Tamimi calls for continued resistance after release from Israeli prison

Calling for continued Palestinian resistance against the“occupation”, Ahed Tamimi, 17, received a hero’s welcome when she returned to her home village of Nabi Saleh Sunday after spending eight-months in an Israeli jail for slapping an IDF soldier.

“The power is with the people and the people will decide their destiny and their future,” Ahed told a gaggle of reporters in Arabic. Many of her statement were translated into English.

“Our resistance will continue,” Ahed said. International solidarity is important”particularly with regard to isolating the Israeli government and imposing sanctions on it, she added.

Ahed wore a black T-shirt and a white and black Keffiyeh (scarf) around her   neck, as she next to her parents, Nariman and Bassem, next to a table set up next to a sculpture of a masked figure with a pencil in a sling shot, on a base of books.

Ahed Tamimi released from prison after eight months, July 29, 2018 (Reuters)

With her long brownish-brown curls, Ahed was considered a popular poster child for Palestinian resistance, long before her arrest. Her time in jail, only increased her fame.

Right-wing Israelis have nicknamed her “Shirley Temper,” because of her repeated appearance in viral youtube videos, going back at least five years, that showed her confronting IDF soldiers in Nabi Saleh.

After she was freed Ahed visited the tomb of former Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat, where she laid a wreath and kissed his stone grave.

She also received a hug from his successor Mahmoud Abbas and sat next to him, in a chair often used for visiting heads of state.

“Ahed Tamimi is a model for the Palestinian struggle to achieve freedom and independence,” Abbas said.

People like Ahed and the resident of Nabi Saleh have “proven to the world that our Palestinian people will remain steadfast on their land and stick to their rights, defending them regardless of the magnitude of sacrifices.”

“The popular resistance is the ideal weapon to confront the arrogance of the occupation and expose its barbarism in front of the whole world,” he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Ahed to congratulate her on her release. When she was 13, Ahed had breakfast with him in Turkey.

In the morning Beit Aryeh-Ofarim Regional Council head Avi Naim manned an almost solo protest against her release, as he stood near Route 455 with a large Israeli flag.

“The terrorist Tamimi is a product of a Palestinian education system that incites violence and terror. We are not afraid. We will continue to stand firm as a wall in the face such incitement,” Naim said.

But in Nabi Saleh, Ahed spoke of Israeli violence against the Palestinians and her anger at the Israeli media for the way it portrayed her family.

“I am boycotting the Israeli media because of how it attacked and defamed our family, and because of the policy that it has pursued consistently against us,” she said.

Ahed called for her supporters to continue to campaign for the release of Palestinians in Israeli jails, especially those who were minors.

Ahed sent a message of solidarity to the people of Gaza and to the Beduins in the West Bank herding village of Khan al-Ahmar who under threat of a forced IDF evacuation.

“Jerusalem is and will always be the capital of Palestine,” Ahed said.

She brought a message from the prisoners who called for “national unity inside Palestine,” for the Palestinians to remain strong and resistance and for the continued campaign for their freedom.

“I’m very happy that I’m back with my family. But this happiness is incomplete because my female and male prisoner sisters and brothers are still in prison,” Ahed said.

While in prison, she said, a class was formed to help prisoners like herself study for their matriculation exams. She had feared that her time in prison would keep her from taking the test and graduating with her class.

“We faced consistent threats and abuse from the Israeli occupation that tried to shut down the class,” Tamimi said.

Among the topics they studied was international law and human rights, she said.

I”As for my future plans, I want to complete my university studies. I want to study law so that I would be able to bring the case of my homeland to all international forums. I also want to speak about the case of the prisoners to the whole world and at international courts,” Ahed said.

“Women are a key part of the Palestinian struggle for freedom. The women’s role will continue to expand,” she said.

Her mother Nariman, who was also jailed for eight months also called for resistance.

“My message as a mother who’s daughter was in prison and whose son is still in prison, we should not fear for our children. They are the salt of the earth. Let them go ahead, let them do whatever they want. Our children are dying in their homes. At least let them die confronting the occupation to get rid of it. Our national and popular struggle is the way to achieve victory,” she said.

From 2010 to 2016, the residents of Nabi Saleh held almost weekly protests to demand an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. The marches would often lead to clashes with the IDF, that included Palestinian stone throwing IDF tear gas and rubbers bullets.

Ahed Tamimi’s family is heavily involved in such protests and her family members have been injured in them.

While those protests have been mostly disbanded, they erupted again in December 2017, after US President Donald Trump spoke of relocating the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Ahed slapped the soldiers during one of those clashes in her village, after learning that her cousin had been wounded with a shot to the head.