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Israel arrests Palestinian teen who forced them off her land

The #FreeAhed campaign has been launched in support of the 16-year-old who was taken from her home

December 19, 2017 at 12:55 pm

A 16-year-old Palestinian girl was arrested early this morning after a video of her telling Israeli soldiers to leave her property went viral, according to Haaretz.

Female Border Police and Israeli occupation forces took Ahed Tamimi from her home in Nabi Saleh, near occupied Ramallah, and was taken to be questioned, the army said in a statement.

The video, filmed amid ongoing protests last Friday, shows Tamimi along with two other women, telling two armed Israeli soldiers to remove themselves from her property. Israeli soldiers had reportedly shot at children throwing stones from a house in the neighbourhood and prevented the family from re-entering their home. Neighbours joined the scene in an attempt to force the soldiers to leave.

After they refuse, Tamimi can be seen attempting to push the soldiers off her land. They later detain her for assaulting military officers, a crime which carries up to seven years imprisonment.

Human rights groups and activists have since launched the #FreeAhed campaign online.

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett told Army Radio this morning that he believed the young girls in the video “should finish their lives in prison”.

Read: Israel settler who killed Palestinian farmer acted in ‘self-defence’

Tamimi’s father Bassem took to Facebook to record the incident and told of how his home was raided and their phones, cameras and laptops stolen following his daughter’s arrest.

This is the post from Tamimi’s father Bassem which explains the incident. It has now been removed from Facebook.

“The IOF [Israeli occupying forces] raid my home and arrested my daughter Ahed Tamimi after the Israeli media attaks [sic] here after she stop the solder [sic] in front of our house when he shot child on his head,” the status read.

Tamimi has stood up against Israeli aggression multiple times in the past, attending protests and preventing soldiers from arresting a 12-year-old boy in her hometown of Nabi Saleh in 2015.

https://twitter.com/AhedALTamimi/status/729777000345436161

Israeli occupation forces have arrested 430 Palestinians and wounded more than 3,400 others in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and the besieged Gaza Strip since US President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Yesterday, the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in Britain warned that the Israeli occupation forces are using lethal force to confront the protests, including the use of internationally prohibited lethal weapons and ammunition that have caused serious casualties.

Read: Israel extends Palestinian boy’s detention period