By David Isaac
Jordan informed the Hamas terrorist group that it must take convicted terrorist Ahlam Tamimi off its hands, or it will deport her to the US, according to Arab media reports on Feb. 2.
Tamimi, 44, who lives freely in Jordan, helped plan and engineer the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001, which killed 15 people, including two Americans, and injured 130. Another woman succumbed to her wounds years later, making the count 16.
In 2013, the US charged Tamimi with participating in the attack.
She is at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List. The US State Dept.’s Rewards for Justice program has offered up to $5 million for information leading to her arrest.
Jordan, which has an extradition agreement with the US dating from 1995, has refused to comply — all this time — with the stipulation. If the reports are true, the demand regarding Tamimi would signify a major shift in Amman’s position.
Ahmad Safadi, Jordan’s Speaker of the Parliament, said on Feb. 3 that the reports were “inaccurate.”
“If we don’t open the issue, it’s better,” he stated.
‘Hand this woman over’
Arnold Roth, whose teenage daughter, Malka, was killed in the attack, and who has waged a years-long campaign with his wife, Frimet Roth, to see Tamimi brought to justice, said that something is happening, though it’s difficult to ferret out the truth from the reports.
“If true, what the reports are saying is that Jordan is handing a veto to Hamas — and not for the first time,” he said. “The veto says to Hamas: ‘We have an obligation to hand this woman over, but we’re not going to do it if you don’t want us to do it.’”
Hamas would take Tamimi to another country — one without an extradition treaty with America, he noted.
Roth speculated that Tamimi is already out of Jordan, perhaps on the way to Qatar. “Her husband is there. Her bank account is there.”
Jordan would like to be rid of her; she is a “huge embarrassment,” according to Roth.
“The Jordanian government wants to see her someplace where there’s no more criticism of Jordan — to skip the part about how they have been breaching their treaty with their most important ally for 13 years.”
Tamimi has never expressed remorse for the Sbarro attack. She continues to express pride for her part in it, which included the death of eight children.
Tamimi picked the location as it was bustling with people, and drove the suicide bomber to the target. The killer entered carrying about 10 to 20 pounds of explosives hidden in a guitar case slung over his shoulder. The resulting blast gutted the restaurant at the height of the lunch hour on a Friday, when many are out and about before Shabbat starts.
Two US citizens were killed that day: Malka Chana Roth, 15; and Judith Shoshana Greenbaum, a pregnant 31-year-old teacher. A third American native, Chana Tova Chaya Nachenberg, died in May, 2023 after 22 years in a coma.
Israel caught up with Tamimi several weeks later. In 2003, she pled guilty and was sentenced to 16 life terms. She served only eight years, released as part of the Gilad Shalit deal in October, 2011.
She was bused to Cairo on the day of her release and then flew to Jordan, her birthplace. She received a tumultuous welcome and was greeted as a hero.
She has become a celebrity in Jordan, hosting her own Hamas-friendly TV show. Still, Roth pointed out that she is not universally liked. She has openly criticized both the Jordanian king and Hashemite rule.
Efforts ‘have gone nowhere’
While Washington appears to want Tamimi badly — offering millions for information about her — the fact of the matter is the US has known where to find Tamimi from the first day she arrived in Jordan in 2011, Roth said.
The Roths have pushed US decisionmakers for years to demand Tamimi’s extradition. Those efforts “have gone nowhere,” he said, despite Jordan’s dependence on American largesse. In 2023, Jordan received $1.7 billion in economic and military aid from the US, ranking it third among countries receiving such aid.
Of the three US presidential administrations Roth has dealt with — the Obama, Trump and Biden ones—none have done a thing, he said.
Victoria Nuland, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in the Biden administration, sent Roth a letter on Oct. 25, 2022, stating: “The US government remains fully committed to bringing Tamimi to the US to face federal terrorism-related charges in US courts.”
Nothing came of it, said Roth, and he still doesn’t know what prompted the letter.
He said he has a “particular ax to grind” with the Trump administration. The Roths took out a front-page ad in the Jerusalem Post when then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel in November, 2020, asking him to take action on Tamimi, “America’s most wanted female fugitive.”
“Pompeo’s response (he certainly saw the ad) was absolute silence from that day until today,” Roth said.
“There’s something extraordinary about the way US governments, one after the other, from Obama till today, have just steered clear of this issue.”
