Ahed Tamimi case is about child exploitation by anti-Israel activists

Ahed Tamimi case is about child exploitation by anti-Israel activists

People who glorify using Palestinian children to create photo-ops would be universally condemned in any other context.

The Tamimi Clan of Nabi Saleh and their Western supporters exploit children in order to obtain viral video and photographs.

The children are used to try to provoke Israeli Border Police and soldiers. If the provocation is successful, which it almost never is, they get a photo of an Israeli being brutal towards a child. In almost every case, though, there is no reaction from the soldiers, so the video and photos are spun as reflecting “brave” Palestinian children and the “weak” Israeli soldiers.

The Tamimis are experts at manipulating images and press coverage of these child demonstrators.

The leading proponent of this tactic is Bassem Tamimi and others in the Tamimi media operation. For extensive documentations, including social media, videos and images, see our posts, Bassem Tamimi and the Use of Children as Political Props and Palestinian Child Exploitation – 10-year old “Journalist” Janna Jihad.

The children are then raised as symbols of Palestinian resistance and glorified not only by Palestinian social media, but by Western left-wing anti-Israel supporters of the Tamimis.

Bassem Tamimi Promotes The Use of Children

There is nothing organic or natural to children becoming provocateurs trying to incite confrontation. It is all planned and deliberate by the Tamimis as part of their media strategy.

To Bassem, in his own words, children must be at the forefront of what he calls the “national movement,” which in the case of the Tamimis includes terror-support.

Bassem promotes even young children participating:

Bassem promotes the use of child warriors not just on social media, but in his film and public appearances, such as this appearance in a film glorifying children who confront Israeli soldiers:

Bassem even argued for the participation of children in such protests when Ariel Gold, a Code Pink and Jewish Voice for Peace activist, brought Bassem into a third-grade classroom in Ithaca, NY:

That Ithaca third-grade appearance earned a sharp rebuke from the Ithaca City School District Superintendent, Superintendent: Third Grade event “politically skewed, inflammatory” against Israel.

After a court battle, we obtained the full presentation, which you can view here, VIDEO: Activists manipulate third-graders into hating Israel.

Bassem defended the attempt to encourage children to become fighters:

(video also here)

Gold, who frequently promotes her own children’s involvement in her activism including posting images of her minor son running from tear gas at a Nabi Saleh riot, also defended the third-grade presentation:

(video also here)

Gold is not alone in defending the Tamimis over the advocacy of using children as “freedom fighters”. When the Ithaca controversy broke, Jewish Voice for Peace launched a campaign defending Bassem’s appearance, ‘Jewish Voice for Peace’ defends anti-Israel Third Grade event.

This glorification of Palestinian child warriors is pervasive in the anti-Israel movement. Linda Sarsour infamously tweeted an image of a young child about to throw a rock, and called it the “definition of courage.”

This is sadly not surprising, Palestinian incitement to violence specifically targets Palestinian children:

• VIDEO – How UN Refugee agency teaches children to hate and attack Jews
• VIDEO: No truly “Lone Wolves” in the Palestinian Knife Intifada
• Palestinian “child” convicted in murder of Dafna Meir
• Palestinian child parades in mock suicide belt … in Bethlehem

Palestinian teens under the age of 18 have committed some of the most barbaric attacks, 13-year old Israeli girl stabbed to death in bed by 17-year old Arab terrorist.

Ahed – The Most Exploited Tamimi

No Palestinian child has been exploited in this manner more so than Ahed Tamimi.

Since early childhood she, and to a lesser extent her younger brother Mohammed, have been media stars for their kicking, shoving and punching of Israeli soldiers (who again, do not react).

This is not a new phenomenon at all, it’s been going on for a decade. Until recently, this was Ahed’s most famous performance, one for which she received a medal from the then Prime Minister of Turkey:

But it’s all staged by the parents, as this video shows:

What kind of people exploit children in this way, putting them potentially in harms way to get a video and photo?

If this took place anywhere else in the world, it would be condemned as a violation of the rights of children. But because it is part of anti-Israel propaganda, it gets celebrated and the children (particularly Ahed) celebrated.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of images and videos of Ahed acting out in this way over the past decade, promoted by her parents and their Western supporters.

