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.
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.
-
5 vengefully funny cartoons about punishing Trump's political enemiesCartoons Artists take on vengeance in a shutdown, the hounds of Pam Bondi, and more
-
Political cartoons for October 18Cartoons Saturday's editorial cartoons include conversion therapy, Russ Vought, and more
-
President Trump: ‘waging war’ on ChicagoTalking Point Federal agents are carrying out ‘increasingly aggressive’ immigration raids – but have sanctuary cities like Chicago brought it on themselves?
-
Gaza’s reconstruction: the steps to rebuildingIn The Spotlight Even the initial rubble clearing in Gaza is likely to be fraught with difficulty and very slow
-
Sanae Takaichi: Japan’s Iron Lady set to be the country’s first woman prime ministerIn the Spotlight Takaichi is a member of Japan’s conservative, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party
-
‘Extraordinary asymmetry’: the history of Israeli prisoner swapsIn The Spotlight Exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian detainees is the latest in a series of trades in which Israeli lives appear to count for more
-
Israel and Hamas meet on hostages, Trump’s planSpeed Read Hamas accepted the general terms of Trump’s 20-point plan, including the release of all remaining hostages
-
Netanyahu agrees to Trump’s new Gaza peace planSpeed Read At President Trump's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they agreed upon a plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza
-
Russia is ‘helping China’ prepare for an invasion of TaiwanIn the Spotlight Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
-
Israel and the Gaza flotillaThe Explainer Activists fear loss of life after blaming Israel for drone attacks on ships
-
Interpol arrests hundreds in Africa-wide sextortion crackdownIN THE SPOTLIGHT A series of stings disrupts major cybercrime operations as law enforcement estimates millions in losses from schemes designed to prey on lonely users
