Sixteen-year-old
Ahed Tamimi may not be what Israelis had in mind when, over many
years, they criticised Palestinians for not producing a Mahatma
Gandhi or Nelson Mandela.
Eventually,
colonized peoples bring to the fore a figure best suited to challenge
the rotten values at the core of the society oppressing them. Ahed is
well qualified for the task.
She
was charged last week with assault and incitement after she slapped
two heavily armed Israeli soldiers as they refused to leave the
courtyard of her family home in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh,
near Ramallah. Her mother, Nariman, is in detention for filming the
incident. The video quickly went viral.
Ahed
lashed out shortly after soldiers nearby shot her 15-year-old cousin
in the face, seriously injuring him.
Western
commentators have largely denied Ahed the kind of effusive support
offered to democracy protesters in places such as China and Iran.
Nevertheless, this Palestinian schoolgirl – possibly facing a long
jail term for defying her oppressors – has quickly become a social
media icon.
While
Ahed might have been previously unknown to most Israelis, she is a
familiar face to Palestinians and campaigners around the world.
For
years, she and other villagers have held a weekly confrontation with
the Israeli army as it enforces the rule of Jewish settlers over Nabi
Saleh. These settlers have forcibly taken over the village’s lands
and ancient spring, a vital water source for a community that depends
on farming.
Distinctive
for her irrepressible blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, Ahed has
been filmed regularly since she was a small girl confronting soldiers
who tower above her. Such scenes inspired one veteran Israeli peace
activist to anoint her Palestine’s Joan of Arc.
But
few Israelis are so enamoured.
Not
only does she defy Israeli stereotypes of a Palestinian, she has
struck a blow against the self-deception of a highly militarised and
masculine culture.
She
has also given troubling form to the until-now anonymised Palestinian
children Israel accuses of stone-throwing.
Palestinian
villages like Nabi Saleh are regularly invaded by soldiers. Children
are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, as happened
to Ahed during her arrest last month in retaliation for her slaps.
Human rights groups document how children are routinely beaten and
tortured in detention.
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