Israel arrests Ahed Tamimi in West Bank raid: Who’s she?

The Israeli army said on Monday it had arrested prominent 22-year-old Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi during a raid in the occupied West Bank.

“Ahed Tamimi was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorist activities in the town of Nabi Salih” near the city of Ramallah, an army spokesman was quoted as saying by AFP.

“Tamimi was transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning.”

The activist was arrested during an Israeli army raid “aimed at apprehending individuals suspected of being involved in terrorist activities and incitement to hatred” in the north of the West Bank, the spokesman added.

Who is Ahed Tamimi?

Ahed Tamimi, a 22-year-old Palestinian girl, became famous at age 14 when she was filmed biting an Israeli soldier to prevent him from arresting her brother who had his arm in a cast.

She was arrested in 2017 for slapping two Israeli soldiers in the courtyard of her family home in the West Bank as she asked them to leave.

She spent eight months in an Israeli prison. By the time she got out, the feisty blue-eyed teen with the wild mane of golden curls had been transformed into an icon of the Palestinian resistance movement.

She has become an icon of the Palestinian cause and a large portrait of her has been painted on the Israeli separation wall with the West Bank in Bethlehem near Jerusalem.

Ahed grew up in Nabi Saleh, a small village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank about 30 minutes north of Jerusalem. In 2008, Israeli settlers from a new nearby settlement, Halamish, took control of a freshwater spring on land that had belonged to the Palestinian residents for generations.

Ahed’s father Bassem started organizing weekly protest marches to the spring. Depending on the day, Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists participated in the demonstrations, but they often ended in clashes between Israeli soldiers and protesters.

Sometimes protesters threw rocks, to which soldiers responded with tear gas, stun grenades, water cannons, rubber bullets, and sometimes live ammunition. Israeli military officials also regularly raided the villagers’ homes and arrested hundreds of people in connection to the protests, including scores of children.