Ahed Tamimi: From jail cell to VIP suite
Israel wants subservient Palestinians and Ahed shows that won’t happen, analyst says
When Israel locked up Ahed Tamimi for slapping an occupation soldier last year, it hoped to finally silence the teenage Palestinian activist. Instead, it created an international celebrity.
Less than three months after walking out of prison, Tamimi is on a victory tour, crisscrossing Europe and the Middle East as a superstar of the campaign against Israeli occupation. She has spoken to throngs of adoring fans, met world leaders and was even welcomed by the Real Madrid football club.
The VIP reception has dismayed Israeli regime officials and is prompting some to ask if the regime mishandled the case. “We could have been smarter,” said Yoaz Hendel, a media commentator and former spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Tamimi gained international attention last year when she confronted an Israeli occupation soldier in front of her home in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. She kicked and slapped him, and then took a swing at a second occupation soldier in an incident that spread quickly on social media.
Days later, in an overnight raid, occupation troops entered Tamimi’s house and took her and her mother away. Both were given eight-month prison sentences. Weeks after her release from prison, Tamimi began a tour that has taken her to France, Spain, Greece, Tunisia and Jordan. At nearly every stop, she has been welcomed by cheering crowds. “I don’t like living as a celebrity. It’s not an easy life to live. I’m exhausted,” she said in a telephone interview from the Jordanian capital, Amman. “But what I like more is delivering the message of my people. That makes me feel proud.”
She kicked off her tour on September 14 in Paris, where she participated in the Communist Party’s “Humanity” rally. On the festival’s last day, she spoke to thousands of cheering supporters. She travelled to other cities at the invitation of the France Palestine Solidarity Association.
In Greece, she was a headliner for the 100th-anniversary celebration of the country’s Communist party, KKE. Addressing a crowd of thousands, she was interrupted by several long ovations and chants of “Freedom for Palestine.”
“Israel is unhappy because she highlights to the world both how unjust the occupation is and how absurd their legal system is,” said Diana Buttu, a former legal adviser to the PNA. “Israel instead wants subservient Palestinians who simply stay quiet in the face of the denial of freedom. Ahed shows that won’t happen - including not with this generation.”
Addressing a crowd of thousands, she was interrupted by several long ovations and chants of ‘Freedom for Palestine’.