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Overview
- On December 15, 2017, Palestinians in the village of Nabi Saleh (northwest of Ramallah) held their “weekly riot.” During the riot local Palestinians documented two girls aggressively taunting and provoking IDF soldiers. In the video one of the girls is seen kicking and punching two soldiers. The soldiers exercised restraint and did not respond to the provocation. Apparently the video was staged by the Palestinians for purposes of anti-Israeli propaganda in the hopes the soldiers would respond to the provocation and use force to detain the girls. A number of days after the video was filmed it was uploaded to the Internet and social networks.
The two girls in the video who taunted and tried to provoke the IDF soldiers were Ahed Tamimi, 17, from the village of Nabi Saleh, and her cousin, Nur Tamimi, 21. Ahed Tamimi is the daughter of Bassem Tamimi, a prominent Palestinian figure (with the so-called “popular resistance”) in the village of Nabi Saleh. It was not the first time Ahed Tamimi was documented taunting and aggressively trying to provoke IDF soldiers. The Tamimi clan and their daughter Ahed have a long history of provocations during clashes with the Israeli security forces.Two years ago she was filmed biting a soldier who had come to detain her brother during one of the weekly riots in Nabi Saleh. In another instance she was filmed screaming at a member of the Israeli security forces in an attempt to make him lose his tempter.
- A few days after the current event Ahed Tamimi and her mother were detained and taken for interrogation by the Israeli security forces. He father wrote on his Facebook page that the IDF forces “invaded his house” and detained his daughter after the Israeli media “attacked” her. He claimed the soldiers had stolen their telephones, cameras and laptops and struck his wife and children. He appealed, “Release Ahed Tamimi” (Facebook page of Bassem Tamimi, December 16, 2017).
The Tamimi clan and Ahed Tamimi’s previous provocations
- Ahed Bassem Tamimi, 17, is the daughter of a family well-known for its anti-Israeli activities. Her father, Bassem Tamimi, was detained nine times, her mother five times, and her brother was also detained. Two of her uncles were killed by IDF fire. According to her father, she has participated in all the anti-Israeli activities in the village since she was four years old (Nabi Saleh has been one of the focal points for the weekly riots held to protest the border security fence since 2009). He said it was the first time she had been detained although in the past she had been taken for interrogation many times. According to Palestinian sources, Ahed Tamimi was wounded three times by rubber bullets, and broke her arm in one of the anti-Israel clashes (Palinfo and the Watan new agency, December 19, 2017).
- The clan runs a news agency called Tamimi Press, which focuses on documenting the weekly riots in Nabi Saleh. Ahed Tamimi (like other clan members) has had a starring role as a Palestinian “propaganda child” (and later, as a young woman) symbolizing the clashes against IDF soldiers.
![The home page of the Tamimi Press website, the Tamimi family news agency[1].](http://israelbehindthenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/word-image-1513855486291.png "The home page of the Tamimi Press website, the Tamimi family news agency[1].")
The home page of the Tamimi Press website, the Tamimi family news agency[1].
- Ahed Tamimi first came to public attention in August 2012, when she was twelve, crying with her arms held behind her by an IDF soldier after her mother had been detained. After the incident she, her mother and her sister were invited to the office of Mahmoud Abbas, who regards the riots in Nabi Saleh as an expression of the “popular resistance,” which he supports (including instances when the “popular resistance” turned into popular terrorism).
Mahmoud Abbas meets with Ahed Tamimi, her mother, Nariman, and her sister (Wafa, August 26, 2017).
- A few months after that incident, in November 2012, a video of Ahed Tamimi was published showing her at one of the riots in Nabi Saleh. She is seen cursing and striking IDF soldiers. The video went viral and she became world-famous. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, who was impressed by the pictures, invited her and her mother to visit Turkey and met with them. During their visit to Turkey he awarded her a “prize for courage” at a ceremony held in Istanbul (al-Anadolu News, December 20, 2012).
Ahed Tamimi threatens an IDF soldier (al-Anadolu News, December 30, 2012).
Right: Ahed Tamimi meets with the prime minister of Turkey (al-Anadolu News, December 30, 2017).
Left: Ahed Tamimi receives a prize for courage at a ceremony held in Istanbul(al-Anadolu News, December 27, 2017).
In November 2015 later Ahed Tamimi was again documented clashing with IDF soldiers during a riot where her brother Muhammad threw stones at the Israeli security forces. When a soldier tried to detain her brother, she and other women from the Tamimi clan attacked him. Thus another picture of Ahed Tamimi biting a soldier went viral. After the incident the family again met with Mahmoud Abbas.
- After the publicity she was often sought for interviews and also went on a number of propaganda speaking tours. The speaking tour she wanted to hold in the United States was cancelled because she was refused an entrance visa (according to an anti-Israeli blog called Fig Tree and Vineyards, December 18, 2016).
Promo for the (cancelled) speaking tour in the United States (the Fig Tree and Vineyards blog, December 18, 2016).
Other pictures documenting Ahed Tamimi provoking IDF soldiers
(Twitter account of Ahed Tamimi, December 6, 2015).
(Twitter account of Ahed Tamimi, December 5, 2015).
[1] In the upper left-hand corner of the picture the letters ISM appear, which stand for the International Solidarity Movement. It is a network originating with far leftist activists in the United States and is incorporated into the campaign to delegitimize Israel. ISM activists took part in demonstrations and riots against Israel in Judea and Samaria (along with far leftist activists and anarchists around the globe). Among other locations, they also operated in Nabi Saleh, one of the villages that became a symbol of the so-called “popular resistance” (For further information see the ITIC December 12, 2010 bulletin, “The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a network founded by extreme American leftists and part of the campaign to delegitimize Israel,” http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/17984/ ↑
