Palestine: Ahed Tamini leaves prison transformed into symbol of Palestinian resistance

Arrested on December 19 at the age of 16, the video in which she appears with her mother Nariman, also released on Sunday, and her cousin at home in Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank she became viral and was charged with 12 counts, including badaulting the security forces, throwing stones, taking part in violent demonstrations, threats and incitement

The Israeli court Kept in custody pending "Too Dangerous" until the delivery of the sentence in March when he accepted an agreement with the Office of the Prosecutor and was sentenced to eight months for aggravated aggression and incitement, among other charges.

For his lawyer Gaby Lasky Israel tried with this case, which sparked a high international interest, to "dissuade" other young people from following his example.

But his actions and, also, his detention, have turned him into an identity of Palestinian activism, which compares him daily to Joan of Arc, Anne Frank or Nelson Mandela; in addition to a reminder of Palestinian minors in Israeli jails.

Ahed, who dreams of being a football player says that he has killed hours in jail while reading novels, preparing for the tawjihi exam. access to the university, play sports and seek the company of his mother, Nariman, also imprisoned in Ha Sharon.

His father, Basem, militant and former prisoner of Israel, was able to visit them only twice seven months because, he said, the Israeli authorities refused him the other permits.

The incident with the soldiers recorded video on December 15 is only the latest in a series of clashes between the young woman and the forces of Israeli security. After the harsh experience of the second Intifada, the city of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank joined in 2009 the movement of "non-violent resistance", with demonstrations against the appropriation of the Jewish settlement of Halamish from a source used by the inhabitants of the city.

Ahed Tamimi – AFP

In this context, Ahed, a 9-year-old girl, faces the occupation: arrests, soldiers on the streets , smelly water canyons, roaring grenades, tear gas, retreaded bullets and even real bullets like the one that killed his uncle Rushdie in 2012.

Nabi Saleh became an icon that activists and spectators from around the world who crossed the West Bank came to meet a family that is already part of the recent history of Palestine.

The Tamimi were portrayed in 2013 in an article ulo del New York Times that raised whether it would be in this small town of 600 inhabitants, surrounded by settlements, where the Third Intifada would explode .

The grizzled mane, clear eyes and face cluttered by Ahed's wrath were broadcast in the media for years, as did the rest of the village children, who, by clan decision, were included in protest activities "to help them deal with their reality."

Thus, minors prevent or badist in arrests of relatives or face armed soldiers.

In front of them, Ahed shows an inadequate integrity and gravity of a teenager who in his spare time plays football You organize choreographies of Rihanna with his cousin Jana, another "girl-phenomenon" of the city who , at eleven, is known as "the youngest journalist in the world".

His attitude earned him honorable mentions of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas or Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan and inspired the Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick author of the famous portrait of Black and white Che Guevara, to turn her into a poster heroine under the caption: "There is a real Wonder Woman."

The case mobilized writers, artists and academics from the United States, among them Rosario Dawson or Angela Davis, is followed in social networks under the hastag [196] 59022] #FreeAhedTamimi and has gave visibility to the situation of 291 Palestinian children imprisoned in Israeli jails.

"He always says the same thing when asked what he wants to be," his father says. young "shy, quiet, brave and strong" has become famous, among many reasons, because with his blue eyes and blond hair "strikes the western mentality."

* Source: Publico.es