The U.S. said Monday it is still seeking the extradition of a Palestinian woman in Jordan convicted of aiding a suicide bomber in Jerusalem in 2001. But it declined to comment on a request from the family of one of the victims for a meeting with President Joe Biden.
The family of an Israeli-American girl killed in the attack has asked for a meeting with Biden when he visits Israel later this week. They want him to press Jordan, a close American ally, to send Ahlam Tamimi to the U.S. for trial.
“We ask that you address this as only the leader of the United States can,” Frimet and Arnold Roth, the parents of Malki Roth, who was 15 when she was killed in the attack, wrote in a letter.
The Roths have been waging a campaign for the extradition of Tamimi since she was released by Israel in a 2011 prisoner swap with the Hamas terror group and sent to her native Jordan, where she lives freely and has been a familiar face in the media.
My wife and I, with almost no help from America's Jewish leadership or from the Congress, are not making a political statement. All we want is for people who care about justice to be outraged by how this woman is getting away with murder.
Our child's murder. pic.twitter.com/okDKdKp1ma
— Arnold Roth • Day#104 • Get the hostages home! (@arnoldroth) July 12, 2022
“The U.S. government continues to seek her extradition and the Government of Jordan’s assistance in bringing her to justice for her role in the heinous attack,” the National Security Council said Monday.
On Aug. 9, 2001, a Palestinian bomber walked into a Jerusalem pizzeria and blew himself up, killing 15 people. Two American citizens, including Malki Roth, were among the dead.
Tamimi, who chose the target and guided the bomber there, was arrested weeks later and sentenced by Israel to 16 life sentences. Since her release, she has boasted that she was pleased with the high death toll. In a 2017 interview with The Associated Press, she said the Palestinians have a right to resist Israel by any means, including deadly attacks.
The United States has charged Tamimi with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against Americans. Her name was added to the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Terrorists.
The U.S. and Jordan signed an extradition treaty in 1995. But in 2017, Jordan’s high court blocked her extradition, reportedly claiming the treaty was never ratified.
Jordan is one of the United States’ closest partners in the Arab world, seen as a force of moderation and stability in the volatile Middle East.
(AP)
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9 Responses
There were miracles in that explosion. A 15yo boy who had just put on tzitzis for the first time and was shopping for new clothing to go to a frum school his father had been persuaded to send him to by a kiruv worker was standing about six feet from the explosion with his family. When the bomb went off, he felt that he was being lifted into the air and had his clothes burned — except for the tzitzis which remained intact — but his body basically untouched, unlike his mother and siblings who had much more severe injuries, especially his brother who had decided to wait and see how he did in the frum school before deciding to go himself. When he doctors at the hospital asked him to remove the tzitzis to examine him, he totally refused. I wonder where he is now.
Another story spread about an NY businessman who asked someone to hold his place in line while he went on an errand nearby and thus avoided being near the explosion. He felt responsibility for the person who’d held his place, who was badly injured, and paid for him to come to NY for surgery and even took off from his work on the day of the surgery, thus avoiding the WTC attack. After the collapse of a floor in a chasuna hall a few months earlier the owner of the Sbarro store decided to invest a lot of his own money in structural improvements, even though the inspectors said he was within code, and that saved around 50 lives. How great are Your works, Hashem.
Shameless America.
I hope the Roth’s find some way in rescuing their soul from this burden….may we all pray that this women is returned and stands trial
Extradition is a incredibly complicated issue that strains relationships even with friends. We have been trying to extradite Snowden from the UK for nearly a decade with limited success. Likewise, the Brits have been trying to get us to return the wife of a U.S. diplomat who killed a young biker but who we claim was protected by “diplomatic immunity”. Israel is holding at least a dozen individuals that the U.S. has sought to extradite. Local courts have generally been the problem and find arcane reasons why the extradition is unwarranted or delay for explicit reasons such as exposure to death penalty, nature of the crime under local laws etc. We really are not going to blow up our relations with Jordan over this individual.
This is the result of using PC garbage to determine how we deal with terrorism. Terrorists who feel proud to eliminate lives of others are undeserving of their lives being spared. I would hope that Israel recognizes the need to insure than any convicted terrorist is executed immediately. We might debate whether the carcasses should be returned. But these animals should not be allowed to live another day. They should not be traded in swaps, unless we receive live Israelis in return for their corpses.
“was arrested weeks later and sentenced by Israel to 16 life sentences. Since her release…”
When and Why was she released?
To GadolHador
You are right.
Extradition of murders and extraditions of Snowden are the same. Making Mexico security guard protect the border and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem is very difficult if you have personal agenda and no political will and stamina.
However if you are a leader without a vision, senile, with master puppeteers giving you Que cards with instructions, you do what Rashid, AOC, Pelosi, do.
The real problem is that leftist Israeli don’t have the backbone either.
Todays news is that they STOPPED JEWISH CONSTRUCTION AND APPOVED ARAB CONSTRUCTIONS.
it’s like saying no Hispanics are allowed Upper East side of NYC and no blacks allowed in Harlem with segregation buses. Something Biden understand and promoted.
Agenda Politics!!!
suicide “bomber”???
Bomber?!
Stop with the media PC crap.
Ahlam Tamimi is a M U R D E R E R!!!
To “The Little I Know”
Retired intelligence general and Arab affairs expert Mordechai Kedar once said that the only thing that would deter a terrorist was the threat that his mother or sisters would be molested, not that he advocated doing anything illegal or immoral, just to make the point that no other threat, such as destroying houses, exiling families, etc., would deter any determined terrorist. He follows the Arab media very carefully and knows the mentality very well, so who are we to say otherwise. In any case, we know that no one escapes punishment, if not in this world then in the next one where the punishments are far more severe, so what does it matter.