Guest post by Dorsey Collins
Officials of President Trump’s Justice Department have unsealed a 2013 criminal complaint and arrest warrant for Ahlam Tamimi – a Palestinian terrorist – in connection with her strategic role in the infamous August 9, 2001 Sbarro restaurant suicide attack. The attack was carried out midday on one of Jerusalem’s busiest streets, resulting in fifteen innocent civilian casualties (including seven children and a pregnant woman), and leaving over 130 wounded. Among the dead were two Americans. Hamas claimed credit for the attack.
The Sbarro Attack victims (Legal Insurrection)
Tamimi’s played a critical role in the attack. She scouted for a target before leading the bomber, Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri, to the Sbarro restaurant. They arrived just before 2:00 pm, when the restaurant was filled with customers, “dozens of women, children and babies,” and pedestrian traffic outside was at its peak. Tamimi departed before Al-Masri detonated an explosive device that authorities described as weighing roughly ten kilograms and containing nails and nuts and bolts. Tamimi was convicted by Israel and received multiple life sentences but was released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. Today she is a television host in Jordan and is considered as a symbol of the Palestinians fight.
The FBI also added her to the list of Most Wanted Terrorists, and U.S. authorities say they are working to secure custody of her.
An NGO based in Israel, Shurat HaDin, played a critical role in making sure Tamimi did not escape justice once she was released into Jordan. Shurat Hadin is representing Chana Nachenberg, who was grievously injured in the Bombing and remains in Israel in a coma until today. Shurat Hadin participated and helped coordinate a delegation of Department of Justice prosecutors visited Israel to meet with law enforcement officials and American families of the terrorist victims.
Shurat HaDin President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: “We are glad that the US Department of Justice has decided to move forward against this notorious mass murderer. We have been requesting for a long time that this unrepentant Palestinian terrorist be rearrested, extradited and prosecuted by American law enforcement officials. It was outrageous that Israel released this criminal with so much innocent blood on her hands and who has publicly rejoiced that she killed 8 Jewish children. For too long Jordan has become a safe haven for Palestinian terrorists and, hopefully, this is a change of policy for the new Trump administration, to start to pursue the numerous Palestinians who have killed US citizens in Israel. Jordan has an extradition treaty with the US and must be compelled to turn over Tamim for prosecution. Even though 16 long years have passed by, when it comes to the murder of Jews by Palestinian terrorists we must remain steadfast and pursue these intifada suicide bombings them with the same vigor the world Jewish community once pursued Nazi era prosecution.”
The father of Chana Nachenberg, Yitzhak Bennett Finer, has responded: “We applaud the efforts of the Department of Justice in trying to bring Tamimi to justice and we hope they’ll be successful. Our daughter Chana Nachenberg had the prime of her life taken from her because she has spent the past 15 and half years in a vegetative state on a respirator as a result of this inhuman act of the heinous bombing of Sbarros. Her daughter Sarah has grown up without a mother and her husband David without the love of his wife. We, her parents, have spent all these years visiting her daily in the hospital and ensuring she is being well cared for.”