Why is Ahed so prominent among the many children of the Tamimi clan who participate? Bassem promotes her because her blond hair and blue eyes present the image he wants to present to Westerners. According to Bassem:

Tamimi’s father argues that her blonde hair and Western dress have contributed to the attention she has received.

“If she was veiled and dark-skinned, would she have got the same attention?” Bassem Tamimi told AFP.

“The Zionist propaganda machine always depicts the Palestinian as dark-skinned and ugly, attacking the blonde victim, but now she is blonde.”

A similar view was expressed by an author at Ynet News: “She looks just like a girl who could capture the hearts of foreign photojournalists and the Western public opinion. She has neither a hijab nor a burqa. On the contrary, she has a typical European look. A girl who looks like their girl.”

Ahed Now Is Old Enough To Bear The Legal Consequences

Ahed is back in the news for kicking and punching Israeli soldiers (who did not react), Child-exploiting Tamimi Clan back in the news with latest “Shirley Temper” video provocation.

The spin being put on the incident is that this is about the Israeli “occupation” of Samaria (where Nabi Saleh is located), and about a nearby settlement. On social and mainstream media the narrative is being spun that Ahed was reacting to the injury sustained by her cousin during a riot over Trump’s Jerusalem announcement, and to protect her home. Bassem (who inaccurately states the injury was just minutes before, other reports put it hours or a day before) denies this spin from his own supporters:

… it wasn’t sudden anger at the grave wounding of 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi not long before that, just meters away, that motivated her. Nor was it the provocation of those soldiers entering our home. No. These soldiers, or others who are identical in their action and their role, have been unwanted and uninvited guests in our home ever since Ahed was born. No. She stood there before them because this is our way, because freedom isn’t given as charity, and because despite the heavy price, we are ready to pay it.

Unlike prior occasions when she performed before the cameras kicking and punching soldiers, Ahed was arrested because she’s no longer a young child.

Depending who you ask, she’s either 16, 17 or 18. She’s now of an age where she has to accept responsibility for her actions.

Ahed is likely to face indictment.

Bassem repeated his pride in using Ahed in such away after her arrest:

The father of Ahed Tamimi, the 17-year-old Palestinian who slapped IDF soldiers, says he is 'proud' of what his daughter did. @calev_i24 @NuritBen @DanielTsemach pic.twitter.com/qpopqppDo1

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) December 28, 2017

Bassem also took to the left-wing Haaretz newspaper, which has almost no Israeli readership but is influential among American liberal Jews and anti-Israel activists, to promote the use of Ahed, My Daughter, These Are Tears of Struggle:

My daughter is just 16 years old. In another world, in your world, her life would look completely different. In our world, Ahed is a representative of a new generation of our people, of young freedom fighters…. They have to become the living artery that will revive our revolution and bring it back from the death entailed in a growing culture of passivity that has arisen from decades of political inactivity….

Ahed, no parent in the world yearns to see his daughter spending her days in a detention cell. However, Ahed, no one could be prouder than I am of you. You and your generation are courageous enough, at last, to win. Your actions and courage fill me with awe and bring tears to my eyes. But in accordance with your request, these are not tears of sadness or regret, but rather tears of struggle.
Bassem Tamimi is a Palestinian activist.

Western supporters of the Tamimis, including Gold and Jewish Voice for Peace, are lauding Ahed’s heroism and willingness to pay a price:

Bassem and these Western anti-Israel activists use Ahed as a way to virtue-signal, to call attention to their own supposed moral standing. In fact, they are just promoting the exploitation of children that in any other context would be universally condemned.

I’ve tried to put a context on this. Is it a mere moral lapse to exploit children in such a way, or is it something more profound.

While it’s not a perfect analogy, I kept thinking about Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (now known as Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA)):

People with FDIA have an inner need for the other person (often his or her child) to be seen as ill or injured…. FDIA most often occurs with mothers—although it can occur with fathers—who intentionally harm or describe non-existent symptoms in their children to get the attention given to the family of someone who is sick.

The Tamimis and their Western supporters, who glorify putting Palestinian children like Ahed at the front of the protests to be photographed confronting soldiers, are not morally virtuous, they are self-promoting child exploiters.

Ahed will pay the legal price, while Bassem and his Western anti-Israel supporters milk her problems for their own emotional gratification.

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