Op-Ed: The Tamimi Family and the Good Life-Reunited in Jordan

Published: Monday, June 25, 2012 4:30 PM

Editor's Note: Arutz Sheva has accompanied this article with a photo of beautiful 15-year-old Malki Roth, a neighbor's child and one of those murdered in the Sbarro terror attack, rather than post another picture of the arch terrorist who is building her home in Jordan.

Ms. Ahlam Tamimi was a newscaster on Palestinian television, on a channel assigned by Israel, broadcast from the tall antennas of Ramallah - the city handed over by Israel to the PA in the Oslo Accords.


She quickly returned to Ramallah, seated herself in the television studio, and reported the horrendous terrorist attack that she herself had masterminded.


After receiving life sentences for the fifteen people she had killed, Tamimi went on to become a star in an Israeli film called The Security Prisoners (Habitchoniyim).  The producer explained to us that he showed much sympathy for the terrorist in their interactions, because the whole point of the film was to create a revolution in the image of terrorists, so that they would be released when peace came. 

He had no idea how fast she and another 1,026 terrorists actually would be freed.

This month the story reached its happy end, at least as far as Tamimi is concerned—a sad ending for the families of those she helped murder. 




Nizan was released in the Shalit Deal.  However, the authorities refused to allow him to follow his wife, who was expelled to Jordan. This didn’t stop him from trying his luck with repeated requests for family reunification until he finally got his way.

This story didn’t get to you right away, except for being featured on Arutz Sheva, because all the other news producers and editors ignored it.  We tried to explain to them that this is a serious blow to the feelings of the bereaved families and to moral principles, not to mention a violation of the Victims’ Rights Law. 

We explained that the Ministry of Justice didn’t even inform the families and that Netanyahu’s office, which had been so sensitive to the feelings of the Shalit family and the media, didn’t even respond to the letter sent by attorney Arnold Roth, whose daughter Malki was murdered at Sbarro  (Roth then turned to Arutz Sheva and other media picked it up after his wife wrote a letter).

So why did they ignore the story?  One typical answer that we received: It’s true that they killed fifteen Israelis and left one in a coma, people who can’t ever be reunited with their own families, but what good will revenge do?  Why should we begrudge them the opportunity to build a new life together after spending so long in prison?  Besides, coming after the wholesale release of terrorists from jail, this is nothing.


Then why not put him back in jail?  The release of terrorists in the Shalit Deal had conditions attached to it, allowing the authorities to return recidivist terrorists to jail to serve the remainder of their original sentences!

The answer to that was even more informative.


Our sources told of a highly developed structure of lawyers, activists, and even public relations professionals that has been constructed around the terrorists.  Upon further investigation, we became convinced that they were right about that.  A major part of this architecture is provided by academic institutions abroad and in Israel -  law programs geared to producing skilled, proficient lawyers of a certain ideological bent, who together form an army for the protection of terrorism suspect civil liberties.

One such person, Dr. Shiri Krebs, was written up in Hebrew daily Makor Rishon after she published a comprehensive, aggressivecarried with her all the way to an international law chair at the University of Santa Clara, in the midst of leftist Californian academia.   study of administrative detentions. Years ago, she had learned the tools of her trade as an aide to High Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch, tools that she

Unsurprisingly, Krebs is also a staff member of the Israel Democracy Institute.

At first, Krebs sold her wares and research abroad, where the major buyers of anti-Israel wares are located.  Now, having besmirched the State of Israel elsewhere, she is trying to import her product to Israel, in Hebrew, in an effort to convince the Israeli public that administrative detention constitutes a severe violation of civil liberties and ought to be discontinued.

To read Krebs’ study is to understand the constant difficulties that the ISA (Shin Bet) faces in the battle of minds against the terrorists and their supporters.

It also is to understand what gave the two murderers confidence in their fight to be reunited as a happy family in Jordan.  They are as aware as we are of the ongoing deterioration in Israel’s counter-terrorism abilities and of the limits of Israeli power.

They saw, just as we did, how prisoners on a hunger strike regained their “rights” to television including two Arabic channels, joint meals, and free higher education.

They saw, just as we did, how a rightist government was so sympathetic to Mahmoud Abbas and his claims about the psychological need of PA families to get back the bodies of their murderous relatives, with the prime minister’s office going so far as to publish a press release denigrating keeping the bodies in Israeli hands by stating that “Israel does not traffic in bodies.”

They saw, just as we did, the fancy and impressive ceremony in which the dead murderers were officially recognized by the Palestinian Authority as shahidim (martyrs), and the honor guards that accompanied them to their final resting places, as if they were soldiers rather than murderers.  The only thing missing was an IDF honor guard and delegation from the government of Israel.

This is why Tamimi and spouuse were confident that their lives too could be better if they just persisted in their efforts, and sure enough, they  managed to “convince” the Israeli authorities to let them reunite in Jordan. 

Yet, it must be noted, these contemptible beings remain as rude as ever, and could not even be bothered to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to their second, symbolic wedding ceremony.

He should have been the best man.

Translated from Makor Rishon (Hebrew), June 2012