Out of the hundreds of terrorist attacks etched on Israel's collective memory, the slaughter at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem stands out as one of the worst. On Aug. 9, 2001, when summer vacation was in full swing, Hamas terrorist Muhammad al-Masri entered the restaurant in the city center carrying a bomb hidden inside a guitar. When it detonated, it killed 15 people, including half of the Schijveschuurder family (both parents and three children, and two other children were seriously hurt), wounded a total of 140, and left an indelible trauma.
The victims included six American citizens, four of whom were wounded – including Chana Nachenberg, who remains in a vegetative state – and two of whom were killed – Shoshana Greenbaum, a 31-year-old teacher from New Jersey who was six months pregnant, and 15-year-old Malki Roth, who died alongside her friend Michal Raziel.
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In a response that was considered harsh at the time, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered that the Palestinian Authority offices in Jerusalem, primarily the Orient House, be shut down. And as the horrific days of the Second Intifada continued, the public's attention shifted to the even more deadly attacks that soon followed.
Twenty years after the Sbarro catastrophe, one matter remains unresolved. The 22-year-old suicide bomber had been driven into the heart of Jerusalem by a pair of terrorists, Mohammad Daghlas, who was behind the wheel, and Ahlam Tamimi, a Palestinian TV anchor who used her press pass to get through the security checkpoints on the way to the capital. Tamimi directed the suicide bomber to his target destination, and immediately fled the scene. She got on a bus at Damascus Gate and heard radio reports that the number of Jews who had been killed was mounting.
"There was great joy on the bus. People congratulated each other, even though they didn't know each other. They didn't know about my part," Tamimi said later in several interviews. Later that evening, she reported on the attack without revealing the part she had played. A few weeks later, the IDF arrested her. She was sentenced to 16 life sentences and another 15 years in prison. While in prison, she announced that he had married her cousin Nizar Tamimi, who had murdered Beit El resident Haim Mizrahi in 1993.
A decade after Tamimi was imprisoned, Israel made a deal for the release of captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. Tamimi and the driver were both released, and subsequently, Tamimi arrived in Jordan. She was the only Jordanian citizen among the 1.027 prisoners who were released in the deal.
Nizar Tamimi was also freed. He was supposed to remain in the West Bank, but someone in the Israeli establishment helped him move to Jordan, duping Malki Roth's father, attorney Arnold Roth, who had been trying to keep the couple from being reunited.
The moment Tamimi, who holds Jordanian citizenship, set foot in Jordan, she became a star. Hundreds of people took part in a ceremony welcoming her. The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas feted her, and she had a televised meeting with Hamas official Khaled Mashaal. She began working as a TV anchor again, this time on Hamas' channel. In countless interviews to outlets throughout the Arab world, she expressed pride in her part in the slaughter.
"I have no regret about what happened, definitely not. This is the way. I have devoted myself to jihad on behalf of Allah, and Allah gave me success. Do you know how many people were hurt {in the attack at the Sbarro pizzeria)? That was made possible because of Allah. Do you want me to condemn what I did? It's not a possibility. I would do it again, today, the same way," she said time after time. (Translation from Arabic by MEMRI)
Three years after the Schalit deal, the Netanyahu government put most of the Hamas terrorists released in it back in prison as a punishment for the abduction and murder of three teens from Gush Etzion. Tamimi, already in Jordan, could not be re-imprisoned. However, the US could demand she stand trial.
Arnold Roth had discovered that American law allows relatives of victims of terrorism to request the government to demand the extradition of those involved in the attack that killed or wounded their loved ones. Until Tamimi was released, Roth and his wife, Frimet, had devoted themselves to caring for their other daughter, Haya, who has serious disabilities, and commemorating their murdered daughter Malki.
Tamimi's release caused the scales to fall from their eyes. Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor anyone representing him responded to the letters the family sent him begging that Tamimi not be included in the Schalit deal. After she was released, they felt betrayed – Netanyahu had promised on live TV that he would send a letter to every one of the families who had lost loved ones at the hands of the terrorists to be included in the deal. Eventually, Tamimi became a "terrorist star" in Jordan and the Arab world at large, and Israel ignored what she was doing. This prompted the Roth family to seek justice on their own behalf.
For eight years, they have been working with those in power in the US to achieve a single goal: for Jordan to extradite Tamimi to the US. They are facing enormous systems, powerful interests, and brutal international politics. There is not enough space to detail how many promises have been made to them and then broken. But Frimet and Arnold are going step by step and getting up every time they are knocked down.
The intensive battle they are waging from their home in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem has made the Tamimi issue into a sore point for relations between Amman and Washington. About six months ago, King of Jordan Abdullah II called US Senator Ted Cruz, asking that he stop Israel's planned annexation of Area C. Cruz responded by asking about Tamimi's extradition. Other senators and congresspeople responded similarly.
Jordan and the US have an extradition treaty, and at least three terrorists have been extradited from Jordan to the US over the years. But when it comes to Tamimi, Abdullah reversed the policy. He bucked the demand to extradite her, and Jordan's highest court suddenly "discovered" that the treaty was unconstitutional.
