© Reuters
Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi enters a military courtroom escorted by Israeli security personnel as her lawyer Gaby Lasky (L) stands near, at Ofer Prison, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Feb. 13, 2018.
Ahed Tamimi was 16 years old when arrested and detained. Her crime against humanity is that with her bare hands she slapped an armed soldier.
Now 17 years old, Ahed is not yet an adult - by international definition. Following a
plea deal, she will spend eight months in prison.
The reality is that
Ahed is not imprisoned because she slapped a soldier but because she is a visible symbol of Palestinian resilience and the next generation of resistance which continues to prevent the lie that is the State of Israel being globally accepted as an inevitable truth.
A veritable David in battle with Goliath, fair hair flying, hailed as the lion of Palestine, Ahed, by international human rights standards, remains a young person denied her liberty in contravention of the international human rights obligations of the State of Israel.
She is entitled to the international protection afforded to children and young people: protection of her identity, including her national identity; protection of her liberty; of her life and family life; protection of her right to education.
She has been afforded none of these protections since the day she was born. She is the second generation of her family, the third of her nation to be so denied.
State violence against Ahed, her family and her people, continues to go unpunished and largely unchallenged by international duty bearers in this regard. It spans three generations and is a crime against humanity.
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