I’m ‘fighting Jews, not Zionism,’ Ahed Tamimi declares

Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi recently told an Arabic podcast that she was “fighting Jews, not Zionism,” speaking 20 months after being released from an Israeli prison as part of a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

“My definition of Judaism, since my childhood, was that it and Zionism are one and the same. There’s no difference between the two,” Tamimi said, according to a Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translation.

“I was raised to believe that Judaism is occupation,” the 24-year-old resident of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, continued. “Today, tomorrow and in a million years, I will continue to say that Judaism should be presented to Palestinian children—my age and younger—as occupation and that we are fighting Jews, not Zionism.

“To this day, I continue to say that we don’t need to defend Judaism. If a Jew doesn’t want his religion defined this way [as occupation], he can join me in the fight against Zionism,” she said.

Tamimi expressed hope for a third world war involving nuclear arms, telling the podcast: “Let the world be destroyed, I don’t care.

“Whoever dies will die, and whoever lives will live. The most important thing is that we finish with this,” she declared. “Let them drop nuclear bombs and destroy the world, and then it won’t be just Palestinians.”

Regarding international media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Tamimi said journalists “shouldn’t come and present their positions.

“The entire world needs to shut up when a Palestinian speaks. We are above the entire world, because we are the only ones in the world fighting injustice, at the cost of our lives and humanity,” she said.

The activist accused the international community of having abetted the “genocide” in Gaza.

“We suffer from genocide because of your countries. So no one should say they’re helping Palestinians. You must give aid to Palestinians, and we won’t thank you,” Tamimi said.

Tamimi was arrested by Israeli forces on Nov. 6, 2023, and jailed for 23 days after she urged the murder of Jews living in Judea and Samaria.

“Our message to the flocks of settlers, we are waiting for you in all the cities of the West Bank. From Hebron to Jenin, we will slaughter you, and you will say that what Hitler did to you is a joke,” wrote Tamimi.

“We will drink your blood and eat your skull. Come on, we’re waiting for you,” the Instagram post, which was subsequently deleted, continued.

Tamimi’s threat came a month after Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures, and the kidnapping of 251 others.

The activist’s release on Nov. 29, 2023, was part of a hostages-and-ceasefire deal reached with the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist group.

Tamimi first gained notoriety after assaulting an Israel Defense Forces soldier during riots in 2012. The activist was 11 years old at the time.

Nabi Saleh has long been a hotbed of violent anti-Israel protests, with many of Tamimi’s family members having been involved in the clashes. Ahlam Tamimi, 44, Ahed’s cousin, has admitted her part in the bombing that killed 16 and wounded 130 others in Sbarro pizzeria at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in Jerusalem in August 2001. Ahlam Tamimi was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange and lives in Jordan.

In 2018, an Israeli military court sentenced Ahed Tamimi to eight months in prison for assault. According to her lawyer, Tamimi agreed to a plea deal to avoid a more serious indictment.

The 2018 conviction thrust Tamimi into international fame with CNN, Vogue, BBC News, Al Jazeera and other outlets featuring her story.

Upon being released, Tamimi continued to incite violence against the Jewish state. For example, in March 2019, she took to social media to call for the murder of then-Likud Party lawmaker Yehudah Glick.

“My soul is disgusted when I realize that he remains alive, better that he was dead. I hate him. Yehuda Glick is the most disgusting person on earth. It is permissible [according to Islam] to kill him,” she wrote.

© JNS