Palestinian Teen Ahed Tamimi Emerges From Israeli Prison a Determined Activist (Video)
The young woman captured international attention last year when she was filmed striking Israeli military members after learning that her 15-year-old cousin had been shot by soldiers.
Last year, a video made the rounds online featuring a young woman hitting and kicking a pair of fully armed members of the Israeli military near her family’s home in the occupied West Bank. Ahed Tamimi, then 16, had just gotten the news that her 15-year-old cousin had been shot in the head and badly wounded by Israeli soldiers when she made her stance on the matter eminently clear in a clip that quickly went viral.
The incident also landed Tamimi and her mother in an Israeli prison. In late July, she was released after serving an eight-month sentence and again took up the cause for which she had been fighting for years. In this video excerpt from Monday’s edition of “Democracy Now!,” Tamimi tells host Amy Goodman about the interrogation that followed her arrest, the difficulties she endured in prison, and her plans to continue her work as an activist—and eventually as a lawyer.
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Tamimi uses the experience of being jailed to advantage, as have many other colonial prisoners including Mandela and Gandhi.
The family of prominent protester Ahed Tamimi releases a video showing an interrogator telling the then-16-year-old her relatives will be arrested if she fails to cooperate.
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The 17-year-old Palestinian girl has become a new icon of resistance in the struggle for freedom and basic human rights.
The high-profile case against the 17-year-old girl who slapped and punched two Israeli soldiers has drawn international attention and criticism. She now is facing an Israeli military court.