Terror, the UK, and the Allenby Bridge: Today and 21 years ago - opinion

On Sunday morning, a Jordanian terrorist opened fire at Allenby Bridge, the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, killing three Israelis. There is a growing fear that terrorist groups in Jordan are being supported by Iran. 

For example, commentator Ehud Ya’ari argues that “Iran stepped up its orchestrated campaign to smuggle large quantities of rocket launchers, rocket-propelled grenades, sophisticated explosive charges, and other weapons from Syria to Jordan, with many of them intended for transfer to the West Bank” (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, June 20, 2024).

The Allenby Bridge is known as a dangerous place. Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War in October, Israeli citizens have alerted the IDF about military trainings by the Jordanian Army near the border and the potential threat of kidnappings. The terrorists’ use of this strategic location is not a new threat. 

In April 2003, I directed the documentary UK – Terrorists’ Haven, tracking the route that the first two British suicide bombers took from the UK to Israel via the Allenby Bridge to carry out a deadly terrorist attack in the Tel Aviv bar Mike’s Place. Most of the people there were young people from all over the world. 

The terrorist Asif Muhammed Hanif blew himself up in front of this beachfront pub. His accomplice, Omar Khan Sharif, failed to detonate the bomb. His body was later found washed up on the Tel Aviv beach. 

I filmed the documentary a week after the terrorist attack in Israel and in the UK. In Israel, I interviewed survivors of this terrorist attack and filmed at the Allenby Bridge. In the UK, I conducted interviews with the suicide bomber’s close circle from his neighborhood and with those who knew the pair from the local mosques that they attended. 

The terrorists traveled from the UK to Syria, and from there to Jordan. About two weeks before they carried out the suicide attack, they traveled from Amman to Gaza via the Allenby Bridge, after passing the security checks. They were traveling on their British passports and pretended to be peace activists, receiving the support of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement. Once in Gaza, Hamas recruited the terrorists. 

In 2003, Israel arrested three Hamas fighters returning from al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. That same year, Jordanian security confirmed that two Hamas members went on a recruiting mission in Afghanistan for al-Qaeda fighters. Israel also learned that the British citizens-turned-suicide-bombers, Hanif and Sharif, may have been recruited by al-Qaeda to carry out Hamas attacks. 

In 2006, two terrorists from Nablus were prosecuted for recruiting activists to carry out terrorist attacks planned by al-Qaeda. The two were arrested in 2005 at the Allenby Bridge on their return from Jordan, and the terror attack was foiled. 

Following the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated that ISM activity in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip is under the auspices of Palestinian terrorist organizations. ISM has also been active in the UK. 

THE SUICIDE bomber lived in Hounslow, West London, and worked at Heathrow Airport. He prayed at Hounslow Mosque. Before the attack, both terrorists traveled to Syria to pursue Islamic studies. The timing of the attack was not accidental, being carefully planned during the violent Second Intifada. 

“The issue of Palestine is not just the issue of the people who live in Palestine. It is actually one of the biggest issues of the Muslim world at large,” said the imam at Hounslow Mosque. “Wherever Muslims are, they feel their brothers and sisters who are deprived of their basic human rights in Palestine, being killed mercilessly and massacred.” 

Said a worshiper: “He believed that what was being done to the Palestinians was wrong. The Palestinians don’t have the same weaponry or arms as Israelis have. If you strongly believe in something, you go to the extremes.”

The terrorists also attended the radical Finsbury Park Mosque, which was closed in 2003 in an anti-terrorist police raid, following investigations by MI5 and New Scotland Yard. The mosque was reopened in 2005.

Abu Hamza – an Egyptian cleric who was the imam of Finsbury Park Mosque, where he preached Islamic fundamentalist views – was held responsible for provoking young British Muslims to join a holy war against the enemies of Islam. I filmed Abu Hamza outside the Finsbury Park Mosque, one and a half months after the suicide attack in Tel Aviv, as he incited for suicide bombing and glorified the martyrs as the solution to the “Ummah’s (nation) problem.”

The spread of Islam

Tina, a British Jew from London who has settled in Israel, survived the attack. On the night of the explosion, she was at the bar celebrating her friend’s birthday. “These people must have taken a lot of brainwashing to do this. They weren’t poor, oppressed people. They had grown up not knowing anything better,” she said. “These were university-educated guys from the same background as I am. They were from wealthy families; it wasn’t like they grew up with nothing.

“This isn’t about wanting a piece of land. This is about wanting blood and death to the Jews. They want the world to believe in Islam; it’s a futile dream for which they are willing to kill a lot of people.”

The 2004 Madrid train bombings took place a year after the terror attack in Tel Aviv, and some of the terrorists involved were British nationals. The July 7, 2005 London bombings struck the heart of Britain. Here too, the terrorists were British Muslims.

THE EASY access to Israel in the recent terrorist attack of 2024, and the one in 2003, is similar. Two British terrorists pretended to be peace activists. In 2003, the terrorist arrived at the border with his truck and carried out the terror attack in the cargo area under Israeli control, where Jordanian trucks offload cargo entering the West Bank.

Despite the political tension between Jerusalem and London today – 21 years after a vicious attack at Tel Aviv’s Mike’s Place bar, Hamas’s threats to destroy Israeli society, and threats from multiple fronts – it is important that Israel and the UK stand together against global terrorism. 

The writer is a senior research associate at the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM).