Many Jewish groups cheered when the Trump administration announced several weeks ago that the U.S. had indicted Ahlam al-Tamimi, a Hamas terrorist who murdered 15 people, including two American citizens.
But now the Department of Justice has revealed that Jordan “has rejected” the U.S. request for the extradition of Tamimi. And it does not appear that the administration intends to press Jordan to comply.
Perhaps the celebrations over the indictment announcement were a bit premature.
I can understand why some in the Jewish community were excited about the announcement that Tamimi, a Palestinian terrorist with Jordanian citizenship, had been indicted. She played a major role in the Sbarro Pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem in 2001, yet served just eight years behind bars before being released in a prisoner exchange. Then, to rub salt in the victims’ wounds, Tamimi boasted about her role in the bombing, on the Jordanian television show she hosts.
Tamimi escaped justice. Just like most of the killers of the other 142 Americans murdered by Palestinian terrorists since the 1960s. Now, for a brief moment, it appeared that perhaps, finally, one of the killers would face U.S. justice.
But the Department of Justice has informed the family of Malki Roth, one of the victims, that Jordan rejected the extradition request. The department’s letter to the Roths said nothing about any concrete steps the U.S. could take – such as withholding American aid from Jordan. In fact, the letter did not even directly criticize the Jordanian government.
Maybe those who were cheering and claiming credit for the Justice Department’s announcement of the Tamimi indictment two weeks ago should have looked a little closer at what the department’s press release said before assuming there had been some major change in U.S. policy.
The press release said that Tamimi was actually indicted by the Obama administration, four years ago; the indictment had been kept secret until now. So the Trump administration has still not indicted any Palestinian killers of Americans.
Second, the Justice Department’s announcement did not include a single word critical of Jordan for refusing to hand her over. In fact, it actually provided Jordan with an excuse to continue refusing to comply. “Jordan’s courts…have ruled that their constitution forbids the extradition of Jordanian nationals,” the department claimed.
What Jordan’s constitution actually says is that “political refugees” cannot be extradited. Surely the U.S. government does not regard Tamimi as a “political refugee,” so those Jordanian court rulings are irrelevant.
It’s shocking that Jordan, which received $393 million in aid from the U.S. last year, would consider Tamimi’s bombing “political.” Yet in a recent interview with the Jordanian newspaper Al Had, a senior Jordanian figure said exactly that.
Member of Parliament Saleh Armouti, the former president of the Jordanian Bar Association, declared the mass murderer should not be extradited to the U.S. because “the liberated prisoner Ahlam Tamimi had the legitimate right to resist the occupier, as the United Nations laws stipulate the right to self-determination, which includes the right to resist the occupation.”
So Jordan’s “pro-American” regime continues to shelter Tamimi. And the Trump administration acts as if it can’t do anything about it other than issue gently worded press releases.
This is not the first time that some in the Jewish community celebrated too soon on this issue. In 2001, the State Department said it would add Palestinian killers to its website which offers rewards for information leading to the capture of terrorists who murder Americans overseas (www.rewardsforjustice.net).
But now it is 16 years later, and the vast majority of Palestinian killers are still not listed on the site, and the names of their American victims are not mentioned either.
There was another flurry of excitement four years later, when the Office of Justice for Victims of Terrorism (OVT) was established. But now twelve years have passed, the OVT has not helped bring a single Palestinian killer of Americans to justice, and Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) says the OVT has “completely failed” to carry out its responsibilities.
Sherri Mandell, mother of 13 year-old Koby Mandell, who was murdered by terrorists near the Israeli town of Tekoah in 2003, has called the OVT’s record “an affront to the victims of terror.”
The announcement about Tamimi’s indictment, like the earlier announcements about the rewards and the OVT, has turned out to be little more than words. Until those words are translated into action, there is no reason for anybody to celebrate.