Palestinian UN envoy: Israel must release Ahed Tamimi
In letter to UN Security Council, Riyad Mansour claims the Palestinian teen provocateur was 'peacefully' protesting the 'Israeli occupation and its crimes,' painting her encounters with the IDF in an innocuous light: 'Ahed, like all other Palestinian children, yearns to live a life free of occupation and violence,' Mansour writers.
"Generation after generation only know life under occupation and that of an occupying Power that continues to commit human rights violations and brutal crimes against them, their families and their land, with complete and utter impunity," Mansour bemoaned.
"One detrimental aspect of the practices and policies of the occupying Power that has left thousands of children traumatically scarred is Israel’s mass arrest campaigns throughout the Occupied State of Palestine," Mansour asserted. "Since 1967, nearly 800,000 Palestinians, including children, some as young as 12, have been kidnapped and imprisoned by the occupying Power."
Tamimi's latest public encounter with the IDF, when she and her cousin were filmed hitting DF soldiers in an effort to provoke them into responding, was not her first and Mansour admits as much in his letter.
"Ahed’s latest encounter with Israeli occupying forces is not her first. When she was only 10-years-old, Israeli occupying forces arrested Ahed’s mother while photographers captured her crying and running frantically after the armored military vehicle her mother was in. Then again, on 31 August 2015, another video went viral as Ahed and her mother were photographed trying to free her 11-year-old brother from an Israeli occupying force who was choking him," he wrote.
"Ahed, like all other Palestinian children, yearns to live a life free of occupation and violence; a life where all children should be able to grow up in an environment enveloped in peace and security and with human dignity," Mansour continued, calling for her release along with other Palestinian minors detained by Israel.
Mansour described the night of Tamimi's arrest—"Israeli occupying forces violently entered and raided the home of the Tamimi family in the West Bank village of Nabi Salih. They did so in the middle of the night while the family was asleep and arrested Ahed"—further noting that "A so-called Israeli military court indicted Ahed on five counts of assault for 'attacking' two occupying forces."
Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, slammed Mansour's letter and accused the Palestinian Authority of incitement.
"Instead of continuing to spread lies and anti-Israeli propaganda, it would be better if the Palestinian leadership focused on putting an end to the terrorism and incitement that resulted this week in the criminal terror attack in which Raziel Shevah was murdered," Danon said.
"Raziel is survived by six children. His killers would likely receive a monthly salary from the PA, a reward for murdering innocent Israelis. This is the face of the Palestinian leadership, and no letter could hide that," Danon added.
