He was from Fatah and she was from Hamas, the two rival Palestinian movements. They were both serving multiple life sentences. They had participated in killings – she for her role in a Jerusalem restaurant bombing, he in connection with the killing of an Israeli.

As lovers go they could not have been more star crossed, yet Nezar and Ahlam Al Tammimi met, fell in love, got engaged and finally married while they were sitting in Israeli jails. Both were among some 450 Palestinian prisoners swapped for Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit last week.

“Nobody believes me when I say that I never ever lost hope. I always saw the light at the end of the tunnel and now I am free,” Ahlam, 31, declares.

Married behind bars, the two now plan a big wedding – as soon as they can finally see each other. They don’t know when that will happen: Under the conditions of their release, Nezar was returned to his home the West Bank while Ahlam was flown to her family in Jordan.

—-

“I met a fellow Palestinian in the university who inspired me, it turned out he was a member of Hamas. I expressed my desire to join them. He told me he has to ask his superior because Ezzeldin Al-Qassam brigades have no female members. After a few days, he came with an approval, which made me the first female Ezzeldin Al-Qassam brigade member,” Ahlam explains.

Ahlam helped Ezz Al Din Al Massri, 20, to blow himself up in Sabarro restaurant in Jerusalem in August 2001, which killed 16 Israelis and injured 150. Her role had been to choose the location and secure transportation to reach that location. Not long after, she was arrested.

—-

Ahlam heard about Nezar Al Tammimi, her relative, 38, who was jailed in 1993 during his university years. He was also studying in Birzeit back then. He was sentenced to life in prison for belonging to a Fatah cell responsible of kidnapping and killing an Israeli in the Jewish community of Beit El near Ramallah. Ahlam admired him. Ahlam actually visited Nezar in jail before she was jailed herself. The spark of mutual admiration that they felt back then developed over time into love.

Ahlam and Nezar started exchanging letters while in jail. “Each letter would take a month to reach Nezar and another month to get his response back. I would place the letter in the mail and send it to my family. My family would send it to Nezar’s family. Nezar’s family would send it to him.”

“Nezar would go through the same process to send me a letter. Our letters were so precious, they took so much time and they were our only means of communication. We would share experiences, express our love and share our virtual dreams of being and living together after our marriage,” Ahlam says with a broad smile and a sparkle in her eyes.

The two were not only separated by bars but by membership in rival movements. After briefly sharing control of the Palestinian Authority, Fatah and Hamas fought each other for control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and have failed to patch up their differences despite a declaration of national unity last spring.

On an August day in 2005, Nezar’s fellow inmates threw him a party to celebrate his engagement to Ahlam. Simultaneously, Ahlam celebrated a party in parallel with her inmates. After that, their one and only meeting came in March 2010, when they were both summoned by the Israeli intelligence to be questioned about the relationship between them and their future plans.

“After exchanging letters and falling in love we both decided to get engaged even if we were both jailed for life,” she recounts.

Their fathers arranged the documents and sent them copies of the marriage contract in jail. Nezar sent his wife wedding rings but the Israeli prison administration confiscated them all, she says.

—-

Ahlam’s dream now is to settle down after a huge wedding that reunites her with her husband Nezar. “All I dream about now is to live with Nezar, settling down and raising our future children.”

 How odd. I didn’t think Ahlam was the “children” type.

I find it inexplicable that these two murders should get a chance at happiness after they ruined the lives of so many.

I am willing to bet their wedding will be a target rich environment. Just saying.

The Almagor Victims of Terror Association plans to launch an online database of the terrorists with descriptions of their crimes in an effort to prevent future prisoner swaps, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The head of Almagor, Meir Indor, believes by connecting the names of the terrorists to the specific terror attacks they committed, the public will be less likely to support prisoner swaps in the future.

“We are taking the law into our own hands so that terror victims can get updates on the terrorists who are responsible for specific attacks,” said Indor.

The database, called “Justice for Terror Victims,” will collect information that is available to the public, such as arrests and court transcripts, and compile it in a searchable database.

The Foreign Ministry and some private bloggers have partial lists, but this is the first initiative to have a comprehensive center of information.

More than a dozen volunteers working around the clock in shifts of three have already compiled full entries for 270 terrorists released as part of the Gilad Schalit deal.

It will be uploaded later this week onto the organization’s website, al-magor.com.

The prisoner list released ahead of the Schalit swap by the Prisons Service had dry descriptions for each of those released such as “involvement in unknown terror organization” and “assisted in murder.”

Indor believes that more specific descriptions, such as “the driver who brought the suicide bomber to Sbarro,” will resonate with the public on a deeper level and encourage more of an outcry against future swaps, which was fairly muted in the Schalit deal.

“Personalization works,” said Indor, noting that one reason the Schalit campaign was so successful was that it created an image of Schalit the average Israeli could relate to as a son and a soldier.

He added that the database, which will start with the terrorists released as part of the Schalit swap, will be updated if there are future swaps or if a terrorist is rearrested for committing similar crimes.

Indor said there was an incident during the Schalit affair when the media, using unauthorized lists from Arab media, incorrectly reported the planned release of some terrorists, creating unneeded turmoil for the families of the victims. A centralized database could minimize such occurrences in the future.

