President Trump and King Abdullah II of Jordan are set to meet this week,
reigniting the issue of Hamas member Ahlam al-Tamimi’s extradition to the
United States. Earlier this month, reports emerged in Arab media that Jordan
had informed Hamas that it would turn Tamimi over to U.S. authorities if the
terror group did not find another country to host her. However, Jordanian
Speaker of Parliament Ahmed al-Safadi later denied the reports, claiming they
were “not accurate.”





<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>



CounterPoint Brief: The U.S.-Jordan Struggle to Extradite Hamas Member Ahlam
al-Tamimi


(New York, N.Y.) — President Trump and King Abdullah II of Jordan are set to
meet this week, reigniting the issue of Hamas member Ahlam al-Tamimi’s
extradition to the United States. Earlier this month, reports emerged in Arab
media that Jordan had informed Hamas that it would turn Tamimi over to U.S.
authorities if the terror group did not find another country to host her.
However, Jordanian Speaker of Parliament Ahmed al-Safadi later denied the
reports, claiming they were “not accurate.”



Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi was the first female member of Hamas’s armed wing, the
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. She is one of the FBI’s most wanted female
terrorists. Israel sentenced Tamimi to 13 life sentences in 2003 for her
participation in the August 9, 2001, Hamas suicide bombing of the Sbarro
pizzeria in Jerusalem, which killed 15 people, including U.S. citizens Judith
Greenbaum and Malki Roth. Four U.S. citizens were also among the 130 wounded in
the bombing.



Ahead of the Sbarro bombing, Tamimi picked up the bomber, Izz al-Din Shuheil
al-Masri, from the West Bank village of Aqabah and drove him to the Sbarro
pizza restaurant in Jerusalem. Israel arrested Tamimi in September 2001. In
2003, she pleaded guilty in an Israeli court to multiple counts of murder,
resulting in her multiple prison sentences. Israel released Tamimi in 2011 as
part of a prisoner swap agreement with Hamas for the release of captured
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. In that trade, Israel released 1,026 prisoners,
including Yahya Sinwar, one of the architects of Hamas’s October 7, 2023,
terror attacks. Since her release, Tamimi has resided inJordan
<[link removed]>, where she has worked as a
journalist and continued to publicly praise Hamas. Between 2012 and 2016,
Tamimi hosted a talk show on Hamas’s Quds TV network on Palestinian prisoners
in Israeli jails. In interviews, Tamimi openly said she would repeat the
actions that led to the Sbarro massacre.



The United States has sought to extradite Tamimi for her role in the murder of
U.S. citizens, but the Jordanian government has thus far refused requests for
her extradition. The United States and Jordan signed an extradition treaty in
1995, but Jordan’s high court ruled in 2017 that the treaty is invalid because
the Jordanian parliament did not ratify it. On July 11, 2022, the U.S. National
Security Council released a statement reiterating that the U.S. government
still seeks Tamimi’s extradition.



“The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan continues to protect Ahlam Tamimi while the
voices of her victims cry out for justice,” said Counter Extremism Project
Senior Research Analyst Josh Lipowsky. “It is unfathomable that a close U.S.
ally continues to harbor somebody with American blood on her hands, especially
when Tamimi has shown no remorse for the deaths she caused. Bringing Tamimi to
the United States to face justice should be a top priority when President Trump
and Jordan’s King Abdullah II meet later this week. There should be no
haven—especially among U.S. allies—for murderers of U.S. citizens.”



Click here <[link removed]>
to read CEP’s profile on Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi.



Click here <[link removed]> to read CEP’s report
on Hamas.



###







Unsubscribe
<[link removed]>
|Donate <[link removed]> | Contact Us
<[link removed]>


Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe for yourself here
<[link removed]>
.