Confrontations and conflicts between Palestine and Israel have been arising for years, especially when it comes to Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians.
Ever since Israeli soldiers moved into Palestinian territories, it’s been a long fight about who gets what land or who has the right over territories.
Older and younger generations of Palestinians’ confront the soldiers and even get into fights with them.
One advocacy group estimated that approximately 375 Palestinians between the ages of 12 and 17 were under Israeli military detention in 2016, often on charges of stone throwing.
Many young Palestinians have been charged for attacking soldiers or for protesting, but not many of them become internet famous. However, one of them did get famous and her name is Ahed Tamimi.
Who is she?
Tamimi is a 16-year-old Palestinian activist and native to Nabi Saleh, a village in West Back. She is best known for her appearances in images and videos in which she confronts Israeli soldiers.
Her supporters consider her as a symbol of resistance against Israeli soldiers. They consider her as a child hero and a freedom fighter, despite some arguments against her that she’s a troublemaker, too violent, or that her acts are fake.
In December 2017, she faced a dozen charges from Israeli authorities for slapping an Israeli soldier during an overnight raid on her home in the occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on a video that went viral all over the web.
The video was surprising in my opinion. The video showed Ahed, who was standing with her cousin pushing two armed soldiers and telling them to “get out” of the area surrounding her home.
After one soldier attempts to swat Ahed away with his arm, she responds by kicking and slapping him. The soldier dodges, but doesn’t retaliate. Soon after, Ahed’s mother, Nariman Tamimi, intervenes, urging the soldiers to leave.
Tamimi, her mother, and cousin were arrested that day because of assaulting the Israeli soldiers. The Israeli authorities charged them for their action and they been taken to jail right away.
Altogether, Tamimi faces a total of 12 charges, including incitement and throwing stones.
What is she fighting for?
Tamimi is fighting against Israeli authorities, along with other Palestinians protesters because they opposed the expansion of Jewish settlements and detention of Palestinians. They are really opposed to those who enforce Israeli occupation. Israeli occupation is Israeli armed forces are taking over Palestine territories.
Tamimi and other Palestinians are fighting to keep their home and want their freedom from Israeli authorities.
Tamimi also wants a place where she can go to school and play sports. In her interview with Mondoweiss , she said, she likes to play soccer and she wants to be a lawyer when she grows up.
Also, one of the soldiers shot her cousin in a riot and arrested her brother. She confronted many soldiers because of them and the things that are going on in her hometown.
She is trying to save her home from Israeli occupation, along with other Palestinians. Also, she’s fighting to keep Palestinians children away from the detention center, since many of them always go there due to many reasons.
But is the way she’s handling things right?
Does she deserve justice?
I believe this is a complicated problem because there are many things going on in this situation. For one, I’m against the Israeli occupation because it’s taking away many Palestinians home and getting them arrested for fighting for their home.
In a situation like this, most people wouldn’t tolerate this and sometimes the only way to keep your home is to fight for it.
But, is Tamimi hitting the soldier the right thing? Most people believe what Tamimi did was wrong and she acted very horribly. Also, the soldier didn’t retaliate, which made him look better in the video when Tamimi was hitting him.
However, the video didn’t capture the soldier shooting her cousin and trying to invade her home. Also, no one is talking about it that particular situation. Everything from that video looks one sided and that Tamimi is at fault here.
I don’t condone violence at all and I do believe there are better ways of handling a resistance or a confrontation.
But, if someone came for my family, I’m obviously going to protect them to the best of my ability. And maybe, it’s going to be violent, but I’ll do anything to protect my family from harm whatsoever, no matter who the person is.
It’s okay to protest your beliefs and rights but, it’s better to do it in a peaceful way and peaceful protests have worked before in history. So, maybe it can still work today.
However, I don’t think Tamimi is wrong for hitting the soldier because she did that for her cousin. If the soldier didn’t attack interfere with her, then hitting him would reflect poorly on her.
As Tamimi stated, her actions are toward protecting her home and with that I believe she deserves justice.
Also, the whole Israeli occupation of territories is wrong. Israeli soldiers should leave Palestinians alone and let them have their freedom. It’s not right that they are watching them 24/7, bothering them, and invading their homes.
Israel and Palestine government should work together and create a policy where lands can be disputed evenly among them, then no one has to fight over it anymore and no one will get hurt either. It’s a better solution and they need to do something quick about it before someone else gets hurt during a riot or protest.