The Lioness of Palestine

Imagine a village, a small community of a few hundred people. Imagine a young girl who has known violence and death since she was born.   Pictures show this beautiful girl with defiance written all over her, her eyes, stance with straight, even  with hair looked defiant.

 

Many in that village have families, brothers; sisters; cousins; aunts; uncles; grandparents, neighbours & friends live in peace. Side by side, they work together; celebrate together; mourn together; laugh together; love together. Everyone knows everyone. It’s a tight knit community where people take care of each other. These are people who have lived together as a community for as long as they remember. They are welcoming, friendly people. They also have resolve and determination. The occupation is something they will never forget. For some, this is the all they know, to be occupied by a country that has taken their land, pens them in like animals, arrests them without cause, steal lqnd from them them and pen them in like livestock putting them under military order, refusing to let them move beyond their town. Their children are whisked away  in the middle of the night.e Israeli Occupation force comes to their town on a regular basis. They come to arrest the fathers, the sons, the mothers and the daughters. The are shot at wThith rubber bullets and real rounds of ammunition. Tear gas is thrown at them, dropped in open windows.  They are injured, and they are murdered. The settlers, many from countries thousands away, claim their right to the land they live on, farm on  see the beauty that surrounds them. They also steal their land, threaten them, ridicule them, take their homes without notice. They also are shot at. Their children have rocks thrown at them. They are a cruel, heartless people. They claim to be God’s chosen people. Their God, would certainly not tell them to eradicate another people. They target anyone, regardless if they are old, infirm, men, women and children. From their land, cut off from the outside, the can see a wall and the Halamish settlement the sits uphill. This was land that once belonged to them and is now occupied by another people. The IDF is ever present, especially on Fridays. The people of Nabi Saleh will resist. Their purpose is to resist against this brutal occupation. Israel though has taken more off than it can choose. They underestimated these people. These people will never forget and they resist this occupation with every fibre of their being. They will not go quietly into the night. 

Ahed Tamimi as born into a belligerent occupation. She was born to a family that she loved and they loved her. She has spent her entire life in the village of Nabi Salih, a small village in the West Bank. She has known nothing but harassment, cruelty, violence, racism and the murder of her loved ones and people she had known her entire life. She also knows how to resist. She will resist with every fibre in her body. She is a hero. 

She came by it honestly. The village of Nabi Saleh has held weekly demonstrations every Friday since December 2009 organized by Ahed her father. Bassem Tamimi, a grassroots organizer.  He was 10 weeks old when the occupation began. All he has known is the occupation of his village since 1967, after the illegal 1967 Six Day War . Bassem has be quoted say he and his children “have known only a life of checkpoints, identity papers, detentions, house demolitions, intimidation, humiliation and violence”.¹ Bassem has been arrested over 12 times by the IDF and has spent a considerable amount of time in Israel’s prisons. 

In 2009, the settlers from the nearby Halamish settlement (est. 1976) had confiscated a spring and surrounding area. They promptly renamed the spring and surrounding land “Maayan Meir” in honour of a  settler who had died. Their objective was to establish a spa for the settlement. The protests were a response to the confiscation of the spring, as well as the broader, ongoing annexation of their land.

The destination of the demonstrators isn’t far,  just a few hundred metres to the spring and back. The demonstrators never reach their destination. The IDF intervenes using rubber bullets, tear gas grenades, live ammunition and thing the can use to prevent the march going forward. The protest never reaches its destination. The march always begins as a peaceful demonstration and by the time it’s over, blood has been spilled. There are the injured and sometimes the dead. There are arrests, even of children. The IDF’s role never changes. It could be a script. The same actors, the same plot.

Ahed is fierce. She never backs down and always confronts her persecutors. She often raises her fist in defiance, in the past she bit an IDF soldier in defense of her brother, she is a force of nature.

The Slap

On December 15, 2017, during a protest, Ahed’s cousin, Mohammed Tamimi was shot with a rubber bullet (the rubber encloses a steel bullet) in the head. He was seriously wounded.

After the incident, Ahed, along with her mother and others, slapped an IDF officer. The slap, along with kicking, pushing and slapping by Ahad, her cousin Nour and her mother was filmed.

On December 19, 2017 Ahed, as well as her mother and cousin were arrested by the IDF. Not only was Ahead charged with throwing stones, assault and incitement. In April 2018, Ahed pled guilty to  a count of incitement, one count of assault  and two counts for obstructing justice from a previous incident. She received an 8 month sentence.

Ahed stands, always holding her head high and stares into the eyes of her persecutors. She refuses to lower her eyes or avert her gaze. She always speaks her truth regardless of consequence. She stands up to the agents of death and destruction, her persecutors who injure, kill and destroys her community, her home. She will never stop resisting the occupation, the injustices and the losses. Ahed has been an inspiration for not only Palestinians, but all over the world, especially women. She has become the face of the resistance. She is rebellion, she is courage, she is inspirational, she is selfless.

She is the Lioness of Palestine

¹ Sherwood, Harriet (2 January 2018). “Palestinian 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi is the latest child victim of Israel’s occupation”. The Guardian. Archived from the original on 3 April 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2019.