 |
| Ahed Tamimi, seen here in a file picture, was arrested in the early hours of December 19 (AFP Photo/THOMAS COEX) |
Jerusalem (AFP) - Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi left prison Sunday after an eight-month sentence for slapping two Israeli soldiers, an episode captured on video that made her a symbol of resistance for Palestinians, a prison service spokesman said.
Assaf
Librati told AFP Tamimi, 17, and her mother, who was also jailed over the
incident, were being driven by Israeli authorities from a prison inside Israel
to a checkpoint leading to the occupied West Bank, where they live.
"They
just left the prison," Librati said.
Israeli
authorities provided conflicting information on which checkpoint they were
being taken to.
They were
first expected to arrive at a checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Tulkarm
in the occupied West Bank, but there were later indications they would be taken
to a crossing at Rantis.
Both Tamimi
and her mother were sentenced to eight months in an Israeli military court
following a plea deal over the December incident which the family said took
place in their yard in Nabi Saleh in the West Bank.
Video of it
went viral, leading Palestinians to view her as a hero standing up to Israel's
occupation.
Her
now-familiar image has been painted on Israel's separation wall cutting off the
West Bank. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has praised her and social media
has been flooded with support.
But for
Israelis, Tamimi is being used by her activist family as a pawn in staged
provocations.
They point
to a series of previous such incidents involving her, with older pictures of
her confronting soldiers widely shared online.
Many
Israelis also praised the restraint of the soldiers, who remained calm
throughout, though others said her actions merited a tougher response.
Embassy
protests
Tamimi was
arrested in the early hours of December 19, four days after the incident. She
was 16 at the time.
Her mother
Nariman was also arrested, as was her cousin Nour, who was freed in March.
Israel's military
said the soldiers were in the area on the day of the incident to prevent
Palestinians from throwing stones at Israeli motorists.
The video
shows the cousins approaching two soldiers and telling them to leave before
shoving, kicking and slapping them.
Ahed Tamimi
is the most aggressive of the two in the video.
The heavily
armed soldiers do not respond in the face of what appears to be an attempt to
provoke rather than seriously harm them.
They then
move backwards after Nariman Tamimi becomes involved.
The scuffle
took place amid clashes and protests against US President Donald Trump's
controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Relatives
say that a member of the Tamimi family was wounded in the head by a rubber
bullet fired during those protests.
Asked in an interview with AFP if she had a message for Israelis who think of her as a "terrorist", Tamimi said she would ask them to "put themselves in my place, just that, nothing more"https://t.co/5AFFdg45db— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 30, 2018
VIDEO: Palestinian teenager #AhedTamimi holds a press conference after serving eight months in prison for slapping Israeli soldiers, an episode that made her a symbol of resistance for Palestinians pic.twitter.com/fdilm2P6Fd— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 30, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.