CFI Officer Bob Blackman MP has written to the BBC after a convicted Hamas terrorist who killed 15 Israelis was featured on the BBC’s Arabic TV service appealing to be reunited with her husband.
A segment of the BBC programme “Trending” featured a report on how Ahlam Tamimi had called into a Jordanian radio station to appeal to King Abdullah II to intervene after her husband’s Jordanian residency was revoked earlier this month.
Tamimi masterminded the 2001 Sbarro Pizza parlour bombing in Jerusalem. 15 Israelis, including 8 children, were murdered in the attack. She was released from an Israeli prison as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011 and now lives freely in Jordan. Her husband, Nizar Tamimi, was also released in the Shalit prisoner exchange after being convicted of terrorism for murdering an Israeli student in 1993.
The programme’s host told viewers: “Ahlam Tamimi, the Jordanian prisoner of Palestinian origin… has returned to the headlines following the expulsion of her husband Nizar to [Qatar’s capital] Doha”. Tamimi’s radio appeal was then played, and a video of the segment shared to the BBC’s YouTube site with the description: “‘Ahlam Tamimi, your voice is loud’ – responses of solidarity on Jordanian and Palestinian sites with Palestinian Ahlam Tamimi”.
Mr Blackman urged the BBC to remove the YouTube videos and apologise to the families of Tamimi’s victims for broadcasting Tamimi’s appeal. “Giving a platform for Tamimi’s appeal to be reunited with her husband is understandably deeply distressing for the families of her victims, who will never be reunited with their loved ones”, he said.
He added: “The UK Government’s policy of non-engagement with the Hamas terror group is well-known, and I have written to the BBC for clarity on this shameful editorial decision… The BBC should immediately seek to remedy the situation by removing the videos from YouTube and apologising to the families of the victims of the 2001 Sbarro bombing masterminded by Tamimi”.
As Tamimi is responsible for the death of American citizens in the attack (15-year-old Malki Roth and 31-year-old Judith Greenbaum, who was pregnant at the time), she is on the FBI’s most wanted terrorists’ list. The U.S. have requested her extradition but Jordan has refused.
The MP for Harrow East added that “dedicating more coverage to the ongoing extradition attempts by the US to bring Tamimi to justice would be a welcome step”.
