How Palestine's Tamimi Family Resists Israel's Occupation
By
Real News
January 10, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- Israeli forces have killed three of its
family members and arrested scores of
others, including 16-year old Ahed, but the
Tamimi family continues its non-violent
struggle for Palestinian freedom. We speak
to Manal Tamimi about her recent
imprisonment and her family's defiant
activism
AARON
MATÉ: It's the Real News. I'm Aaron Maté. In
recent weeks, people around the world have
learned of Palestinian resilience through
the plight of the Tamimi family in the
occupied West Bank. For years, the Tamimis
have led protest against the Israeli
occupation and theft of Palenstinian land.
Then last month, 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi
became a global symbol of resistance when
she was arrested for slapping an Israeli
soldier who was trespassing on her property.
Just earlier, Ahed's cousin, Mohammed Tamimi,
was shot in the face, leaving him in a coma.
Ahed remains in Israeli military prison and
is charged with multiple counts of assault.
Then last week, Israeli forces shot dead
Ahed's 17-year-old cousin, Musab Tamimi, at
a protest in the West Bank. As he was laid
to rest, just before, Israel released
another cousin, Noor Tamimi, on bail.
Joining me now is Manal Tamimi. She was also
arrested last week at a protest calling for
her relatives' release. Welcome, Manal.
Thank you so much for joining us. It's hard
to know where to start, given how much has
happened to your family, but let's start
with your own case. You were arrested at a
protest calling for the release of Ahed,
Noor, and Ahed's mother. What happened to
you?
MANAL TAMIMI: First, I want to thank you for
giving me the chance to talk about what's
really going on with our family and in the
village. Actually what happened that we
decide to make ... we made a protest. First,
in solidarity with Ahed and Nariman, because
they had the trial in Ofer prison, which is
the only Israeli prison in the West Bank,
and then also in solidarity with female
prisoners in the Israeli prison.
After nearly two or three minutes of
beginning the protest, actually it was
gathering, and suddenly they began to shoot
tear gas at us and one of the soldiers, she
came to me, and she asked me to go back.
When I refused, she immediately arrested me
without any justification or without even
warning, and then they told me that I tried
to ... I attacked this soldier and that I
was organizing illegal activity in a closed
military zone.
AARON MATÉ: What happened to you after you
were taken to prison, after you were
arrested?
MANAL TAMIMI: After, when she took me back
to the Ofer prison, and there we were away
from the media and the cameras, they began,
and she began to beat me, and I had bleeding
in the jaw that I all the time in the prison
I was very sick, and I was under extreme
pain, and then they took me to interrogation
where they kept me the whole night until
12:30 at night, outside, in cold. They took
me inside for interrogation. Then they took
me back, took me outside in the cold, and
without food, without the water, without
anything. And by the end of the
interrogation they sent me to Hasharon
prison where Nariman and I reached the
prison around 4:00 in the morning, and then
after that the trial began. I had two
trials. I had to go back to Ofer prison,
which is around three hours from Hasharon.
Hasharon, it's in Netanya and inside
occupied [inaudible 00:04:31] and the Ofer
is in West Bank in the Ramallah area.
We, of course, just going to there from one
prison to another, it's a torture because
they put you in a bus made of cells, metal,
with metal chair. You can't move or without
... The cell is very small that you can't
move, and it's black without windows or
anything, and they took us from Hasharon at
2:30 in the morning, and we were back at
12:00 at night. The next day is the same. At
2:30 in the morning, we have to leave to the
court and go back [inaudible 00:05:21], so
it simply it's exhausting, and in the same
time they, in this buses during the taking
us to the court, they put us with the
Israeli criminals -- men, not women -- in
the same place. So this is also where
terrifying because most of them are ...
Well, one of them, he was drunk and he was
fight. I think he had the drug or something,
and he all the time he was trying to attack
us and it was so scary and all the time we
were terrified that one of them can attack
us.
AARON MATÉ: As you were released, your
cousin, Musab Tamimi, he was shot dead in
the occupied West Bank at a protest. He was
17 years old.
MANAL TAMIMI: Yes.
