West Bank | IMEU

The West Bank is a part of the occupied Palestinian territories that covers 2,270 square miles. It is home to approximately 2.6 million Palestinians. In small areas of the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was created under the terms of the supposedly interim Oslo Accords during the 1990s, exercises some governing responsibilities but exists under the auspices of the Israeli military. In addition, Israel's separation wall cuts thousands of West Bank Palestinians off from their farmlands, and severely restricts their movement, affecting their access to employment, education, and medical care.

Areej Hazboun, Associated Press

Teen Palestinian Protester Gets 8 Months in Prison

Palestinian teenage protest icon Ahed Tamimi on Wednesday was sentenced to eight months in prison for slapping and kicking a pair of Israeli soldiers outside her West Bank home, capping a case that sparked uproar in Israel, turned the 17-year-old girl into a Palestinian hero and attracted international attention.

on March 21, 2018

Michael Rancic, Uproxx

Vic Mensa, Tom Morello, And More Call For The Release Of Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi

A letter posted today by the organization Dream Defenders calls for the release of a detained teenage Palestinian activist, Ahed Tamimi, who was arrested by Israeli forces this past December for slapping an Israeli soldier in a video that went viral. “In the US, we know all too well what it’s like to be oppressed simply because you exist, because you refuse to give up your fight for freedom,” the letter signed by artists and activists including Vic Mensa, Tom Morello, Angela Davis, Jesse Williams, and Cornel West reads.

on February 12, 2018

Ash Gallagher, Yahoo News

In West Bank, Teenager’s Arrest Sheds Light on Two-Tiered Legal System

Bassem Tamimi’s voice sounded frail and exhausted when he answered the phone. He had been answering calls about his daughter’s arrest by Israeli Defense Forces for days, “They surrounded my home,” he told Yahoo News. “Between 3 and 4 a.m., they attacked the village.” His daughter, Ahed Tamimi, 16, was arrested last month in a pre-dawn raid on the family’s home. The arrest followed another video, posted to Facebook, of Tamimi protesting the Israeli occupation by slapping an Israeli soldier outside her house in Nabih Saleh.

on January 24, 2018

Videos

IMEU

Ahed Tamimi: A Teen in Search of Freedom

16-year-old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi hasn’t seen a day of freedom. She's spent her youth protesting a foreign army that has jailed, shot, and killed her unarmed relatives. After defending her home from Israeli invasion, she now faces years in prison. Imagine if this was your reality.

on January 17, 2018

Medea Benjamin, The Guardian

I Am American, Jewish and Banned from Israel for My Activism

This month, the Israeli government announced that activists affiliated with 20 organizations, including my organization Codepink, would be banned from entering Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories because of our support for the nonviolent boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights. As a Jew, this causes me tremendous sadness because I have a lifetime attachment to Israel and Palestine.

on January 15, 2018

Ben Ehrenreich, The Nation

Ahed Tamimi Has Become the Symbol of a New Generation of Palestinian Resistance

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

Bassem Tamimi, Newsweek

Ahed Tamimi’s Father: We Will Continue to Resist Israel’s Occupation as a Family

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

Betty McCollum, The Nation

US Tax Dollars Must Not Be Used to Detain Palestinian Children

Israel is a powerful nation with the most advanced and capable military in the Middle East. It is the single greatest beneficiary of American military assistance, receiving $3.8 billion, some 25 percent of its defense budget, from American taxpayers each year. The security of Israel is obviously important to the United States, with missile defense programs like Iron Dome and David’s Sling as success stories.

on December 11, 2017

Ishaan Tharoor, The Washington Post

Trump’s Jerusalem Moves Spark a Fire in the Middle East

There is a small constituency in the United States that genuinely cares about the location of the American Embassy in Israel. Evangelicals and a right-wing, pro-Israel lobby were thrilled by President Trump's campaign promises to reverse decades of U.S. policy by recognizing a “united” Jerusalem as Israel's capital and shifting the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv. At a speech on Wednesday, Trump is expected to outline his plans to do just that.

on December 6, 2017