Back in 2013, the Obama administration started a lawsuit against Tamimi, but froze it shortly thereafter. The Trump administration renewed the process in 2017 and included Tamimi on the FBI's Most Wanted list and offered a reward of $5 million to anyone who would help extradite her. The US State Department rejected the Jordanian Supreme Court's ruling that the extradition treaty was supposedly invalid. The US Congress voted to condition the $1 billion in aid the US pays Jordan each year on her extradition. Congresspeople sent repeated letters of warning to Jordanian Ambassador to the US Dina Kawar, demanding that she hand Tamimi over to the American authorities.
Arnold and Frimet Roth gained support from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, AIPAC, the Jewish Federations of North America, the Anti-Defamation League, EMET – Endowment for Middle East Truth, The Lawfare Project, and the US administration itself. But despite the bilateral support for Tamimi's extradition, neither of the last two administrations followed through.
The last terrorist extradited was forcibly apprehended in Jordan by a contingent of US special forces. Tamimi's arrest warrant, in contrast, remains open. Threats to stop US aid to Jordan weren't implemented and it looks like they won't be. The US takes one step forward and two steps back.
'The head contradicts the heart'
So what is holding up the US from putting Tamimi on trial? Malki Roth's parents suspect that Israel is playing a key role in preventing the extradition.
"People and organizations we reached out to expressed willingness to help, and then cut off contact. This has been repeated so many times, until it became clear that some invisible hand wanted to hold things up. We also heard hints that the Israeli government doesn't want the extradition. It's obvious that if Tamimi is extradited, it would embarrass the person who released her, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," Arnold says.
There are also signs that Israel might be secretly working to prevent the extradition – the total refusal of the Prime Minister's Office, the Foreign Ministry, or the Israeli Embassy in Washington to respond to any of the questions Israel Hayom posed in preparing this article. If Israel is, in fact, not involved in preventing the extradition, why wouldn't the government say so? Israel Hayom spoke to dozens of Israeli and American sources, all of whom said they had never heard anything about Israel telling the Americans not to extradite Tamimi. One official in the Trump administration who has dealt with the matter over the past few years, told Israel Hayom that "This is a matter between the US and Jordan, and only them. Congress has conditioned continued aid to Jordan on Tamimi's extradition, and Congress is the one who will need to decide whether or not to implement that threat. Israel has nothing to do with it."
But Arnold and Frimet don't believe the denials.
Both Israeli and American sources admit that in their view, preserving the stability of the Jordanian government takes precedence over the justified demand for her extradition. A former high-ranking member of Israel's National Security Council told Israel Hayom that "This is a difficult case in which the head contradicts the heart, justice, and morality. The king's conduct is annoying, and not only on this issue. He is in the wrong, including by allowing her to continue her free incitement to terrorism. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the Hashemite government is a more preferably ally than any other possibility – the Muslim Brotherhood, an Iranian-sponsored government like in Syria or Lebanon, the Islamic State, or chaos. This is why it is so sensitive."
Q: Is the Tamimi issue so sensitive that extraditing her could topple the king?
"You don't want to take a risk when it comes to an interest like that."
Former US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told Israel Hayom that the demand to extradite Tamimi is justified.
"The US has an obligation to families hurt by terrorism. Justice demands that the process of putting her on trial in the US be implemented," Shapiro said.
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However, the former ambassador admitted that neither the Obama nor the Trump administrations did everything possible to ensure that the extradition took place because of the American interest in regional stability. Shapiro, incidentally, spoke on behalf of the Obama administration against including Tamimi and other terrorists who killed Americans in the Schalit deal.
Arnold Roth does not accept the arguments that extraditing Tamimi would destabilize Abdullah's government.
"There is no principle in public life that needs to be protected and honored more than justice. Justice shouldn't be turned into something that politicians twist for their own purposes. Tamimi's freedom encourages the citizens of Jordan to support terrorism, and Jordan's refusal to honor the treaty is seen by the king's citizens as validation of their pro-terrorist views. Jordan has a fundamental obligation to extradite her. This is a binding bilateral obligation that the respected King Hussein, father of the current king, obligated himself to in the name of his kingdom. Did the peace agreement with Israel topple the kingdom? Did the cancellation of the Muslim Brotherhood's official status last summer topple the kingdom? Did the deportation of Tamimi's husband in October topple the kingdom?!" he asks.
The surprising deportation of Nizar Tamimi was the latest development in the story. About a month ago, the Jordanian authorities sent him to Qatar, and it appears that the move was designed to mitigate the American anger at the king and possibly prompt Tamimi to follow her husband there. Since her husband vanished, Tamimi had lowered her profile, a positive development in itself. But if Tamimi moves to Qatar, there is no guarantee that it would be easier to extradite her from there. The opposite might be true, and the couple could drop off the public radar as it would be harder for America to get its hands on them. One thing is certain: Justice will only be done when Tamimi, the murderer of children who is proud of her deeds, is spending the rest of her life behind bars.