AARON MATÉ: If I have this right, if I have
this correct, he is the third member of your
family to be killed by Israeli forces. Can
you tell us about him, and were you able to
go to his funeral?
MANAL TAMIMI: Actually, Musab, he was killed
while I was in prison. I was back from the
prison clinic because I was very sick, and
we were watching TV, and suddenly I saw him
on the TV saying that Musab Tamimi, he was
shot and killed. Of course, this is one of
the most difficult experiences anybody could
go through to see your cousin and his blood
on TV while you don't understand what's
going on and what's happening, and you will
think about the other, what happened with
[inaudible 00:07:20].
So then at night, I was released then the
... Musab, he was an active young man. He
has many dreams want to come true. He wanted
to study. He was so clever. He was this kind
of person who loved life to that end, and
always he was ... They used to live in
Jordan, and they just came back to Palestine
a few months ago, so he was so happy that
finally he is in his country among his
family with his people. But a sniper, well,
he shot him, and it was clear that it ...
It's assassination. It's not a random
shooting. By the way, the bullet went in his
[inaudible 00:08:21]. Of course, one of
them, the difficult times we are facing with
the attack, the rest of the women, the
attack at the village, but Musab, he's the
third member of my family who was killed the
non-violent resistance that we began in
2009, but actually 22 Tamimi has been killed
since 1976 until now, during the resisting
the occupation.
AARON MATÉ: Manal, can you tell us about
that, these protests that your family has
been involved in for years now against the
Israeli theft of your land and water
sources? This is not something that began
recently, and this is something that goes on
on a weekly basis. Can you just explain to
us, for people who aren't familiar with what
your family has done to defend your land in
the occupied territories?
MANAL TAMIMI: Actually we are resisting
since the beginning of occupation, but our
organized resistance, it began in the ninth
of December 2009. After we lost two-thirds
of the village land, due to the settlement,
expansion. The settlement, it's called
Halamish, and it's been built in 1976, after
the settler took over British police
stations, since the British men did, and
since that time, they began to expand the
settlement, and they began to get land under
different justification, either that natural
expansion for the settlement or for the
clearing of state land or a closed military
zone. So every time they change the excuse
but always it's about the thefting of the
land.
So in 2009, when they took the spring, we
decide that we have to begin our nonviolent,
organized protest in the village. What we
mainly wanted to do is to march toward the
spring and [inaudible 00:10:51] there and
planting new trees and just to ensure that
this is a Palestinian land, not [inaudible
00:11:01]. But the Israeli response were
very violent. They began to use different
kinds of tear gas, which contain white
phosphorus, nerve gas, and other chemicals
of this kind. They began to use live
ammunition and steel-coated bullets, the
same kind that they shot Mohammed, that they
two weeks ago, and he was so lucky that he
survived.
Never Miss Another Story |
Also,
skunk water which is a chemical substance
mixed with water with a very bad smell, like
dead animals, the smell, and they tried to
hose you with this [inaudible 00:11:44]
water [inaudible 00:11:48] was the intention
that [inaudible 00:11:52] because we already
have problems with water. We only have 12
hours a week water.
Since 2009 until now, the village count is
650 residents. 550 of them have been
injured, and 215 have been arrested,
including 44 child and 10 women. We have 12
demolition orders and also 38 houses
partially burned of gas canister. So all
this or this collective punishment for the
village, just because of the choice of
non-violent resistance, just people who
trying to march or express their opinion
peacefully, children, men, women. So there's
no need for such a force to stop us. Of
course, the worst thing about this that we
have to lose or we lost Rushdi, who was 30
years old, and he has a three years old
daughter, Mustafa, who was 28 years old and
recently Musab who's 17, and another guy who
was 80, and he's from a nearby village, but
he was shot and killed in the village during
one of the protests.
AARON MATÉ: And Mohammed, your 15-year-old
cousin, as you say, almost lost his life,
was left in a coma.
MANAL TAMIMI: Yeah.
AARON MATÉ: And let's hear from him. He
recently spoke to the Israeli newspaper,
Haaretz, in a video, and he told his story
of what happened.
