Palestine's new generation of creative resistance

Cynthia Wang
Nov 29, 2016
4 min read

“I joined (the demonstration), because I was afraid to lose anyone I love,” said Ahed Tamimi, the 15-year-old girl who has stood up and bravely fought against Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh for the past 7 years.

In almost all the pictures and videos captured in Nabi Saleh, women can be seen everywhere in the march. “Women compose and breed our society. Without women, we will not be here. So it is important to have their voices heard in every occasion,” said Bassem Tamimi, father of Ahed and one of the main organizers of the protest.

“I felt afraid in the beginning. But now I feel strong and confident. I never feel weak for being a woman because we are part of this family. I can’t be silent in front of my rights. My dignity doesn’t allow me to see soldiers stealing my land and hurting my family,” added Ahed, and continued to tell us that she plans to study law and is determined to be a lawyer because she can “protect my family if they got detained and also protect my lands stealing from Israelis by the International law.”

Located 20km northwest of Ramallah, many students from this West Bank village attend school in Ramallah. Owing to checkpoints on the way and roadblocks from time to time, they feel physically and emotionally strained.

But this has not stopped them from dreaming and joining the demonstration. Many youths like Ahed have bee participated in the weekly protest every week and contributed in different ways. Janna Jihad, the cousin and a close friend of Ahed, is one of the young participants who have been inspired by Ahed.

This 10-year-old girl is not only taking part in the march, but also the youngest journalist in the world. She loves playing football and dreams to be a football star like her favorite player Neymar Jr. from the FC Barcelona team. “But this can only happen if the occupation ends, I want to run freely on our land” told Janna. She further mentioned that children here often were threatened by soldiers when playing in the village field.

“I want to be a journalist and send the messages to all Palestinian children that we are able to speak for ourselves,” Janna smiled and told us with full confidence.

She runs a Facebook page. Since 3 years ago, she has been recording footage of Nabi Saleh protests and reporting occupation movements with her parents around the West Bank.

“She (Janna) reminds me of my granddaughter back home. How I wish I could give her a lollipop as if I gave to my granddaughter. But instead, I gave her a camera, so that she can keep her dreams going as a journalist,” said Nigel, a British advocacy who brought Janna a new digital camera this summer. He has been donating cameras to activists in Palestine.

Despite criticism from pro-Israeli side accusing residents from Nabi Saleh of manipulating and sacrificing children on the front line, Bassem explained their philosophy of encouraging children to participate protests comes from love.

“They will someday have to face Israeli occupation by themselves. We want to make them confident and strong, and teach them how to deal with problems and difficulties in their lives,” said Bassem.

The video of his daughter challenging and confronting Israeli soldiers went viral on all media platforms in the past few years. Ahed has become “the poster child for the Palestinian fight against Israeli occupation” after the publication of the photo that showed she biting the hand of a soldier who was thrusting her then 9-year-old brother Salam during the demonstration in 2015.

Since 2009, residents of Nabi Saleh have self-organized demonstrations to march along the streets every Friday against the Israeli soldiers. This is an act in protest to the occupation and land confiscation to expand the Hallamish settlements. Although the media has praised the protest as one of the most successful resistance in the West Bank, the village paid the price painfully. According to calculation by residents, during the past 7 years, 2 residents were killed, at least 200 people have been arrested, half of them are teenagers under 18-year-old, and 16 cases were women.

However, “nothing has changed,” sighed Bassem, and told us that they have stopped the routine demonstration since 4 weeks ago. Now he and other village leaders are looking for new ways to continue their resistance. The first step is to hold book exhibitions, food festivals and live music concerts. They believe that “creativity and happiness is the best resistance”.

Apart from organizing educational workshops and cultural events, they aim to coordinate an international festival in Nabi Saleh in the summer of 2017. Moreover, to build up a “Nakba museum” so “this history can be learned and remembered for people around the world,” concluded Bassem. He has hoped that Nabi Saleh can eventually become a model for other West Bank villages and cities for non-violence resistance against the Israeli occupation.