West Bank Town Now in Spotlight As Birthplace of Bombing Suspect

The West Bank village of Bidya, midway between Tel Aviv and Nablus, can boast of very few celebrities.

Four years ago, local youths ambushed the car of the village head, accusing him of collaboration with the Israeli authorities. The mukhtar, Shaker Abu Zeid, was inside the car when it was set on fire and was killed in the attack.

But since then, as the intifada swirled around it, the village has raised few headlines.

Until this week — when scores of journalists flooded the small town of 6,000, seeking out the birthplace of Mohammad Amin Abed ar-Rahim Salameh, the suspect in the World Trade Center bombing in New York.

Salameh himself probably cannot remember much of his time in Bidya. He was born in September 1967, three months after Israel captured the West Bank in the Six-Day War. Two months later, Salameh’s father packed up the family and moved to Jordan to work in the Jordanian army.

Salameh’s family settled in Zarka, a city north of the Amman, and Salameh apparently never saw his birthplace again.

Reporters searching in Bidya for clues to Salameh’s background were only able to find Salameh’s grandmother, Amna Mahmoud Ode, who has remained in the village until today.

“He was good boy,” said the 80-year-old woman, expressing confidence that Salameh could not have planted the bomb.

Ode said she last saw Salameh five years ago in Jordan, after he quit his studies in Islamic law at the University of Amman and just before he went to the United States in search of work.

Relatives said Salameh was the eldest of 11 children. Two years ago, his father retired from the Jordanian army as a lieutenant.

In Zarka, Salameh’s family also defended his character, claiming he is “being persecuted.”

“This is from the Jews, who have done this and blamed my son,” The New York Times quoted his mother as saying.