Radiance News Service
Nov. 9, 2023
Ahed Tamimi, who became well-known across the globe for her resistance against Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank in 2017, has now been arrested by the Israeli occupational forces from her home. Her father, Bassem Tamimi was arrested by Israeli forces on October 29 while travelling to Amman, Jordan. The family has learned that he is being held in Ofer Prison under administrative detention for six months, which means no charge or trial needs to take place. The detention can also be indefinitely extended. At age 16, Ahed became a global hero when she slapped an Israeli soldier who had raided her village. She and others have for years protested Israeli land seizures.
Dena Takruri, the co-author of Ahed’s autobiography, They Called Me a Lionness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom, took to X to share updates about Ahed’s current location – writing that “Ahed Tamimi is being held at Damon Prison in Israel and was beaten, according to her mother. Her mom received a call from a lawyer who was visiting another female Palestinian prisoner. The prisoner informed her lawyer of Ahed’s status and to notify her family…International law prohibits an occupying power (Israel) from transferring prisoners outside occupied territory (West Bank).” Damon prison has been highlighted in the past for its carceral abuses and forms of torture.
Ahed, who earned her high school degree in prison and is now a student of law at Birzeit University, was beaten during her arrest.
Photos circulating on X show the house turned upside down during the search, and Ahed being held by male Israeli soldiers. Her mother, Nariman Tamimi, said more than a dozen Israeli soldiers entered their house overnight and arrested her. The Tamimi family is well-known for their history of resisting settlements and occupations of their village Nabi Saleh, including many of the women of Ahed’s family. Many of her brothers, including Mohammad Tamimi and Wa’ed Tamimi, have also been arrested over the years.
Israel’s claims that the current onslaught is a hunt for Hamas leaders and targeted at their institutions also fall flat in light of their continued arrests and attacks in West Bank, which Hamas does not rule. The Israeli occupational military has claimed that Ahed “is suspected of inciting violence and calling for terrorist activity to be carried out.”
Israel claims that Ahed made anti-Semitic posts on her social media pages, but her mother has argued that her pages have frequently been hacked and she couldn’t post the kind of content that is being cited as a reason for her arrest.
According to a report, “Reuters was not able to locate the Instagram account, which had the handle “ahed_tamimi15”, or independently authenticate the image. The military did not comment on the image.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the US, has also called on US President Joe Biden to pressure the Israeli government to release her.
