 1970s. They won a judgment of $327 million against the Iranian assets. The U.S. government blocked their efforts to collect damages. The families have not give up.