Ahed Tamimi: Palestinian teen gets eight-month jail term
The 17-year-old activist was arrested after footage emerged of her slapping an Israeli soldier
Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teenager filmed slapping an Israeli soldier in the West Bank, has been sentenced to eight months in jail after accepting a plea deal.
As part of the agreement, the 17-year-old activist pled guilty to four of the 12 charges she faced, including assault and incitement. She is due to be released in July as she has already served four months in prison.
A video of her hitting and kicking an armed soldier in the occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh went viral in December after being live-streamed on Facebook by her mother.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The teenager was later arrested in a dawn raid. Denied bail, she was tried behind closed doors in a military court.
During her trial, Tamimi said she attacked the soldier after seeing Israeli troops shoot her 15-year-old cousin in the head with a rubber bullet.
Tamimi has since become “a cause célèbre” in the Middle East with protesters and human rights organisations demanding her release, the Times of Israel reports.
To Palestinians, she is a freedom fighter and a symbol of the resistance to occupation, but Israeli politicians, including culture minister Miri Regev, have denounced her as a terrorist.
“She is not a little girl, she is a terrorist,” Regev said. “It’s about time they understood that people like her have to be in jail and [should] not be allowed to incite racism and subversion against the state of Israel.”
Palestinians face an almost 100 percent conviction rate in Israel’s military courts, leaving them with little hope of a fair trial, Al Jazeera reports.
Plea bargains are “the norm” in Israel’s military justice system, which is “characterised by prolonged pretrial detention, abuse of kids and sham trials,” says Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch.
“Hundreds of Palestinian children remain locked up with little attention on their cases,” he says.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Harriet Tubman made a general 161 years after raid
Speed Read She was the first woman to oversee an American military action during a time of war
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Chappell Roan is a new kind of boundary-setting celebrity
In the Spotlight She's calling out fans and the media for invasive behavior
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
Saudi crown prince slams Israeli 'genocide' in Gaza
Speed Read Mohammed bin Salman has condemned Israel’s actions
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Israel attacks Iran: a 'limited' retaliation
Talking Point Iran's humiliated leaders must decide how to respond to Netanyahu's measured strike
By The Week UK Published
-
Has the Taliban banned women from speaking?
Today's Big Question 'Rambling' message about 'bizarre' restriction joins series of recent decrees that amount to silencing of Afghanistan's women
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Cuba's energy crisis
The Explainer Already beset by a host of issues, the island nation is struggling with nationwide blackouts
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
The death of Hassan Nasrallah
In the Spotlight The killing of Hezbollah's leader is 'seismic event' in the conflict igniting in the Middle East
By The Week UK Published
-
Putin's fixation with shamans
Under the Radar Secretive Russian leader, said to be fascinated with occult and pagan rituals, allegedly asked for blessing over nuclear weapons
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Israel's suspected mobile device offensive pushes region closer to chaos
In the Spotlight After the mass explosion of pagers and walkie-talkies assigned to Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon, is all-out regional war next, or will Israel and its neighbors step back from the brink?
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Chimpanzees are dying of human diseases
Under the radar Great apes are vulnerable to human pathogens thanks to genetic similarity, increased contact and no immunity
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Deaths of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies hang over Sydney's Mardi Gras
The Explainer Police officer, the former partner of TV presenter victim, charged with two counts of murder after turning himself in
By Austin Chen, The Week UK Published