16-May-20: The friends of Jordanian fugitive Ahlam Tamimi, including her lawyers, are speaking up. But not all of them.

This appeared on Instagram today. We explain it below.

There's a serious degree of interest and concern in Jordan over the letter that seven US Congressional lawmakers sent to Jordan's ambassador to Washington three weeks ago.

As far as we know, the embassy hasn't responded so far.

The text of that letter and some examples of the rising anxiety demonstrated by Jordan's news industry are both in this long post we put up on Thursday: "14-May-20: In Jordan, they're standing with confessed bomber Tamimi but worried".

In tonight's update, there's an Arabic report (machine translated to English) from a Jordanian news site, Addustour, that was published this afternoon (Saturday):

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Amman: The Legal Defense Committee formed by the Jordanian lawyers for the liberated prisoner and Jordanian citizen, Ahlam Al-Tamimi, followed the news that circulated about Republican Party representatives in the American Congress who sent a message to the Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Washington, its content a threat to impose sanctions on the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to hand over Jordanian citizenship. 

The freed prisoner, Ahlam Al-Tamimi... is considering a case brought by a group of Zionist Jews against Ahlam's citizenship. In this regard, the defense establishment asserts the following:

1. This request comes in the context of the movement of the American Zionist lobby to pressure the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the context of the deal of the century.
2. This request is not separate from the US administration's support for the Zionist entity that seeks to annex the settlements of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.
3. [Tamimi's] legal defence team confirms that the Jordanian judiciary previously said its clear and unequivocal speech in rejecting the request to extradite [Tamimi] via criminal case number 16685/2016 which was appealed and dismissed by the highest judicial body in Jordan on the basis of lack of fulfillment of extradition conditions, the most important of which is the absence of an approved extradition agreement under law from the National Assembly [Jordan's parliament] and compliance with its constitutional requirements.
4. The defence team confirms that the Jordanian judiciary will address this Zionist pressure with its known patriotism to prevent any step towards handing over Jordanian citizen Ahlam Tamimi which affects Jordanian national sovereignty. It affirm its previous decisions not to surrender in line with the directives of the Jordanian state, leadership, government and people.
5. The defense team confirms that it trusts Jordan's leadership, government and people to not accept the extradition of its citizens, to not accept abuse of Jordanian national sovereignty, to not become subject to blackmail or coercive policies, that the dignity of its children is not subject to bargaining, that the Jordanian state will not do anything contrary to what was decided by the Jordanian judiciary and represented by Jordan's highest judicial authority.
6. The defense team confirms that it stands behind Ahlam Tamimi in defending her and will spare no effort in taking all legal measures to prevent any step in this direction.

Head of defence

Advocate Hikmat Al-Rawashada

Unquote

The same defence lawyer is quoted in an outrageous (even by their standards) Aljazeera profile of Tamimi. You might want to read our analysis of it: "24-Mar-17: Our daughter's grinning killer is shocked the US is pursuing her and for no obvious reason"

Also today (Saturday):

Dima Tahboub, is quoted in Albosala, another Jordanian news platform. She's a Jordanian lawmaker who happens to block us on Twitter (we're not offended) and who serves as spokesperson for the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of Jordan's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and closely aligned with the terrorists of Hamas.

She reacts in that article to what she terms American threats to Jordan By threats she evidently means the April 30 letter to Ambassador Dina Kawar from the GOP Congressmen. Plainly identifying with the unrepentant bomber and killer of children, Tahboub praises Tamimi for having moved from victim to initiator, from defence to attack, and to becoming a person who continues the struggle, advancing the role of Palestinian women martyrs.

Neither the clever lawyers nor the Islamist spokesperson bother to address what Tamimi happily confesses to doing at Sbarro. They have nothing to say about the people murdered there that day, our daughter Malki among them. Or about any of the simple, well-framed questions that Jordan's ambassador in Washington has not yet mannaged to answer.

In Tahboub's case, that's not so surprising given that three years ago [link] she took the opportunity of an interview (in English - she has a doctorate from a British university) on Germany’s international Deutsche Welle platform to express her support for Ahmad Daqamseh, the Jordanian soldier who in 1997 opened fire across the border at a group of Israeli teenage girls from Bet Shemesh (or "human trach" as she referred to them in the media) on a school excursion, killing seven of them. We assume her support comes from the same dark place that brings her to stand up for Tamimi. Daqamseh, like Tamimi is free and living a charmed life in Jordan.

