UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS
By Qais Abu Samra
RAMALLAH (AA) – Freed Palestinian teenager Ahed al-Tamimi on Sunday called for ending Israel’s decades-long occupation.
“We will continue the resistance to achieve the freedom of the Palestinian people,” al-Tamimi told a news conference in the West Bank town of Nabi Saleh, west of Ramallah.
“We must boycott and isolate the [Israeli] occupation and put it on trial,” she said.
The 17-year-old girl, who has become an icon of Palestinian resistance, was released along with her mother from an Israeli prison on Sunday after an 8-month detention.
During another news conference later in the day, Al-Tamimi said she wants to study law to defend the rights of her people and help Palestinians stuck in Israeli prisons. She added her release was bittersweet because there were other female prisoners in Israeli prisons who she left behind.
The Palestinian icon also brought a message from the female prisoners: “Work for the unity of Palestine, support Great March of Return protests in the Gaza Strip and back the resistance of people of Khan al-Ahmar,” she said, referring to a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank where locals face Israeli destruction.
On July 5, Israeli bulldozers destroyed a number of tents and other structures in Khan al-Ahmar, triggering clashes with local residents.
There are 46 Bedouin communities scattered across Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem inhabited by some 3,000 residents.
“Support Palestinian women prisoners and make efforts for their release,” she concluded the message.
Al-Tamimi also slammed Israel's controversial “Jewish nation-state ” law.
The law defines Israel as a Jewish state with a “united Jerusalem” as its capital. It has also promoted Hebrew as the only official language, stripping Arabic as an official language while recognizing its “special status”.
The new legislation risks further alienating the Arab minority who argue they already face discrimination from Israeli Jews and the government, and already feel as though they are second-class citizens.
Al-Tamimi dominated world headlines after a video emerged of her slapping an Israeli soldier during a raid on her home to arrest her brother.
She was arrested by Israeli forces in December with an Israeli court handing her down an 8-month detention in March for “attacking” an Israeli soldier.
In 2012, Istanbul’s Basaksehir Municipality granted al-Tamimi the prestigious Hanzala Courage Award for defying Israeli soldiers who had just arrested her brother.
