They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom

by Ahed Tamimi

On June 1, 2018, Razan, despite wearing a white coat signifying her status as a medic, was struck by a bullet fired by an Israeli sniper. She had volunteered as a medic at the movement’s very first march and saw it as her patriotic duty to tend to her wounded countrymen, even if she had to dodge bullets to do so. She was only twenty years old.

practicing the most powerful form of resistance. My political consciousness was expanding, and I felt empowered by the knowledge I was gaining. At the same time, it was infuriating. I kept telling my cellmates, “I’m discovering I’m living a violation, not a life!”

One of the more surprising things I learned is that as a population living under occupation, we are granted by international law the legal right to resist through armed struggle. It’s protected under the Geneva Conventions, reaffirmed in a 1982 UN General Assembly resolution. The resolution reaffirmed “the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.”

We need to pursue Israel in the courts for every violation it has committed. They need to know that we’re in the streets, the schools and universities, the criminal courts, and the press conferences fighting for justice. We need to send them a message that wherever they go, they’ll find us doing something to reject their presence on our land.

We must ensure that when we finally do achieve liberation, we’re not left with a society that’s full of corruption and inequity. It’s imperative that we fight for women’s rights, to ensure that we have full equality between women and men.

Women make up half our society, and they raise the whole of it. We have to ensure that they’re strong and empowered with education and political awareness in order to raise the next generation, who will liberate Palestine.

Unfortunately, our meeting was brief, just long enough for Abbas to secure a strategic photo op with me. I told him, “This meeting was too short, and I truly hope we can meet again soon. The prisoners have several messages and demands they want me to relay to you.” I requested to meet with him another day, but I never heard back.

My personal message to you all is that we must tie our societal struggle to our national struggle for liberation. We must boycott, isolate, and pursue Israel as a war criminal.