Jordan refuses to extradite terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, who helped carry out the 2001 Sbarro massacre.
By Pesach Benson, United With Israel
The Rabbinical Alliance of America (RCA) called on President Joe Biden to withhold U.S. aid to Jordan until the Hashemite Kingdom extradites terrorist Ahlam Tamimi.
On August 9, 2001, a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up in a busy Sbarro restaurant in downtown Jerusalem. Fifteen people were killed, including seven children. Another 130 were injured.
Ahlam Tamimi, a Jordanian national who was studying at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah, was sentenced to 16 life sentences for helping plan the bombing, including surveilling possible targets and escorting the bomber to the restaurant. Israel released Tamimi in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap.
Victims rights groups have been seeking Tamimi’s extradition to the U.S. because two Americans — 15-year-old Malki Roth and 31-year old Judith Greenbaum — were among the dead. Greenbaum was pregnant at the time.
Another dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, Chana Nachenberg, survived but has been hospitalized in vegetative state ever since.
In 2017, the U.S. Justice Department officially filed charges against Tamimi and announced it would seek her extradition. The FBI also added her to its most wanted list of terrorists.
Jordan denied the request, saying its parliament had never ratified the extradition treaty. Efforts to bring the terrorist to justice took a further hit this past March when Interpol dropped its warrant for Tamimi’s arrest.
Tamimi returned to Jordan, where she received a hero’s welcome. She has since become a well-known media personality, hosting a talk show, “Breeze of the Free,” on the Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds TV. She also writes weekly columns and appears as a regular analyst on Al-Jazeera and BBC-Arabic. The common denominator: justifying and inciting terror.
The RCA, which represents more than 950 American rabbis, demanded the Biden administration bring Tamimi to justice.
“Despite her vicious crime, Tamimi lives a life of luxury and privilege, thanks to the lucrative salary she receives from Hamas, which is indirectly financed by Western governments who contribute to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Tamimi has never denied her role in the Sbarro terror attack, and her pride in slaughtering Jews and Americans is on display for anyone to see in her many media appearances,” the RCA stated.
The RCA also called on the White House to use the threat of withholding foreign aid in order to secure Tamimi’s extradition.
“Rabbi Mendy Mirocznik, executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, on behalf of his organization calls on the Biden administration to press Jordan to extradite Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi, including the withholding of aid to Jordan to encourage compliance with its extraction request. This demand would be in harmony with the “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2020,” which was signed into law on December 20, 2019. Section 7055 of the act provides for financial consequences for Jordan if the case is not handled properly.”
According to the State Department’s website, “the United States is Jordan’s single largest provider of bilateral assistance, providing more than $1.5 billion in 2020.”
The site added, “In 2018, the U.S. and Jordan signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to provide $6.375 billion in bilateral foreign assistance to Jordan over a 5-year period, pending the availability of funds.”