New face of Palestinian resistance is a teen

Ahed Tamimi is only a teenager, but has repeatedly been at the centre of the seemingly endless propaganda war between Israelis and Palestinians, with a video of her slapping soldiers the latest example.

Tamimi, 16 and recognisable by her shock of blonde hair, has been held up by Palestinians and other supporters as a brave opponent of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

A years- old photograph of her raising her fist at a soldier was widely published and led to her being received by then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2012.

She was also photographed while wearing a Tweety Bird shirt and ◗ biting the hand of an Israeli soldier in 2015 to try to stop the arrest of a brother. But for Israeli officials, she is being made to star in staged provocations by her family, prominent activists who have been at the forefront of protests in their village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah.

The latest incident led to her arrest on December 19 along with that of her mother and cousin.

She has been detained since and is due to appear in military court again on Thursday. The three appeared in a video that went viral after it was recorded on December 15 in Nabi Saleh. It showed Tamimi and her cousin approaching two Israeli soldiers before shoving, kicking and slapping them. The heavily armed soldiers do not respond in the face of what appears to be an attempt to provoke rather than seriously harm them.

Tamimi’s father argues that her blonde hair and Western dress have contributed to the attention she has received.

“If she was veiled and dark- skinned, would she have got the same attention?” Bassem Tamimi said. “The Zionist propaganda machine always depicts the Palestinian as dark- skinned and ugly, attacking the blonde victim, but now she is blonde.” Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the US, accused the Tamimis of using children as pawns.