Palestinian teen’s actions in spotlight
NEBI SALEH, West Bank — The curly haired Palestinian teenager is seen walking up to two Israeli soldiers standing near the entrance of her house, and she can be heard telling them to leave. She then pushes and kicks both soldiers who casually fend off the blows.
Then she slaps one soldier hard in the face.
Now, the 16-year-old girl from the village of Nebi Saleh is being celebrated by Palestinians as a hero and a symbol of a new generation after confronting the two soldiers in a confrontation caught on video.
In Israel, the soldiers’ decision not to react to the seeming provocation by Ahed Tamimi has stirred a debate about deterrence and drawn allegations that the army was humiliated.
Three days after the Friday confrontation, amid an uproar in Israel, Tamimi was arrested from her home in a pre-dawn raid and now faces charges of attacking soldiers.
She was led in leg shackles to an Israeli military courtroom, where a judge reserved a decision on whether to keep her without bail. He ordered her held for five more days, a decision that was appealed by her defense lawyer.
“Stay strong, stay strong,” her father, Bassem, a veteran activist, shouted from the spectators’ section.
The sharply conflicting Palestinian and Israeli interpretations of the widely viewed video clip highlight the deep rift between the two societies, at a time of heightened tension over the status of contested Jerusalem.
Nebi Saleh is a village of about 600 people, most of them members of Tamimi’s extended family. For eight years, villagers along with Israeli and foreign activists have protested weekly against Israeli policies in the West Bank.
The Israeli military said Friday’s protest turned violent, with about 200 Palestinians throwing stones at soldiers. Several people entered a local house, with the consent of the owners, and continued to throw stones, the army said.
Soldiers entered the house, removed the stone-throwers and stayed at the entrance to prevent others from entering, it said. At that point, several Palestinians emerged from the house and began to “violently provoke the soldiers,” the army said.
Bassem Tamimi said that minutes earlier, soldiers had fired a rubber-coated bullet from close range at 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi, a cousin of Ahed and a frequent guest in the Tamimi home. While considered nonlethal, the rubber bullets can be dangerous.
The teen remained in intensive care Wednesday after surgeons removed the bullet that had entered his mouth and lodged in his brain, said officials at Ramallah’s Istishari Hospital. The patient will likely recover, they said.
Bassem Tamimi said his daughter was upset about the shooting when she approached the soldiers. He scoffed at criticism that his daughter was an attention-seeking provocateur.
“We hope that this generation will be stronger than us, and can take the flag from us with more power ... and more serious resistance to end the occupation,” said Tamimi, 50, who spent more than four years in nine different stints in Israeli jails for anti-occupation protests.
Ahed has made headlines in the past, including in 2015 when she bit the hand of a masked Israeli soldier who was holding her now 14-yearold brother, Mohammed, in a chokehold during an attempted arrest.
Miri Regev, an Israeli Cabinet minister and former military spokeswoman, called the latest incident “damaging to the honor of the military and the state of Israel.”
In Israel, the military said the company commander involved in Friday’s incident “acted in a professional and restrained manner.”
Others were sharply critical of the soldiers.
Miri Regev, an Israeli Cabinet minister and former military spokeswoman, called the latest incident “damaging to the honor of the military and the state of Israel.”