Report: On Anniversary of Deadly Bombing, Palestinians Have Paid $1m to Terrorists

More than $1 million has been paid out to the Palestinian terrorist behind a 2001 bombing in a Jerusalem pizzeria that killed 15 people – including two American citizens – a watchdog said in a report released on the 20th anniversary of the attack.

The August 9, 2001 bombing of the Sbarro Pizzeria killed five members of the same family and injured 130 people, constituting one of the worst attacks in the Second Intifada.

Monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch released a report to coincide with the anniversary that showed the Palestinian Authority has paid a total of $1,183,257 to the family of the suicide bomber and other terrorists behind the bombing.

By now, the PA has paid Abdullah Barghouti, the terrorist who built the bomb and is responsible for the murder of 67 people in various attacks, a cumulative sum of US$285,571 (921,500 shekels). Every month, the PA pays him a salary of US$2,255 (7,300 shekels). In addition, the PA has paid the family of the suicide bomber US$68,498 (221,400 shekels). Every month the PA continues to pay his family an allowance of US$432 (1,400 shekels). The minimum wage in the PA is 1,450 shekels/month (US$44).

Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, who was convicted of planning the attack, was released along with 1,000 other Palestinian terrorists in a 2011 prisoner exchange deal for the IDF soldier held captive by Hamas, Gilad Shalit. Tamimi, who led the suicide bomber to the restaurant, moved to Jordan. She was quoted by PMW as saying, “I don’t regret what happened, absolutely not… If time could go backwards, I would carry out what I did, in the same manner.”

The U.S. has sought Tamimi’s extradition to no avail.

As Breitbart News reported, Jewish groups have noted Tamimi “was a 21-year-old newsreader at a Palestinian Arab television station in the summer of 2001” when she orchestrated the bombing. “She would later claim credit for the attack, admitting to scouting the location of Sbarro… and bringing the bomb to its door.

“She has boasted for the record that two of the factors leading her to pick the pizzeria as a bombing target were the crowds that gathered there during lunch hour and that she ‘knew there was a Jewish religious school nearby…’ If there was any cloud in her bright skies, it was – in her words – that ‘I admit that I was a bit disappointed because I had hoped for a larger toll’.”

After her release in 2011, Tamimi returned to her birthplace, Jordan, and launched a career as a satellite TV host. She received a hero’s welcome attended by hundreds, including Muslim Brotherhood representatives.

On her TV show, Tamimi frequently boasts about her involvement in the attack, which included selecting the location for the maximum number of casualties as well as accompanying the suicide bomber to the restaurant.

“Being in Jordan has given me strength, because Jordan does not have an extradition agreement [sic] with the United States,” Tamimi told Al Jazeera in an interview last year. “This led to the issuing of a legal decision refusing my extradition, and Jordan’s position on that matter is very clear.”

“Why am I, Ahlam, considered to be a terrorist, when I am part of a movement for freedom and national liberation?” she asked.

In a separate interview with AP, Tamimi said that all attempts by Palestinians to resist Israel, including killing children and innocents, were justified.

The U.S. issued a warrant for her arrest and a subsequent extradition order from Jordan, with whom it signed an extradition treaty in 1995. However in the 2017 ruling, Jordan’s top court said the treaty was never ratified by the Jordanian parliament.