Ahed Tamimi

Ahed Tamimi (Vorlage:Lang-ar ‘Ahad at-Tamīmī, also Romanized Ahd; born 30 March 2001) is a Palestinian activist from the village of Nabi Salih. She is best known for appearances in images and videos in which she confronts Israeli soldiers. Her supporters consider her a symbol of resistance against Israeli occupation in the West Bank, a courageous activist, a child hero and a freedom fighter, while detractorsVorlage:Who argue her acts are dramatized performances aimed at discrediting Israel. In December 2017, she was detained by an Israeli military court for slapping an Israeli soldier during an overnight raid on her home in the occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on a video that went viral.

Life

Ahed Tamimi was born on 30 March 2001 to Bassem and Nariman Tamimi in Nabi Salih, a small village located about 20 kilometers (12.4 mi) northwest of Ramallah in the West Bank. The Tamimi family arrived in the village from Hebron in the 1600s and about 600 of its inhabitants are related by blood or marriage. According to The Guardian, Ahed's siblings—Waed, Mohammed, and Salem—and parents "have known only a life of checkpoints, identity papers, detentions, house demolitions, intimidation, humiliation and violence; she is part of the second generation of Palestinians to live under the occupation.

By 2015, her image had gone viral and international media came to her family's home in Nabi Salih to interview her. In a September 15, 2015 interview, when she was 14, with "long, flowing blond hair, jeans and cartoon-emblazoned T-shirt", she told NBC News, "All I did was help my brother — if the soldier’s mother was also present she would have hit me because in the end he is her son and this is what we did...There are many Palestinian children who went through the same thing or something more difficult but there was no camera to film them...We the Palestinians are not going to wait for Saladin to liberate us..We are going to make our own Saladin and liberate ourselves...If there’s no occupation, I would go watch a soccer match because I like soccer a lot and my favorite team is Barcelona and my favorite footballer is Neymar... I would love to go out every day with my friends and go with them to the sea...There are many things I would do, such as going anywhere I want, and there would be no checkpoints to stop me." In a September 2015 Mondoweiss interview, she was described as "painfully shy" and at times "giggled like young girls do", "dressed in jeans and a t-shirts, Ahed’s with a print of “Lola Bunny." Mondoweiss's Allison Deger described how Ahed "likes to play soccer and dance. She studies English in school, but is sheepish about using it. When she grows up, she wants to be a lawyer."

When she was sixteen, Ahed Tamimi participated in a conference on the role of women in the Palestinian popular resistance which was held in the European parliament on 26 September 2017.

In a 2017 The Guardian interview, journalist Herriett Sherwood, asked Ahed "how often she had experienced teargas, she laughed, saying she couldn’t count the times." Sherwood, who considered many of Ahed's answers to appear "rehearsed" cited Ahed, "We want to liberate Palestine. We want to live as free people. The soldiers are here to protect the settlers and prevent us reaching our land."

Protests

2012—2016

The Tamimis—a well-known activist family—are involved in protests and political agitation demonstrating their opposition to the expansion of Jewish settlements and detention of Palestinians. Ahed shares similar convictions to her family and commentators have been polarised in their assessment of her. To her supporters, Ahed is described as a "hero" for opposing those who enforce Israeli occupation; detractors refer to her actions as a "performance" aimed at discrediting Israel.

Ahed believes documented, organized protests against the Israeli occupation would lead to wider recognition of the Palestinian struggle for autonomy; her viral images and videos have produced a wave of public reactions—‌recognizable not only in Israel and Palestine but internationally as well. In August 2012, when she was 11, Ahed was photographed attempting to stop the arrest of her mother, an act which President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas commended for her courage. By 2012, she had become an internationally-recognized figure; as an Israeli soldier arrested her older brother, Ahed confronted him—‌despite being twice her size—‌while waving a fist—‌a scene which earned her an invitation by then-Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. She gained notoriety once more three years later, when Ahed was filmed biting and striking a masked Israeli soldier who was apprehending her brother for throwing stones.

In December 2016, Tamimi was denied a visa by the US for a speaking tour titled "No Child Behind Bars/Living Resistance".

2017—2018

On 15 December 2017, Ahed took part in a demonstration in Nabi Salih opposing the expansion of Israeli settlements near her village. A riot broke out between about 200 protesters—some of whom were throwing stones—and Israeli soldiers; the soldiers organized to quell the unrest and entered the Tamimi house to subdue protesters who, according to the army, continued to throw stones from inside the house. During the riot, 14-year-old cousin Mohammed Fadl al-Tamimi was shot in the face at close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet, severely wounding him. Ahed, along with her mother and cousin Nour, approached two soldiers outside the Tamimi home, slapping, kicking, and shoving them—all while being filmed. The civilians appearing in the video are all female. The armed soldiers do not retaliate.

Mohammed Fadl al-Tamimi was left in a medically induced coma to remove the bullet from his head, and regained consciousness a few days later. After the video circulated through social media, on 19 December Israeli forces raided the Tamimi house and arrested Ahed; the house was searched and recording materials were seized. Despite concerns—the use of military court for a minor who may have been singled out for "embarrassing the occupation"—thirteen days later, Ahed was charged with assault, incitement, and throwing stones; her mother and Nour joined her, having been arrested in relation to the incident. Ahed's arrest and her filmed confrontation spurred debateVorlage:How in Palestinian and Israeli societies, as well as in other countries; worldwide protests followed and IsraelisVorlage:Who considered whether it had been appropriate for the soldiers not to hit back.

The documentary entitled Radiance Of Resistance featured then 14-year-old Ahed Tamimi and 9-year-old Janna Ayyad. Bend, Oregon-based Jesse Roberts of Rise Up International and Jesse Locke of AMZ Productions traveled to Nabi Saleh in 2015 to film the documentary. It was "screened at a number of festivals worldwide in 2017" including at the Respect Human Rights Film Festival which took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland from 3 to 8 March, where it won the award for the Best Documentary.

In January 2018, Israeli deputy minister Michael Oren said that a Knesset sub-committee conducted a classified investigation into whether Ahed and other family members were non-related actors that were cast together to perform viral videos as part of Pallywood. While the investigation did not reach a definitive conclusion regarding familial relationship, Oren said that the family members are Pallywood actors. The Tamimi family rejected the claims, and denied that the videos, including Ahed's December slapping video, were financed in any way.

External links

• International Declaration: Freedom to Ahed Tamimi and all Palestinian Political Prisoners