Will Jordan Finally Extradite Ahlam Al-Tamimi?

Ahlam al-Tamimi is the female jihad terrorist who masterminded the suicide bombing of the Sbarro Pizzeria in Jerusalem in 2001. She selected both the target — a restaurant popular with families — and the time when she calculated the place would be most busy with mothers and children. After she had directed the suicide bomber to the pizzeria, Al-Tamimi was on a bus with other Palestinians, listening to the latest news on the driver’s radio. She was initially disappointed when she heard that “only three” people had been killed at the pizzeria, but she cheered up when she heard that there had been many more victims — in the end, a total of 16 dead, half of them children, and 130 wounded, many of them severely.

Here is her record of that time: “Released Hamas Terrorist Ahlam Tamimi on Palestinian Public’s Delight at Suicide Bombings,” MEMRI, July 12, 2012:

…”Afterwards, when I took the bus, the Palestinians around Damascus Gate [in Jerusalem] were all smiling. You could sense that everybody was happy. When I got on the bus, nobody knew that it was me who had led [the suicide bomber to the target]… I was feeling quite strange, because I had left [the bomber] ‘Izz Al-Din behind, but inside the bus, they were all congratulating one another. They didn’t even know one another, yet they were exchanging greetings….

“While I was sitting on the bus, the driver turned on the radio. But first, let me tell you about the gradual rise in the number of casualties. While I was on the bus and everybody was congratulating one another, they said on the radio that there had been a martyrdom attack at the Sbarro restaurant, and that three people were killed. I admit that I was a bit disappointed, because I had hoped for a larger toll. Yet when they said ‘three dead,’ I said: ‘Allah be praised.'”…

“Two minutes later, they said on the radio that the number had increased to five. I wanted to hide my smile, but I just couldn’t. Allah be praised, it was great. As the number of dead kept increasing, the passengers were applauding. They didn’t even know that I was among them.

“On the way back [to Ramallah], we passed a Palestinian police checkpoint, and the policemen were laughing. One of them stuck his head in and said: ‘Congratulations to us all.’ Everybody was happy.”

Tamimi was ultimately arrested and imprisoned by Israel, but she was freed as one of the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners traded for a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in 2011. In Jordan she has been made much of, a celebrity terrorist who has even hosted her own television show. Ever since her move to Jordan, the American government has been trying to have her extradited. The Jordanians, despite having an extradition treaty with the U.S., have refused to deliver her. Even without an extradition treaty, there is nothing preventing Jordan from turning her over — but that would take courage, given how popular this murderer is in Jordan.

Now something has happened to cause Jordan to demand that Al-Tamimi leave Jordan at once, and if she does not, she will be handed over to the Americans. That something is the ascendancy to the presidency of Donald Trump, who has now made clear to the Jordanians that he won’t tolerate any more excuses from Amman about that extradition treaty never having been ratified by the Jordanian government. More about this hideous creature, whom the American government has been trying to have extradited from Jordan for the past 13 years, can be found here: “Fate of terrorist behind Sbarro pizzeria bombing remains in question,” by David Isaac, JNS, February 3, 2025:

Jordan informed the Hamas terrorist group that it must take convicted terrorist Ahlam Tamimi off its hands, or it will deport her to the United States, according to Arab media reports on Sunday.

Tamimi, 44, who lives freely in Jordan, helped plan and engineer the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001, which killed 16 people, including three Americans. Some 130 were injured.

In 2013, the United States charged Tamimi with participating in the attack. She is at the top of the FBI’s “Most Wanted” terrorist list. The U.S. State Department’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 U.S. dating from 1995, has refused to comply in the case of Tamimi. If the reports are true, it would mean a major shift in Amman’s position.

Ahmad Safadi, Jordan’s Speaker of the Parliament, said on Monday that the reports were “inaccurate.”

“If we don’t open the issue, it’s better,” he stated….

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.”

Jordan is not going to hand her over — it doesn’t want protesters in the streets, denouncing the government for handing over a heroine. Instead, it will let Hamas help find her a new refuge, most likely in Qatar. For the past 13 years, Jordan has allowed al-Tamimi to remain in the country, and even allowed her to have her own television program. She’s now a beloved figure. That refuge given to her by the Jordanian government is reason enough to stop providing $1.5 billion a year in aid to Jordan. American aid has been temporarily halted to Jordan, as it has to all other countries with the exception of Israel and Egypt. That cut in aid to Jordan should become permanent. And if al-Tamimi ends up in Hamas-linked Qatar, in his inimitable fashion, President Trump should threaten that unless Al-Tamimi is handed over — whether or not there is an extradition treaty shouldn’t matter — the American government will move its military out of Qatar altogether, transferring the servicemen and planes at the Al-Udeid airbase in Qatar to another country in the region, most likely the UAE or Saudi Arabia. The al-Thani family that rules Qatar has always regarded the Americans and their planes stationed at that base as a guarantor of their country’s security. If Qatar is foolish enough to now take her in, Trump should remove that visible sign of American protection, unless Doha reconsiders, and turns the arch-terrorist al-Tamimi over to the Americans. There is only one country in the Middle East that would not turn her over to the Americans under any condition: Iran.