Opinion

Occupation slapped in the face

March 24, 2018
Ahed Tamimi
Ahed Tamimi

IT might seem disappointing that Palestinian teenage girl Ahed Tamimi pleaded guilty to four of the 12 charges she faced in an Israeli court, including the now famous slap she administered to an Israeli soldier. The plea deal means Tamimi will serve just a few months in prison when it could have been many years. But, there probably are those who would have preferred she not strike a plea bargain and accept a long prison term because, after all, she has become an icon of the Palestinian struggle, and struggle needs sacrifice.

However, Tamimi’s much shortened prison stay — she will be given credit for time served, leaving her with only five months on her sentence — in no way diminishes her image as the symbol of Palestinian resistance. She did not state that she was sorry for hitting the soldier; only that she acknowledged doing so.

Plus, no-one, Palestinian or Israeli, really believes Tamimi will not continue the fight once she returns home. Apart from the slap, she has on other occasions bitten the hand of one Israeli soldier, and held up her fist to another — when she was all of 11 years old — the video of which went viral and rocketed her to fame in the summer of 2012. After she is released from her latest incarceration, Tamimi will almost assuredly strike again.

Many Israelis regard Tamimi as a violent troublemaker seeking publicity. They claim she has long been exploited by her family, who they accuse of using her to try to provoke Israeli soldiers on film. To the Israelis, she is an example of Palestinian incitement.

But Tamimi was defending her family, home and property when she confronted two armed soldiers in the driveway of her family home in the village of Nabi Saleh on Dec. 15. She hit one of them in the face hours after she found out Israeli troops had shot her 15-year-old cousin to death, in the head with a rubber bullet, shattering his skull, in response to stones being thrown nearby. The protest was against the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Her trial opened behind closed doors at the Ofer military court in the occupied West Bank on Feb. 13. Her lawyer asked to have the trial open to the public, but a judge ruled that proceedings be conducted behind closed doors for “the minor’s benefit”. Holding the hearings in private was another way of saying Tamimi was not going to get a fair trial. How could she, in a country in which soldiers from a foreign army invade her home at night, kidnap her from her bed before her parents’ very eyes, handcuff, arrest her and throw her in jail because she hit the soldier who invaded her home?

One supposes that the more Tamimi stays behind Israeli bars, the more the Israeli justice system would be called out, especially when it comes to the inhumane treatment of Palestinian minors. Prolonged pretrial detention, abuse of under-age children and sham trials would be focused on much more than if she were out of prison.

But Tamimi’s voice can be heard louder when she is out of jail than in it. She can be the megaphone of the hundreds of Palestinian children who remain locked up with little attention paid to them. Through her, they too will become symbols of the resistance to Israeli occupation. They are all Ahed Tamimi.

Tamimi can do good for the Palestinians in or out of jail. For Palestinians, she has become their national icon for her bravery in standing up to armed soldiers on occupied land. She is a freedom fighter who is leading the confrontation against Israeli rule.

Tamimi slapped not only an Israeli soldier but the entire Israeli occupation right in the face.


March 24, 2018
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