Palestinian-Jordanian Abdullah Abu Jaber, who was jailed in Israel after planting a bomb on a bus that wounded 13 civilians in 2000, is welcomed by his family upon his release at the Sheikh Hussein Crossing between Jordan and Israel on June 8, 2021. (Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP)
A Palestinian-Jordanian terrorist jailed in Israel after planting a bomb on a bus that wounded 13 civilians in 2000 was released Tuesday after serving his 20-year sentence.
Abdullah Abu Jaber, 46, was welcomed with flowers and shouts of joy by his family after he entered Jordan across the Sheikh Hussein Bridge.
Jaber, originally from Jordan’s Baqaa refugee camp, hid a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv on December 28, 2000, detonating it remotely and wounding 13 people. He was arrested the following day.
“Twenty years ago, I made a journey not for tourism, but of resistance,” Jaber said, draped in Jordanian and Palestinian keffiyeh headscarves.
“I have done my duty as a Palestinian, because it is the land of Palestine and we must liberate it as quickly as possible,” he said.
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Supporters of the Palestinian Fatah movement wave flags during a rally marking the 54th anniversary of the creation of the political party, in the West Bank city of Nablus on January 3, 2019. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP)
He called for rival Palestinian factions Fatah and the Hamas to end their long division and form a common front against Israel. “I hope that the Palestinians will be united again,” he said.
Yunis Abu Sil, a member of the Palestinian National Council, the PLO’s legislative arm, said he was “very happy” and called Jaber a “hero.”
Though Fatah is ostensibly committed to nonviolence, Israel has long accused it of lionizing terrorists as national heroes.
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Around half of Jordan’s population of 10 million is of Palestinian origin, including some 2.2 million refugees registered with the United Nations.
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