Detained for hitting Israeli soldiers, Palestinian Ahed Tamimi sparks debate

An Israeli military court has extended the detention of Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian 17-year-old who was filmed kicking and slapping Israeli soldiers. The footage made her a national hero and sparked a debate in Israel about the soldiers' refusal to respond to her attacks.

Ahed Tamimi (2nd-R), a 17-year-old Palestinian campaigner, appeared at a military court which extended her detention, at the Ofer prison in the West Bank on December 25, 2017. Arrested on December 19, after a video of her slapping Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank went viral, Tamimi's detention has sparked a debt in Israel about the soldiers' refusal to respond to her blows. (Ahmad Gharabli / AFP)

People hold a portrait of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a poster calling for Ahed Tamimi's release after Friday prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque on December 22, 2017. On the Palestinian front her actions garnered outright praise but also asked whether the video might have damaged their cause, by showing Israel behaving gently, or aided it, by showing that even unarmed resistance can be effective. (Ahmad Gharabli / AFP)

Nariman Tamimi (L) and her daughter Ahed get ready for a weekly demonstration against Israeli occupation in Nabi Saleh on August 31, 2012. As Palestinians continue protests against Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the image of the teenage girl facing the Israeli army has captured imaginations, breaking the narrative of an intifada symbolized by tear gas canisters and rock pelting. (Abbas Momani / AFP File)

An August 28, 2015 image shows Ahed Tamimi (L) biting the hand of an Israeli soldier, trying to free her brother during clashes in Nabi Saleh. The encounter which was also caught on video is among Ahed Tamimi's several with Israeli forces. "Restraint is a failed and dangerous policy," said Oren Hazan, an Israeli member of parliament from the Likud Party. "Next time it must end differently." (Abbas Momani / AFP File)

And in 2012, when she was 11, she was photographed raising her fist and yelling at another Israeli soldier - an action that earned her the Hanzala Courage Award award from Turkey and a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That her family appears to encourage these confrontations with Israeli soldiers offends some Palestinians and has enraged many Israelis. (Abbas Momani / AFP File)



This June 29, 2012 photo shows Israeli forces preventing Ahed Tamimi (C-L) and relatives in Nabi Saleh from going into their property which had been confiscated to expand the Halamish settlement. "We should exact a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and cameras," columnist Ben Caspit wrote to severe criticism. "The Tamimi family has to learn, the hard way, that such systematic provocations" come at great cost. (Abbas Momani / AFP File)

Ahed Tamimi hold up the Palestinian flag in a protest against the expropriation of Palestinian land, in Nabi Saleh on June 10, 2011. Ahed's arrest has also turned attention to Nabi Saleh's long-running disputes with the nearby Israeli settlement of Halamish, that residents say has stolen their land and water. (Abbas Momani / AFP File)

Ahed Tamimi (R) reacting in front of Israeli forces during a demonstration on May 26, 2017. The latest video, filmed in her backyard, occurred hours after a cousin was shot in the face with a rubber bullet, and was streamed live on Facebook on December 15. Her publicized arrest by the army in a night raid silenced some calls for punishment, but also launched a new social-media campaign: #FreeAhed. (Abbas Momani / AFP File)

Ahed Tamimi (C) protesting in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails on May 12, 2017. Palestinian reactions while troubled by the soldiers' poise and the humane image it conveys of the Israeli security forces have also been inspirational: "The people of Palestine and all free peoples in the world salute you, Ahed, "wrote Kathem Nasser on Rai Al-Youm, a news site based in London. "We kiss your hand in reverence." (Abbas Momani / AFP File)