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Nabi Saleh (Palestinian Territories) – "My life has changed enormously but I have done nothing wrong that I can regret," said Monday in an interview with AFP Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teenager icon resistance to the Israeli occupation after spending eight months in prison for slapping two soldiers.
The 17-year-old and her mother Nariman were released Sunday. They returned, followed by cameras from around the world, to their small village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank, where they were welcomed as heroines.
In the small yard of the family home, the 16-year-old girl hit two soldiers in December, asking them to leave. The scene, filmed, had been widely shared on the internet.
Today, the blond-haired young woman is aware of having become a " symbol " of the Palestinian cause.
" Of course, my life has changed a lot, I have changed a lot in prison, I have become more caring, more aware, the prison is maturing, in one day you are 100 years old "she explains, sitting in the garden of her house.
Would she have done the same thing if she had known that these slaps were worth eight months in prison? " Yes ", she proclaims.
" I did not do anything wrong that I could regret ," says Ahed Tamimi, who recalls that the incident occurred the day Israeli soldiers seriously injured their heads with a rubber bullet his cousin, Mohammed Tamimi, 15, leaving him disfigured.
" It was a normal reaction to a soldier in my house shooting people from my village ," she says. " I hit him, maybe other people would have killed him ".
The Israeli army claimed that the soldiers were in Nabi Saleh to prevent Palestinians from throwing stones at Israeli motorists. Several Israeli settlements are close to Nabi Saleh.
The altercation took place while the village was the scene of protests against the recognition by the United States of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
On the video, the soldiers remained unmoved by Ahed Tamimi and her cousin, who slapped and punched and kicked them.
Ahed Tamimi says she is now planning to study law in order to expose the Israeli occupation to the world.
– " Never Instrumented " –
Israel, which has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem for more than 50 years, accuses the family of the teenager, known for her activism, of manipulating the young woman.
At the age of 14, Ahed Tamimi had already made himself known by biting an Israeli soldier to prevent him from arresting his little brother, who was stuck to the ground and had his arm in the cast.
" My family never instrumentalized me ," replies the teenager. " I am mature enough and I am aware of the cause (Palestinian) I know what the consequences are when we choose this path I am not a child ".
Many Israelis also felt a sharp bitterness at what was perceived as a humiliation inflicted on soldiers who did not respond to aggression.
Palestinians, on the other hand, praise Ahed Tamimi as an example of courage in the face of Israeli repression in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
A giant portrait of her was painted on the Israeli separation wall in the occupied West Bank, in the Bethlehem area.
During the interview, Ahed Tamimi seemed at times to embody the image of a future Palestinian politician. At other times, she was just a teenager.
As when she explained why one of the first things she did when leaving prison on Sunday was to rush to an ice cream shop in Ramallah, West Bank.
" There is no ice in prison, of course, but I love it, in the summer I tend to avoid food, I prefer to eat ice cream at breakfast, lunch and at dinner ".
Asked whether she had a message to the Israelis who consider her to be a " terrorist ", Ahed Tamimi replied that she would simply ask them " to start (s) Place ". " Just that, not more ".
" They (these Israelis, ed) return a little to their humanity in order to understand the reality ," she slipped.
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