Palestinian resistance symbol Ahed Tamimi’s brother Waed sentenced for stone-throwing


The brother of a teenager who became a symbol of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after slapping two soldiers has been sentenced to jail for throwing stones at a police officer, the army said Tuesday.

Waed Tamimi, the brother of Ahed Tamimi, confessed to his role in a March 2017 "violent riot" in which an Israeli police officer was wounded by stones thrown by Palestinians at his vehicle, according to a military court ruling from Monday.

Since he had already received a suspended sentence for stoning Israeli security forces in 2016, he was handed a 14-month sentence for the 2017 incident as part of a plea bargain, the court document said.

Asked by the court if he had anything to say, the 22-year-old said: "I have nothing to add. There will be no third time," according to the ruling, which was published by the army on Tuesday.

The incident took place in Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank, where the Tamimi family lives.

Tamimi's sister, Ahed, was released from prison last month after an eight-month sentence for hitting and kicking two Israeli soldiers in front of her house in the occupied West Bank.

Rights groups harshly criticized Israel for the length of Ahed Tamimi's sentence.

In an interview the day after her release, the now 17-year-old told AFP that she understood she had become a "symbol" of the Palestinian cause.

Video of that incident went viral, leading to praise and support from Palestinians but scorn from Israelis who accused her activist family of using her in staged provocations.

But the 17-year-old has some very bad memories of the Israeli forces who killed, arrested and injured several of her family members in recent years.

In 2012, her uncle, Rushdie al-Tamimi, was shot dead by Israeli troops in Nabi Saleh. In 1993, her aunt, Bassima al-Tamimi, was beaten to death by an Israeli policeman while attending her son's trial.

Her mother, Nariman, who was also recently detained for eight months, previously told Anadolu Agency: "I had a difficult time while in detention. I was subjected to harsh interrogations and held in solitary confinement for 15 days, while receiving news of the arrest of my son, Waed, and the martyrdom of my cousin, Ezzedine."

"If we stay in our homes, we may die by fire, like the Dawabshah family," Nariman added. "If my child goes to the mosque, he could be burnt alive like Mohamed Abu Khudair."

"We have no choice but to resist the occupation," she said. "My daughter Ahed has become a model for all the sons of Nabi Saleh."

"I am the sister of a martyr and two of my uncles were martyred by the Israeli occupation," she went on. "My eldest brother was injured by Israeli forces in Lebanon and my father spent many years in Israeli prisons."

She urged the international media to report on the many other detainees currently languishing in Israeli prisons, especially children.

Bassem al-Tamimi, Ahed's father, was jailed by the Israeli authorities nine separate times between 1988 and 2013, during which he was subjected to various kinds of torture.

"Our family has suffered deeply as a result of the occupation," he said. "My sister was martyred in 1993 and my cousin and son -- along with several close friends -- were all shot dead by Israeli troops."