Fear never got to her heart. She got rid of her own fear. She was also injured by three Israeli rubber-coated bullets in her thin body. The Israeli occupation wanted to kill her more than once but it did not succeed in shutting down these beautiful eyes filled with freedom and willingness.
Whenever you write down her name Ahed Tamimi on the search engines on the internet dozens of pictures of a blonde girl full of pride and honor jump up. The world has known her as the girl who does not accept oppression and her eternal words while facing the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) telling them to ‘get out of Palestine’ are still resonating in people’s minds.
Ahed got much of her name’s meaning in her character as she dedicated herself and her people not to calm down or give up as long as her country is occupied and violated thus the Israeli army sent dozens of soldiers to arrest her.
More than twenty Israeli patrols as her father Basem al-Tamimi told the PIC reporter arrested his daughter on Monday night (18/12/2017) in the village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
The IOF claims that Ahed 17 years old confronted the occupation soldiers when they tried to storm her family’s house during a protest over the American decision on Jerusalem.
Al-Tamimi told the PIC reporter that the IOF soldiers stormed their house late in the night during which they confiscated a number of computers and mobile phones before arresting his daughter Ahed.
The IOF soldiers later arrested Nariman al-Tamimi the mother of Ahed in front of the Benjamin military camp north of Ramallah when she went there to check on her daughter.
A courageous childhood
Since her childhood she has been known as the most courageous in confronting the Israeli army’s aggression against her family and neighbors. Her mother managed to rescue her brother Mohammed from the occupation forces as they tried to arrest him before.
As her father Bassim asserts that Ahed does not miss participating in the weekly protest every Friday in the Nabi Saleh village screaming in the face of the occupation ‘Get out of our land. This land is not yours.’ He revealed that she always wished to study law to become a lawyer to defend her homeland her family and her people.
The protest of Nabi Salih began in December 2009 as a weekly protest of the villagers and some international solidarity activists against the Apartheid Wall and the expropriation of the village’s lands in favor of the Jewish Halamish settlement as part of the popular resistance against the Apartheid Wall.
As social media was filled with images of Ahed who was famous for her courage she received unprecedented recognition by winning the Handala Award for Courage in December 2012 presented by the municipality of Başakşehir in Istanbul Turkey and meeting the then Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who praised her courage.
Struggling family
Ahed belongs to a well-known Palestinian family known for their struggle against the occupation living in a state of almost daily harassment by the occupation due to their residence in an area under Israeli control. Her father was arrested more than nine times her mother was arrested five times as well as her brother in addition to the martyrdom of her maternal and paternal uncles by the IOF.
Since she was four she has been participating in the anti-occupation protests “She does not fear the occupation she believes in what she is doing and believes that going out in the anti-Israeli occupation rallies is an incentive for the Palestinian people to continue” says her father.
The Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published an article on its front page which referred to what is called the phenomenon of Palestinian girls minors and women attacking Israeli soldiers during demonstrations and confrontations against Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in protest of the decision of US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The newspaper noted that after the arrest of Tamimi the Israeli army will launch a special campaign targeting Palestinian girls who are taped attacking the occupation soldiers and participating in the confrontations taking place in the occupied Palestinian territories for the third week in a row.
Three injuries
Before she was arrested Ahed was not a normal girl. She was hit three times by rubber-coated bullets and her hand was broken. Despite this she did not abandon her courage and continued to defend herself and her family and shout at the soldiers.
Despite the detention of Ahed the Tamimi family is still at the danger of ‘forced displacement’ because of the continuous threats by the IOF to demolish its house at the pretext of not obtaining a construction license.