She told Tim Sebastian, formerly a BBC luminary, in that DW interview that many Jordanians “still see him [Daqamseh] as a hero. So if you are incriminating my viewpoint, you are also incriminating the viewpoint of the Jordanian people”. This is true. We see the same adoration at work with the Sbarro massacre fugitive, except that it's the US that wants her in custody now.

And also today, it's instructive to see who's not yet speaking up. Tamimi, who is adept at, and depends on, social media, is currently operating yet another Instagram account. Her previous accounts there as well as on Twitter and Facebook have been shut down one after the other. This one - which we prefer not identify at this stage - is still going and we have asked for it to be taken down too.

She posted a video clip there this afternoon (that's a screen shot at the top of this post with the identifying particulars blurred out) from the Turkish government's official TRT media platform - a totally-supportive video message that starts with the question "Will Jordan hand Tamimi over?"

Then she added the Arabic text on the right:

"We are still awaiting the Jordanian official response to the latest escalation"

And to round out this review, there is this manifesto (below) issued in the name of something called "the family of the freed prisoner, Ahlam Al-Tamimi" and published in Arabic here (machine translation):

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Image Source: http://www.rmix.ps/archives/269277

Based on what has been circulated recently of the Kingdom being requested to hand over Jordanian citizen Ahlam Al-Tamimi to the United States of America, we clarify the following:

1. On April 30, 2020, seven lawmakers from the Republican Party in the US Congress sent a letter to the Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Washington threatening to impose sanctions on the Kingdom if it refused to hand over our daughter Ahlam Al-Tamimi.
2. This message comes within the framework of the continuous American endeavor to pressure the Kingdom to surrender which the kingdom, its king, government and people, categorically reject. And this is what it clearly expressed in the past and at this time in line with its steadfast national position to protect its sovereignty and preserve the dignity of its citizens, and its persistent political and legal positions that are not subject to prejudice or derogation by any country.
3. This latest endeavor on the part of some American bodies with a legislative role - even if it intersects with the efforts of all other American and Zionist parties that seek to fulfill the demand for extradition - carries a great danger of exploiting the law to achieve political interests. In exchange for [the US] continuing to provide financial aid to countries [Jordan], it is considered a political pressure card to compel these countries [Jordan] to accept, which raises great concern and many fears among the family despite its belief that Jordan will not be subject to extortion or coercion policies, and that the dignity of its citizens is not compromised.
4. We, as a family, are confident that the response to the message of the Republican representatives will not deviate an inch from this national constant... Despite all the pressing efforts in this matter, money will not be accepted to be politicized in order to waste the dignity of the nation.
5. Ahlam Al-Tamimi is Jordanian by birth, origin and citizenship, and Palestinian by origin, the daughter of this sacred Jordanian soil and its patriotic clans whose authentic roots lie deep in this pure land from its north to its south and from its east to its west. She is the ambassador of her country, Jordan, and her conscience in the struggle to regain the usurped right.
6. Ahlam Al-Tamimi is not responsible for any statement attributed to her from some websites, news agencies, and many pages on social media bearing her name and states are attributed to her are statements she never uttered and are exploited by the abusers.
7. Ahlam Al-Tamimi does not have any social media accounts.
8. This platform will be the only expression of the position on the issue of Ahlam Al-Tamimi, and only through it can the correct information be reached.
9. Your rallying around the just cause of Ahlam Tamimi and your support and support for it is the real immunity, and the sure guarantee that she remains safe from and unreachable by foreign hands.

As long as you and as long as your tireless struggle for the elevation of the nation and the victory of its children...

The Tamimi family
Wednesday May 13, 2020

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Points 6, 7 and 8 pretty clearly indicate that people looking out for the murdering fugitive's interests realize she has been too free with her public opinions, particularly those that insult or offend Hashemite King Abdullah II of Jordan. So to those whom it may concern, the message is simple: she didn't say it even if you think she did, and she couldn't have said it because (among other reasons) she doesn't have any social media accounts. 

This is patent nonsense.

Evidently with all the media activity going on in her support, Tamimi is still waiting for the people who count, those in Jordan's royal palace a short distance from her home, to step up. And as we point out here, she gives the impression of someone who's running out of patience.