Current Affairs - MAHAMAG Magazine beyond boundaries

Ahed Tamin – Palestinian Struggle gets a teenage woman leader

Ahed Tamimi, a teenager aged 21, hit the headline for her resistance and struggle against Israel authorities. This 16 year-old Palestinian girl was nabbed in the middle of the night from her home by Israeli authorities.

The incident behind her arrest happened a day before when Israeli soldiers entered her family’s backyard and shot her cousin in the head with a rubber bullet. They even fired tear gas canisters at their home. Later her mother Narima Tamim, 43, and her cousin Nour Naji Tamimi, 21 were arrested. The real provocation was the circulation of video which includes Ahed, protesting

against the US decision to recognized and approve Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and also agreeing on the illegal occupation of Israel.

Another important development was that Israel’s Education minister Naftali Bennett’s statement that Ahed could face seven years in prison for her doing.

Change.org started a mass petition demanding Ahed’s release which is blatant human rights violations. She was brought to the court handcuffed and it sparked a row. Change.org also demanded that all children of Palestine who are in Israeli jails

to be set free. Latest figures reveal that 1. 7 million people have signed an online petition demanding Ahed Tamin’s release. She is now apparently a symbol of resistance even though many in Israel consider as a menace.

She in fact has all the potential to be a game-changer in the struggle. As the mass petition is garnering more signatures, and many see her as a brave girl who hit two armed soldiers outside her home when she came to witness the bullet injury of her 15-year-old cousin.

Even though the two soldiers restrained from hitting back, what now turns counter-productive is Israel’s prosecution of the teenage girl. However, Israeli authorities are really worried on how the situation is developing and Ahed being promoted as a poster girl for the Palestinian struggle.

Al Jazeeera pondered on the fact why Ahed is not receiving support from western feminists groups and human

rights activists like Pakistan’s Children’s activist Malala Yousufzai. After the attack on Malala by Taliban, she was lavished with support and praises from western feminists groups and international organizations and in 2014 she received Nobel Peace Prize; she was the youngest to receive the same.

Gruesome human rights violations in Palestinian areas continue, oppression also continues, more such leaders are born out of this resistance. Ahed Tamin is already a leader in her own way among scores of people around the world. Bonnie Basil