Women who slapped Israeli soldiers arrested

Women who slapped Israeli soldiers arrested
Palestinian Ahed Tamimi, 17, right, a well-known campaigner against Israel's occupation, appears at a military court at the Israeli-run Ofer prison in the West Bank village of Betunia on Wednesday. (AFP)
Updated 20 December 2017
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Women who slapped Israeli soldiers arrested

Women who slapped Israeli soldiers arrested

RAMALLAH: Israeli forces arrested a third Palestinian woman on Wednesday in connection with a viral video showing Israeli soldiers being slapped in the occupied West Bank.
Soldiers arrested Nour Naji Tamimi, 21, from the village of Nabi Saleh north of Ramallah in the West Bank, residents said.
Cousin Ahed Tamimi, 17, a well-known campaigner against Israel’s occupation, was arrested on Tuesday along with her mother.
The video shot last Friday, apparently with a mobile telephone, showed two Palestinian girls approaching two Israeli soldiers, before shoving, kicking and slapping them while filming on mobile phones.
The heavily armed soldiers do not respond in the face of what appears to be an attempt to provoke rather than seriously harm them. They then move backward.
The army confirmed it had made a third arrest.
The cousin is expected to be brought before an Israeli military court on Wednesday.
The video appears to have been filmed on the steps of the Tamimi house, during a day of protests against US President Donald Trump’s controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
It has been widely picked up by Israeli media, which often accuse Palestinian protesters of seeking to provoke the army into responses which are then filmed.
Israeli politicians hailed the restraint of the soldiers as evidence of the military’s values.
Palestinians on social media criticized Ahed’s arrest in the middle of the night, arguing it is the people’s right to resist military occupation.
A member of the Tamimi family was shot in the head with a rubber bullet during protests on Friday, the family said.