Mohammed Tamimi: When we got to the villa, I
stood up on the wall, and I didn't know that
the army was there. I didn't see a single
soldier, and then the soldier shot me, and I
lost consciousness. They took us to Beit
Rema hospital nearby. They didn't know what
to do with me, and they didn't do anything,
so they took me to a hospital in Ramallah
where they operated on me for six hours. I
didn't get up for a week afterwards because
of the pain in my head. Because of what
happened to my head, I can't leave my house
for six months for school or to go into
town. This is because I don't have a skull
here in my head.
AARON MATÉ: So that's 15-year-old Mohammed
Tamimi telling his story of what happened to
him. Now, it was after he was shot in the
face and left in a coma that Ahed Tamimi
heard this news, was distraught, and when an
Israeli soldier trespassed on her property,
that's when she was seen slapping him. Manal,
let me ask you, you're describing these
years of nonviolent Palenstinian resistance
that your family's been involved in, and
here in the West we're supposed to revere
nonviolence. We hear often about questions
of Palestinians, "Why aren't Palestinian's
non-violent," but the reaction to Ahed
Tamimi and your family has not been
overwhelmingly positive. I mean even for
those who acknowledge what happened, we get
headlines like this.
So I want to read you a couple of headlines
from U.S. media, okay? The first one is from
CNN, and it says, "Ahed Tamimi, Palenstinian
heroine or dedicated troublemaker?" Okay,
and the next one from Newsweek says ... This
is Newsweek, and it says, "Despite her age,
Ahed Tamimi has a long history of assault
against police and soldiers." So Manal, I'm
just wondering your reaction. When you hear
that, when you hear that that's how some
Western media outlets are portraying your
family, your thoughts?
MANAL TAMIMI: First, I feel sorry that this
media, it's obviously that they are
brainwashed and they are adopting the
Israeli story, and either they're not
preparing or they didn't ask what's really
happening. Ahed, she never went to a
settlement, so threatening settlers is lie.
She never went to inside [inaudible
00:16:36] to try to bomb herself or ... All
the incidents, all the videos that you saw,
for most of it or all of it, it's in the
village, and it's in the front of her house.
It's in her property or in her [inaudible
00:16:53]. So actually they are the one
who's storming the village, threatening our
lives, put our children lives in danger, and
they want us just to say hi for them or just
to keep silent without doing anything, which
is impossible.
Anybody in the world, any person who feels
that his children in danger or he feels that
he cannot lose one of his family members,
his normal reaction will be the same
reaction that Ahed did. She didn't do
anything. We, all of us, we thought that
Mohammed, he died and he lost his life, and
it's one of the most difficult moment after
the death of Rushdi and Mustafa, and saw
dying in front of us. The whole village saw
them dying, and it was everything or with
all the force that Israeli authority is
using against us, it's very difficult to
think that we're going to lose another
member of the family. So it was a very
normal reaction, and [inaudible 00:18:03]
she's a child. She's not ... She's still a
teenager, and she shouldn't be treated this
way.
Israel, they was ... In the West Bank, we
are living under the military law and they
legitimize arresting children from 11 years
up, and they can put them in jail for life,
and there is another law that they can put
children for up to 20 years for throwing
rocks only. In the time that the Israeli or
the settler child would living in the same
area around only 500 meters from us, they
are allowed to throw rocks. They are allowed
to threatening our lives, and they are ...
they will be treated under the civilian law.
This is not a democratic state. It will
never be ... It's not democratic so these
two children in the same place different
law. One to call him a terrorist, a
criminal, and other one to call him a
victim.
So I hope that people, they won't listen to
this media, and they can [inaudible
00:19:31] they can go to Nabi Saleh, or go
[inaudible 00:19:34] Tamimi, and they will
see or they can go to YouTube to Bilal
Tamimi channel on YouTube, and they can see
the horrible life we are living and what we
have to face in the occupation because we
took the decision to stay on our land and to
fight for our right.
AARON MATÉ: Manal Tamimi, we have to leave
it there. We thank you so much for joining
us.
MANAL TAMIMI: You're so welcome, and thank
you again for giving me this chance.
AARON MATÉ: Thank you. Thank you, and thank
you for joining us on the Real News.
This article was originally published by Real News -
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