International Law Enforcement Agency Drops Arrest Warrant For Terrorist Who Bombed Jerusalem Sbarro Restaurant In 2001

 

Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, has announced that it dropped its long-standing arrest warrant for the woman behind the 2001 terrorist bombing at a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem post reported that Interpol dropped the warrant against Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi, who was convicted of the bombing that killed 15 people, including eight children. The outlet noted that Interpol made the announcement on March 8 in a letter stating that Tamimi was no longer “subject to notice.” Tamimi’s husband, Nizar, who is also a convicted terrorist, wrote on Facebook that his wife was no longer wanted by Interpol, saying “With this legal victory, her name was removed from the wanted list of Interpol, praise be to God,” according to multiple media outlets.As the Post reported:

Tamimi was arrested and imprisoned for her role in the bombing, and was sentenced to 16 life sentences. However, she was freed in 2011 during the prisoner swap to free captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

Tamimi has reaffirmed her lack of remorse for the deaths she caused in multiple interviews since her release. 

Following her release, she hosted a weekly show for nearly five years, between 2012 and 2016, which was filmed in Jordan and jointly produced by Hamas and Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood.

In addition to the weekly show, Tamimi has also appeared on numerous other programs, including one hosted on the BBC’s Arabic-language channel. After a backlash from the families of Tamimi’s victims, the BBC apologized for allowing her on one of its programs. As the Post reported at the time, the program “glossed over key elements of Jordanian-born Tamimi’s story, reporting that she had been ‘accused’ of the Sbarro terror attack but not that she had boastfully pled guilty to the charges in an Israeli court – or that she had said she would be happy to carry out such an attack again.”

A BBC review found the report did not meet its editorial standards.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Tamimi in 2013, with the Trump administration years later offering $5 million for her capture. In response to Interpol’s decision to drop the warrant, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish global human rights organization, issued a statement saying the move “would encourage further terrorism and deny justice and closure for the victims and survivors.”

As The Daily Wire previously reported, a staffer scouted by the Biden administration, Reema Dodin, had previously justified Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis as “the last resort of a desperate people.” Dodin made the remarks in 2002, months after Tamimi’s attack. Dodin’s remarks were made during the Palestinian uprising against Israel known as the Second Intifada. Tamimi’s attack was one of those made during this uprising. The Daily Wire previously noted all the attacks that took place during the Second Intifada:

According to the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, during the Second Intifada, 887 of the 1,137 Israelis murdered in attacks from Sept. 2000-2005 were civilians. Just between May 2001 and May 2002 there were these massacres: five Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the HaSharon Mall in May 2001; 21 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the Dolphinarium Discotheque in June 2001; 15 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at Sbarro’s Pizza in August 2001, including six children and a 31-year-old woman who was the only child of her parents and was five months pregnant; 11 Israelis murdered in a bus bombing on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem on Dec. 1, 2001; 12 more Israelis murdered the very next day in a Haifa suicide bombing; 11 more Israelis murdered in a bus attack 10 days later in Immanuel; six Israelis murdered in an attack at a bas-mitzvah in January 2002; 11 more Jews killed in an attack on a yeshiva in March 2002, including a five-month-old child; 11 Jews murdered in a bombing at Café Moment in March 2002; 30 Israelis killed as they celebrated Passover in Netanya on March 27, 2002; 16 Israelis murdered in a suicide bombing four days later at the Matzah restaurant, and 16 Israelis murdered in Rishon LeZion in May 2002.