Ahlam Tamimi, who participated in 2001 Sbarro bombing and was released in the Gilad Schalit deal, is hosting a show on prisoners.
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Ahlam Tamimi, the Palestinian woman who helped plan the suicide bombing attack at the Sbarro restaurant in the center of Jerusalem in 2001, is now hosting a talk show on the Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds TV.Fifteen civilians were killed and another 130 wounded in the suicide bombing.Tamimi, who was released in the Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange agreement in October 2011, is now living in Jordan, from where she presents her program.Entitled Nasim Al-Ahrar [Breeze of the Free], Tamimi's show deals with the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.The first program focused on the implications of the Schalit deal and the case of Palestinian female prisoners.Tamimi hosted Saleh Arouri, who is in charge of the prisoners portfolio in Hamas and participated in the negotiations that led to the signing of the prisoner exchange accord.Arouri said that the only way to secure the release of more Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails was by continuing the "resistance" and kidnapping IDF soldiers.At the time of the Sbarro bombing, Tamimi was a 20-year-old university student and part-time journalist, who had disguised herself as a Jewish tourist.Tamimi accompanied the suicide bomber, Izz al-Din al-Masri, from the village of Aqabah in the West Bank to the pizza restaurant. She was sentenced to 16 life sentences for her role in the attack.Following her release, Tamimi said that she did not regret her participation in the suicide bombing. "I dedicated myself to the path of jihad for the sake of Allah, and Allah granted me success," she said in an interview with the Jordanian Ammon News web site. "Do you want me to denounce what I did? That's out of the question. I would do it again."