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By Ahlam Bensaga
Rabat – After two months spent imprisoned in Israel, young Palestinian “child activist,” Ahed Al-Tamimi is to face trial on Tuesday, February 13 for shaking her fist at Israeli soldiers.
Recently-turned 17-year- old Ahed Al-Tamimi, known as “the icon of Palestinian resistance” against Israeli occupation in West Bank punched two Israeli soldiers upon discovering the soldiers shot her 14-year-old cousin in the head with a rubber-coated bullet, which put him in a medically-induced coma.
After a video showing Ahed striking and kicking Israeli soldiers went viral, a group of Israeli Military forces barged into Tamimi’s household in the village of Nabi Saleh at 4 am on December 19, 2017, and detained Ahed for “assault” and “incitement” against Israeli security forces.
Shortly afterwards, Ahed’s mother Nariman and her 20-year-old cousin Nour who also appeared in the video were held in custody.
Nariman was charged for posting videos of her daughter’s protests against Israel on Facebook, and was accused of “incit[ing] others to commit terrorist attacks”, said The Guardian News website.
Her cousin Nour was also detained for taking part in the incident, but was set free on bail worth USD 1.400, said the Amnesty International news website.
The judge denied bail for Ahed, saying: “The gravity of the offences of which she is accused does not allow an alternative to custody,” as reported by The Guardian.
Ahed’s 17-year old cousin Musab Firas Al-Tamimi was killed by a shot to the neck during a skirmish that occurred in Deir Nitham, Ahed’s village on January 2018. Al-Tamimi was referred to as “the first to be killed by Israel in 2018” by Al Jazeera News channel.
Al Jazeera reported that the Israeli army imprisoned and killed several members of the Al-Tamimi family, and noted that the family has known for conducting anti-Israeli occupation protests for years.
Ahed’s father Basseem Al-Tamimi is also an activist against Israeli settlement in Palestine.
He was sentenced for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in 2012, but has since been released.
Basseem defended his daughter, telling the Al-Arabiya news channel that Ahed “stands for a cause,” yet admitted he was saddened by her imprisonment.
During an interview titled “Is a slap an act of terror?” by BBC news channel, Israeli politician, Oren Hazan, said that slapping Israeli soldiers was indeed an act of terrorism and that he would kick Ahed Tamimi’s face if he could.
“If I was there, she would finish in the hospital. For sure […] nobody could stop me. I would kick, kick her face, believe me,” he said.
Hazan was slammed for his statement on social media.
An Israeli poet named Yehonatan Geffen dedicated a poem to Ahed, in which he compared her to Anne Frank, famous diarist and Jewish victim of the Holocaust as well as to Joan of Arc, a historical heroine of French revolution against British rule.
His first comparison met with considerable criticism from Israelis.
One of them said, according to Israel National News: “The State of Israel will not grant a platform to a man who compares a girl who perished in the Holocaust and a heroic warrior who fought the Nazi regime with the brat Ahed Tamimi, who attacked a soldier,”
The Israeli poet later apologized to his nation for “the comparison”, as confirmed by Israel National News.
Ahed Tamimi’s two months of captivity have ended and she is set to go to trial in an Israeli Military court on Tuesday 13, 2018.
Ahed’s supporters congratulated her on her seventeenth birthday which she spent in jail on January 31.
Irish artist, Jim Fitzpatrick,dedicated a copy-right free Logo painting to Ahed Tamimi, in which she was portrayed standing and holding the Palestinian flag. On her side it says “ There is A Real Wonder Woman”
Fitzpatrick explained his work in a video interview on YouTube: “It’s my effort to raise awareness so they can’t simply kill this little girl […] I thought there is a real wonder woman, and it’s this kid. So that’s what prompted me to use the logo.”
