Ahed Tamimi, an icon of the Palestinian cause, was arrested yesterday in Nabi Salih, her hometown in the West Bank, in a raid by the Israeli army "intended to arrest individuals suspected of being involved in terrorist activities and incitement to hatred". Raids in the West Bank have increased since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7, and there are already 2,150 Palestinians detained, according to the Commission for Detainee and Ex-Detainee Affairs.
This 22-year-old is used to run-ins with the Israeli authorities. When he was 11 years old, he went viral for a video in which he threatened with his fist an Israeli soldier who had gone to his home to arrest his brother. The images went around the world and even reached Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who awarded him an award for his bravery. Three years later, another video was released in which a group of women, including Tamimi, tried to free their younger brother from an Israeli soldier who was suffocating him.
Tamimi's story became even more well-known in 2017, when she was jailed for eight months for assaulting two Israeli soldiers. On the day of the incident, a cousin of his had received the impact of a rubber bullet that would leave him with lifelong consequences, while demonstrating against Donald Trump's decision to move the US embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. When two Israeli soldiers showed up at Tamimi's home hours later, she and her cousin tried to chase them off the property. In a video recorded by her mother, who like her daughter ended up in prison, she is seen attacking and slapping them.
From an early age, Tamimi became aware of the occupation of the Palestinian territories. He grew up accompanying his father, an activist leader in the community, to the weekly demonstrations against the occupation. The protests often resulted in violent clashes with Israeli forces and settlers. In one of these demonstrations one of his uncles lost his life from a shot in the back. His father went to prison a few times and since he was arrested on October 20, 2023, the family has not heard from him.
This time the activist has been arrested on "suspicions of incitement to violence and terrorist activities". More specifically, the arrest responds to a publication in which the young woman allegedly promised to "massacre" Israelis "in all the cities of the West Bank, from Hebron to Jenin", with references to Hitler, according to a screenshot of a publication sent by the army to the Afp news agency. However, the account in the screenshot has been inaccessible since Monday and AFP has been unable to confirm whether the account belongs to the activist.
Narimane Tamimi, the mother of Ahed Tamimi, assured that her daughter was not the author of this text and that "there are dozens of pages in the name of Ahed and with her photo, but with what she does not have no relation... When Ahed tries to open an account on social networks, she is immediately blocked”. His mother also reported that their house had been searched and that the Israeli authorities had confiscated all the phones of the family members.