“The worst is to sit and not know. Terror victims want to know if their murderer got out or not,” said Indor.

He acknowledged that funds were a serious obstacle for keeping an updated database, or for translating the database into English.

Note how they linked to one of my prisoner posts to make their point about private bloggers with partial lists. That’s what I’m talking about.

But honestly, the Israeli government should have done this. Before the Shalit exchange went ahead.

Come to think of it, the government should be publishing a database of the terrorists in prison, whether released or not released.

Come to think of it, the terrorists shouldn’t be kept alive to make it to prison in the first place.

New hotness: Maimi Jihad

What PR value is there in a military display that includes crippled and injured operatives? According to the Islamic Jihad’s website, the military wing recently held maneuvers in which veteran members of the Jihad who had been injured over the years in battles with Israeli forces had a starring role.

The maneuvers included sights not usually seen on the battlefield, one-legged men carrying Kalashnikov rifles or RPG launchers while leaning on crutches or sitting in wheelchairs.

According to armed factions in Gaza the display is a PR demonstration that strengthens their activities within the Palestinian internal political system.

The Islamic Jihad has puffed up its position against Hamas as the group spearheading the struggle against Israel. The organization has gone all out on a PR campaign to glorify its fighters in the Gaza Strip – the height of the campaign is their latest exhibition maneuver.

“Bombing us and leaving us amputees will not stop the Jihad,” the military wing’s website quoted one militant, Abu Abdallah who lost both his legs in clashes near Khan Yunis. “We will continue to fight even when our bodies are torn to pieces.”

The website quotes another militant, Abed al-Rahman whose leg was cut off in “an IDF strike”. “We trust in the Jihad way and we will not change it. There is no alternative to Jihad and resistance, until all Palestinian land is freed from the criminal Zionists,” he stressed. According to al-Rahman, even when he was being rushed to hospital after he was injured, he promised himself that he would return to the Jihad path upon his release

Based on the photos, it is extremely doubtful that the maneuver participants are capable of fighting, but through the images and the maneuver itself the Islamic Jihad is looking to show the Palestinians their tenacity. “The injury has damaged my body but not my will,” summarized al-Rahman.

Gives the expression “A call to arms” a whole new meaning.

Here’s hoping they get new recruits. Regularly.

AFP

Shin Bet officers operating in Gaza Strip in May arrested Ayub Azam abu-Karim, 22, a wanted terror suspect linked to dozens of attacks in Israel.

Karim is a member of the “Defenders of al-Aqsa,” a Hamas offshoot dedicated to carrying out terror attacks against Israeli targets in manners which will not implicate its parent-organization.

Both the IDF and the Shin Bet conduct periodic sweeps near the Gaza border, according to relevant intelligence.  

Karim’s arrest was another indication of the existence of smaller terror entities in Gaza, which follow Hamas’ orders without officially declaring their affiliation with it.

The indictment against Karim, filed recently with the Beersheba District Court, is comprised of 32 counts including attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, affiliation with an illegal entity, contacting a foreign agent, servicing an illegal entity, conspiracy to violate national security and breaching national security by giving information to an enemy agent; as well as a slew of contrabands and arms charges.

Karim told interrogators he joined Hamas in 2007 and served as a dispatcher in its “operations center,” relaying information to Hamas troops fighting IDF soldiers in real-time.

He later graduated to reconnaissance and “actual” field work and was involved in dozens of attacks against Israeli targets, including placing explosives, shooting attacks and firing rockets and mortar shells. 

Karim claimed he was recruited for “Defenders of al-Aqsa” but the head of the organization, a known Jabalya-based terrorist.

The investigation also uncovered the fact that the offshoot enjoyed funding directed by no other than Fathi Hamad – Hamas interior minister in Gaza – who is known to be closely affiliated with the group’s military wing.

Incidentally, the  right abbreviation for Defenders of al-Aqsa should be DOA.

Just saying.

For previous profiles, see here.

The One With Very Long Legs

Iyad Abidalkarim Ismael Al-Ashram
One of Al-Qassam leaders said that Iyad was a good person in mastering rockets launch. He used to point the rockets correctly and he used also to kick the target.

From front left :Choco Moussa (we think), Ahmed Men (almost definitely), Mahmoud Hummus (or not), Abu Bubu (ummm...), Abed Bite (allegedly), Essa Rider (95% sure), Yassin Toomuch (pure speculation), Insana Tee (reportedly), Samir Pap (I give up)

Actually, here’s the real caption:

Two Palestinian youths in a window watch Palestinian militants of the Popular Resistance Committee during a rally in Gaza City, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010. Washington’s special Mideast envoy on Wednesday was trying to wring an agreement out of Israel to bar new West Bank settlement construction and put foundering peace talks back on track.

Which begs the question: if they are so popular, why the masks?

Update: I wonder if this photo will make the school yearbook.

Sick.

For previous profiles, see here.

The Computer Addict

Hani Ahmed Kharyoush

Hani was struggling in bold to tell the truth..

(Photo from here; Based on this)

For previous profiles, see here.

The Fish Murderer

Mousa Mohammed Suleiman Al Jatali

We are speaking about the great men who sacrificed their soles for the sake of Allah and for the sake of liberating Palestine from the Zionist entity.