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href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/07/aheds-generation-why-the-youth-in-palestine-must-break-free-from-dual-oppression/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/07/aheds-generation-why-the-youth-in-palestine-must-break-free-from-dual-oppression/</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Ahed’s Generation: Why the Youth in
Palestine Must Break Free from Dual Oppression</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">by <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/cet6s/"
rel="nofollow">Ramzy Baroud</a> - March 7 2018<br>
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<p>As global voices continue to demand the freedom of
17-year-old teenage Palestinian girl, Ahed Tamimi,
Israeli authorities have arrested nine additional
members of her family.</p>
<p>Those who were detained on February 26 include Ahed’s
15-year-old cousin, Mohammed Tamimi.</p>
<p>Israeli troops had shot Mohammed in the head last
December, shattering his skull. The teenager, who is
awaiting reconstruction surgery, is unlikely to receive
proper medical care in Israeli prisons.</p>
<p>Ahed’s crime was that she slapped an Israeli soldier in
a video that, since then, went viral, shortly after her
cousin was shot. He was then placed in a
medically-induced coma.</p>
<p>The Israeli soldier who shot Mohammed did not receive
even a reprimand for shooting-to-kill an unarmed boy.</p>
<p>The Israeli military provided an outrageous explanation
of why the Tamimi family members, all hailing from the
small village of Nabi Saleh, were detained in a pre-dawn
army raid.</p>
<p>“The detainees are suspected of involvement in
terrorist activities, popular terror and violent
disturbances against civilians and security forces,” the
Israeli military spokesperson said.</p>
<p>By ‘popular terror’, the statement was referring to the
recurring protests led by the 500 residents of Nabi
Saleh against the illegal settlements and Apartheid
Wall. These protests have been a staple in the everyday
life of the village for nearly 12 years.</p>
<p>Anywhere between 600,000 and 750,000 illegal Jewish
settlers live in settlements placed strategically
throughout the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
They are a glaring violation of international law.</p>
<p>Aside from the massive Israeli army build-up in the
Occupied Territories, the armed settlers have been a
major source of violence against Palestinians.</p>
<p>Ahed and Mohammed Tamimi, along with hundreds of
thousands of Palestinian children and teenagers, were
born into this violent reality, and feel trapped.</p>
<p>Their collective imprisonment is not only as a result
of the perpetual military occupation of their land by
Israel, but also by the fact that their leadership has
operated for many years in a self-centered fashion,
orbiting far away from Nabi Saleh and its tiny,
struggling but brave population.</p>
<p>Nabi Saleh is relatively a short distance away,
northwest of Ramallah, the political base of the
Palestinian Authority (PA); but in some way, both places
are a world apart.</p>
<p>The PA was formed in 1994, as one of the outcomes of
the Oslo Accords, which was initially reached and signed
in secret by the Palestinian Liberation Organization
(PLO) and Israel.</p>
<p>Most Palestinians in the Occupied Territories matured
politically or were even born after the advent of the
PA. They have no other frame of reference but Israel and
the Ramallah-based authority.</p>
<p>The latter has grown comfortable by its wealth and
status and, with time, evolved into a culture of its
own. It is no longer a democratic institution, and
definitely does not represent all Palestinians.</p>
<p>Thus, Palestinian reality is now shaped by three
forces: the domineering Israeli occupation, the
subservient and self-centered PA and the indignant and
leaderless Palestinian youth, which is held captive in
dual bondage.</p>
<p>This is why Ahed’s slapping of the Israeli soldier
resonated throughout Palestine, and among Palestinians
across the world. It was a symbol of defiance that,
despite the twofold oppression, Palestine’s youth still
have the power to articulate an identity, one that is,
perhaps, captive but nonetheless resilient.</p>
<p>Although Mohammed’s skull is crushed, he continued to
speak out as soon as left the hospital. The spirit of
the Palestinian people is clearly not broken, and
Palestine’s youth are the only way out of the
double-walled cage.</p>
<p>Alas, the mission of this generation of young
Palestinians is even harder than previous generations,
especially Palestinian youth that led and sustained a
7-year-long uprising, the Intifada of 1987 – also known
as the Intifada of the Stones.</p>
<p>That generation resurrected the Palestinian cause as
they daringly organized their communities, mobilizing
all efforts to challenge the Israeli occupation.
Thousands were killed and wounded at the time, but an
empowered Palestinian nation arose in response.</p>
<p>The Palestinian leadership used the Intifada to
reinvent itself. It exploited the attention young
Palestinians had garnered to negotiate Oslo, which
ultimately gave some Palestinians special status and
denied the rest any rights or freedoms.</p>
<p>The PA, led by aging President Mahmoud Abbas,
understands well that if the youth are to be given the
chance to mobilize, another Intifada would dismantle his
entire leadership, possibly in a matter of days.</p>
<p>This is why, no matter how serious the disagreements
between Abbas and the Israeli government become, they
will always stay united against any possibility of a
popular Palestinian revolt, led by the youth.</p>
<p>Numerous Palestinians have been arrested, imprisoned or
tortured by Palestinian police in the years that
followed the formation of the PA. The latter did so in
the name of ‘national interest’ while, in reality, it
was done in the name of Israeli security.</p>
<p>Indeed, Oslo has allowed both Israel and the PA to
maintain ‘security coordination’ in the West Bank. This
has mostly been used to keep the illegal settlements
safe and to prevent Palestinian youth from confronting
the Israeli army.</p>
<p>Such a practice has meant that the PA became a first
line of defense against rebelling Palestinians.</p>
<p>While Palestinian officials continue to pay lip service
to Ahed Tamimi and thousands of young Palestinians who
continue to endure imprisonment and ill treatment by
Israel, in truth, Ahed epitomizes the antithesis of
everything that the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah
stands for.</p>
<p>She is strong, morally-driven and defiant; the PA is
subservient, morally bankrupt and quisling.</p>
<p>Palestinian youth already understand this, and it is
mostly up to them to free themselves from the confines
of military occupation and corruption.</p>
<p>In his seminal book, ‘The Wretched of the Earth’,
anti-colonial author and revolutionary, Frantz Fanon
wrote, “Each generation must discover its mission,
fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity.”</p>
<p>Ahed and Mohammed Tamimi’s generation have already
discovered their mission, and it will be them who will
continue to fight for its fulfillment – their freedom
and the freedom of their homeland.</p>
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<p class="author_description"> <em><strong>Dr. Ramzy Baroud</strong>
has been writing about the Middle East for over 20
years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a
media consultant, an author of several books and the
founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My
Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto
Press, London). His website is: ramzybaroud.net</em> </p>
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