Parents of Sbarro bombing victim urge US to demand Hamas terrorist’s extradition
Ahlam Tamimi, who played central role in 2001 Jerusalem attack that killed 16 and injured 130, has lived freely in Jordan since her 2011 release
Nava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
Frimet and Arnold Roth, the parents of Malki Roth, a US citizen who was killed at age 15 in the 2001 Sbarro Pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem, met last month with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee to deliver a petition urging the extradition of the attack’s orchestrator, Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, from Jordan.
“This is a matter of justice for the families of murdered Americans,” Arnold Roth told Huckabee during a May 13 meeting at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, according to a statement released by the family on Tuesday.
The Roths presented Huckabee with a petition bearing 30,000 signatures demanding that Washington press Jordan to extradite Tamimi, who was convicted in an Israeli court of playing a central role in the suicide bombing that killed 16 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, and injured 130.
Tamimi found shelter in Jordan after being released from prison in a 2011 deal in which Israel freed 1,027 terrorists in exchange for captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
There she has lived freely, holding citizenship, hosting a TV program, giving lectures and making numerous public appearances extolling the bombing.
“What brought us to the embassy was remembrance, but also justice,” Arnold Roth said at the meeting with Huckabee. “Justice in the Tamimi prosecution has been thwarted for years and barely mentioned publicly by the very US officials who bear the responsibility of bringing the fugitive to trial.”
“We came to implore the government represented by Ambassador Huckabee to carry out its duty to protect and stand for American victims of terrorism abroad.”
The petition was submitted for delivery to US President Donald Trump, US Attorney General Pam Bondi, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It urges Jordan to honor its 1995 extradition treaty with the US, according to the family’s statement.
“Tamimi has never shown the smallest degree of remorse. The massacre she spearheaded made her a celebrity in Jordan and beyond,” Arnold Roth said in the meeting.
“It is unconscionable that Jordan, a lavishly funded beneficiary of US taxpayer-funded aid, has enabled her to be glorified as an icon while her victims’ families — including American families — are ignored,” he said.
The Roths presented Huckabee with a photo of Malki’s shattered phone, recovered from the attack site, on which she had written a Hebrew message about the Jewish prohibition against speaking ill of others. “This phone is one of the few physical traces we have left of Malki,” her father told the ambassador.
The Roths have for years lobbied the American government to pressure Jordan to extradite Tamimi in accordance with a US-Jordan bilateral agreement. In 2017, the terrorist was indicted in US federal court and a $5 million bounty was put on her head by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Tamimi, a Hamas operative who chose the target and guided the bomber there, said in a 2017 interview with The Associated Press that Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli rule by any means, including deliberately targeting uninvolved civilians and children.
In 2017, Jordan’s high court ruled she could not be extradited to the US, reportedly saying the 1995 treaty between the countries had not been ratified. Tamimi has also claimed the US has no right to charge her because she was already tried and sentenced in Israel. The US insisted in a 2018 report, however, that the extradition treaty is valid in the case of Tamimi.
Shortly before King Abdullah II’s February meeting with Trump at the White House, Arab media reported that Jordanian intelligence had warned the Hamas terror group that Tamimi might be handed over unless another country agreed to take her in. No official sources confirmed the reports.
Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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