IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
hed Tamimi was 11 when I met her, a little blond slip of a thing, her hair almost bigger than she was. I remember her grimacing as her mother combed out the knots each morning in their living room. The second time I went to a demonstration in Nabi Saleh, the West Bank village where she lives, Ahed and her cousin Marah ended up leading the march. Not because they wanted to, but because Israeli Border Police were chasing everyone...
on December 24, 2017
Last week, a video of my 16-year-old daughter Ahed resisting an Israeli soldier who was trespassing on our land in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh went viral. The contrast could not have been clearer and was on display for the entire world to see: a heavily armed soldier from Israel’s army of occupation and a young Palestinian woman armed with nothing but her courage and a righteous desire for justice and freedom. And for that reason, she had to be punished by Israel.
on December 24, 2017
Native Americans have for months led protests against the Dakota Access pipeline, a $3.8 billion, nearly 1,200-mile construction project that will transfer oil across several states. Thousands of activists from around the country have traveled to North Dakota to support the indigenous resistance at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
on November 18, 2016
Just as the Sioux nation has arisen in rebellion, so are the people in Sussia, Jisr al-Zarqa, Isawiyah and elsewhere fighting for their heritage, their roots, their present, their future and their children – as communities and as a nation.
on November 8, 2016
Videos
"If I want to go to my uncle's house, I am now forced to go through a checkpoint, two checkpoints... even three checkpoints" Palestinian youth speak out about life under occupation in East Jerusalem, the restrictions they face, and the hope they have for the future.
on December 10, 2015
So now incitement on Facebook leads Palestinians to attack Israelis? For two decades Israeli politicians have trotted out an “incitement” red herring — along with false claims that Palestinian Authority textbooks lead their children to throw stones. Israel’s response is little more than misdirection and public relations.
on November 9, 2015
Israel has passed an amendment to the country's civil law establishing a minimum prison sentence of three years for people who throw rocks at Israeli troops, civilians or vehicles. Passed late on Monday night by a vote of 51-17, the legislation includes a number of provisions, among them one that permits the government to strip those convicted of stone throwing of their state benefits
on November 3, 2015
As I write these words, a new unflinching generation of Palestinians is rising up against Israel’s decades-old regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid. I usually succeed in shutting out the bloody images and the haunting stories of our children being brutalized by Israel’s occupying army so that I can focus on contributing my fair share to the emancipation of my people, without being emotionally overwhelmed, drained, and disempowered.
on October 22, 2015
I went outside for a smoke in the morning and remembered my father. My father smoked, he smoked a lot, and when I heard some teacher talk about the dangers of smoking or saw the commercial with a pack of cigarettes with worms coming out of it, I worried so much about his health that I began to feel dread, and begged him to stop. “I am a Palestinian Arab who lives here and sees what is happening,” my father answered me. “Do you think cigarettes are what's going to kill me?”
on October 17, 2015