Freed Arab teen aiming for law school
Girl, 17, wraps up 8-month prison term for slapping two Israeli soldiers
NABI SALEH, West Bank — Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi, who became an international symbol of resistance to Israeli occupation after slapping two soldiers, walked out of an Israeli prison Sunday and told throngs of journalists and well-wishers that she now wants to study law to defend her people.
The 17-year-old said that “resistance continues until the occupation is removed,” but she refrained from saying she would slap soldiers again. The teen, who is on probation, said her eight months in prison were tough and helped her appreciate life.
At a news conference near her family home, she spoke against the backdrop of a large model of a slingshot that was “loaded” with a pencil rather than a stone, apparently to highlight education as one of the possible Palestinian tactics.
Tamimi’s supporters see a brave girl who struck two armed soldiers in frustration after having learned that Israeli troops seriously wounded her 15-year-old cousin, shooting him in the head from close range with a rubber bullet during clashes.
In Israel, she is seen by many either as a provocateur, an irritation or a threat to the military’s deterrence policy — even as a terrorist. Israel treated her actions as a criminal offense, indicting her on charges of assault and incitement. In liberal circles, the prosecution of Tamimi was criticized as a public relations disaster because it turned her into an international icon.
Her release comes at a time when Palestinian hopes for an independent state appear dimmer than ever.
Israeli-Palestinian talks on setting up a state in lands captured by Israel in 1967 — the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — have been deadlocked since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in 2009. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended contacts with the U.S. after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December in what Palestinians denounced as a display of pro-Israel bias.
Abbas, meanwhile, has stepped up financial pressure on Gaza, which has been controlled since 2007 by his domestic rival, the Islamic militant group Hamas.
Many Palestinians are dis- illusioned by their leaders in both political camps and feel exhausted after years of conflict with Israel.
In this context, the idea of so-called popular resistance — regular demonstrations, including stone-throwing by unarmed protesters — has only caught on in a few West Bank villages, including Nabi Saleh, home to Tamimi and her family.
Since 2009, residents of Nabi Salah have staged regular anti-occupation protests that often ended with stone-throwing clashes. Tamimi has participated in such marches from a young age and has had several highly publicized run-ins with soldiers. One photo shows her as a 12-year-old raising a clenched fist toward a soldier towering over her.
Tamimi and her mother, Nariman — also arrested in December in connection with the same incident — were released Sunday morning from a prison in northern Israel. They were driven by bus to the West Bank and were given a hero’s welcome in Nabi Saleh.
Tamimi later visited the grave of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. She laid a wreath, kissed the headstone — twice at the request of photographers — and recited a prayer.
She was then taken with her family to a meeting with Abbas at his headquarters in Ramallah.
The 83-year-old Abbas praised her as a symbol of resistance to occupation.
Tamimi said that she completed her high school exams in prison, with the help of other prisoners. Palestinian inmates typically organize study courses to complete high school and even university degrees.
“I will study law to defend my people and defend my Palestinian cause in international forums,” she said.
She said her prison experience was tough and that she missed her friends and her old life in the village. She said she underwent three lengthy interrogations without a female officer present, in violation of Israel’s own rules.
Also on Sunday, Israel’s navy intercepted a ship carrying activists en route to Gaza in the latest attempt to break a blockade on the coastal territory, the military said.
It said the passengers were notified they were “violating the legal naval blockade” and that humanitarian aid can be delivered to Gaza in other ways. It said the ship was being taken to an Israeli port.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an umbrella group comprising pro-Palestinian and Islamic charities from around the world, said on Twitter that Israel had “hijacked” the vessel.
It said the ship carried activists from 14 countries — mainly from Europe but also Malaysia, the U.S. and Israel — and 100 boxes of medical aid for Gaza. It said in a statement that the supplies are “a small but important contribution to the increasingly dire medical situation” in Gaza. “In the long term, the only solution is ending the blockade,” it said.
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas took over the territory.
Israel says it is crucial to prevent Hamas, a group sworn to Israel’s destruction, from receiving weapons. Critics denounce the blockade as a collective punishment for Gaza’s 2 million people.