Ahlam al-Tamimi arrives in Amman to a hero’s welcome

Jordanian Ahlam Tamimi, just released from an Israeli prison,
being hugged by a relative upon her arrival at Queen
Alia international airport in Amman late Oct. 18, 2011.

AMMAN, (PIC)– Freed Jordanian captive Ahlam al-Tamimi arrived Tuesday night to a hero’s welcome as hundreds of Palestinians and Jordanians waited for her arrival at Queen Alia Airport in Amman.

As well as her family members, hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood activists and trade unionists as well as ordinary citizens gathered at Queen Alia Airport to welcome Tamimi. They raised Palestinian flags as well as Hamas banners and chanted in support of the resistance who achieved the exchange deal.
Tamimi gave a short speech which was interrupted many times by applause and chants of support.
“The message of the Palestinian people is: liberate Palestine and the Aqsa Mosque,” she said and greeted the Qassam Brigades who captured along with two other resistance factions the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and exchanged him for Palestinian captives.
Not forgetting those she left behind in occupation jails she said: “By Allah Ibrahim Hamed, Mahmoud Isa, Hasan Salameh, Abu Al-Heija and Al-Barghouthi are more deserving to be in my place [free],”.

Tamimi’s meeting with Mishaal in Cairo before leaving to Jordan

Tamimi was born in 1980 in Zerka, in Jordan to a family which hail from the village of Nabi Mousa near Ramallah. She completed her schooling in Zerka, then travelled to the West Bank to study Media and Journalism at Birzeit.

With only one term left until her graduation, the 2001 al-Aqsa Intifada [The Second Palestinian Uprising] broke out across the Occupied Palestinian Territories bringing with it unprecedented levels of violence and repression at the hands of the Israeli authorities. This was exemplified by the horrific assassination policy implemented by the successive governments led by the war criminals, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon.
She presented a programme, called ‘Independence’ on a local television broadcasting out Ramallah, which monitored the illicit practices of the Occupation. Through her journalistic work for this program, Ahlam collided with the bitter reality and the tragic stories and tales of woe being caused by the Occupation.
She was serving 16 life sentences, accused of transporting Ezziddin Al-Masri, who is affiliated with the Qassam Brigades and who carried out the bombing at Sparo restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001.
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