"Let's Punish the Israelis" 'Palestinian Joan of Arc' Arrested

22-Year-Old Ahed Tamimi Arrested
Family Appeals "Not Tamimi's Account"

The Israeli military announced on the 6th (local time) that it had arrested Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi (22) on charges of inciting terrorism. Tamimi's mother denied that her daughter had ever engaged in such incitement.

According to the American daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and AFP news agency, Tamimi, a Palestinian activist, has been praised as a 'Joan of Arc' since her teenage years. Tamimi was arrested by the Israeli military in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh in the Palestinian Autonomous Region and was transferred for further interrogation.

Tamimi waiting to give a speech at a rally calling for justice for Palestinians in London, UK, on May 11, 2019.
[Photo by AFP Yonhap News Archive]

According to local Israeli military media, the military claimed, "Tamimi is suspected of inciting violence and encouraging terrorist activities," and "she wrote provocative (Instagram) posts calling for the killing of settlers and saying that what Hitler did was not enough."

However, her mother, Nariman Tamimi, claimed that her daughter does not have an Instagram account. She also told WSJ that the account in question does not belong to Tamimi. She added that more than 12 Israeli soldiers raided their home at night and arrested her daughter.

Some Israeli media outlets released screenshots of Instagram posts from an account containing Tamimi's name and photo. The posts reportedly threatened to "massacre" Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Foreign media searched for the 'ahed_tamimi15' account, from which the provocative posts were said to have been made, on Instagram but could not find it, and the authenticity of the images could not be verified. The Israeli military did not comment on the photos.

Tamimi is known as the ‘Joan of Arc of Palestine’ and is regarded as a symbol of the Palestinian resistance movement.

Tamimi's mother, Nariman Tamimi, is holding a picture frame with a portrait of her daughter at home and participating in an interview.
[Photo by AFP Yonhap News]

When she was 16 in 2017, she was first arrested for protesting near her home in the West Bank and was charged with punching and kicking Israeli soldiers. She served an eight-month prison sentence before being released.

Images of the teenage Tamimi confronting armed Israeli soldiers with her bare fists spread online, and she subsequently became an icon of Palestinian resistance against Israel.

Foreign media reported that hundreds of Palestinians have been detained in the past month since the war between Israel and Hamas began, and Tamimi is one of them.

Following news of Tamimi's arrest, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's far-right Minister of National Security, praised the military that arrested Tamimi on his X (formerly Twitter) account and condemned her as a “terrorist.”