Women’s Rally for Ahed Tamimi And Palestine

(L-r) Karen Pomer of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, Amani Barakat of the Al-Awda coalition and Lydia Ponce of Idle No More and the American Indian Movement at the Women’s Rally for Ahed and Palestine in Los Angeles. <STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR>


More than 200 protesters attended the Jan. 6 “Women’s Rally to Free Ahed Tamimi and all Palestinian Child Prisoners” in front of the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles. Ahed’s father, Bassem Tamimi, who called in to address the crowd, compared the struggle for Palestine to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

The event was co-sponsored by Jews for Palestinian Right of Return and Al-Awda (the Palestine Right to Return Coalition), and endorsed by Jewish Voice for Peace-Los Angeles, North America BDS, American Indian Movement (AIM), Black Lives Matter (BLM) Pasadena, CODE PINK and Progressive Democrats of America (PDA).

Karen Pomer of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return introduced Mary Hughes Thompson of the Free Gaza Movement and Women In Black-Los Angeles. Hughes Thompson was a passenger on the first boat to break the siege of Gaza in August 2008 (see November 2008 Washington Report, p. 15). Describing the 33-hour sail from Cyprus to Gaza, where they were greeted by 45,000 Palestinians, she said, “I was 68 years old when I became involved in the Palestinian cause and went to the occupied West Bank to help with the Palestinian olive harvest. I was beaten by the Israeli settlers and shot using rubber bullets, which are actually live bullets.”

“We know what oppression looks like. We know what genocide looks like,” said Idle No More organizer Lydia Ponce, citing the parallels to the Native American oppression in the U.S.

Another speaker at the rally, Estee Chandler of Jewish Voice for Peace-Los Angeles, declared: “There are two systems of justice in Palestine. Israelis are governed under and represented by Israeli law, so if an Israeli child (or adult) violates the law, they are tried within the Israeli justice system. However, if a Palestinian child, or adult, ‘breaks the law’ they are immediately subjected to a military tribunal.”

That system of justice is what 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi is facing today, in prison and denied bail as she awaits trial—possibly for months—for assaulting Israeli soldiers. That is the system that on Dec. 15 caused the severe disfigurement of Mohammed Tamimi, Ahed’s 15-year-old cousin, who was shot in the head by Israeli military police at close range with a rubber bullet. Ahed Tamimi had just heard that news an hour before she slapped and kicked the Israeli soldiers outside her home.

“Israel has a 99.7 percent conviction rate of Palestinians,” added Chandler, referencing the “10,000 children since 2000 who have been arrested and detained in Israeli prisons for refusing to submit to occupations or surveillance.”

A Palestinian woman named Abir El Zowidi shared her experience: “I lived in Palestine, and I saw the truth. Palestine and its people need your support. I witnessed the young mothers of my family suffering, watched their kids being captured by Israeli soldiers. I remember seeing them, crying and brokenhearted.”

The rally concluded with organizers calling on attendees to back H.R. 4391, the Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act, in Congress. The bill, introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), requires the certification that U.S. taxpayer funds will not be used to support Israel’s violation of international humanitarian law against Palestinian children.

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