Genuine heroes are hard to come by these days but two can be found in the occupied Palestinian territories. Ibrahim Abu Thurayya, a double amputee, was shot in the head and killed by Israeli soldiers. Sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi is currently being detained by the authorities for slapping an Israeli soldier across the face. Abu Thurayya lost his life and Tamimi her freedom for their protests in the wake of the US announcement that it was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Palestinian pair have become symbols of the fight against Israeli oppression and degradation, casualties both, simply for being Palestinian.
Abu Thurayya posed no threat to the Israeli military. How could he? At 20, he had to have both his legs amputated after being attacked in April 2008 during an Israeli invasion of a Gaza refugee camp. In the final instance of his defiance, Abu Thurayya was holding only a Palestinian flag. He confronted his oppressor at a protest. An Israeli soldier on the other side of Gaza’s eastern fence fired at him, piercing his forehead with a bullet. Abu Thurayya had been sitting on his wheelchair.
A statement from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights states that “there is nothing whatsoever to suggest that Ibrahim Abu Thurayya was posing an imminent threat of death or serious injury when he was killed.” The statement adds: “Given his severe disability, which must have been clearly visible to those who shot him, his killing is incomprehensible – a truly shocking and wanton act.”
Tamimi is luckier not to have been killed but a victim of Israeli aggression all the same. Trying to prevent Israeli forces from raiding her family’s home in Nabi Saleh and defending her village, she slapped a soldier of the Israeli Defense Forces, a video of which went vital.
On both sides of the aisle, Tamimi has sparked positions poles apart. Israel’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett said Tamimi should spend the rest of her life behind bars while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan awarded her for “bravely confronting the IDF”.
The teenage girl and the handicapped man are hailed as heroes and the symbol of resistance in Palestine for bravely confronting Israeli soldiers. And there will be more such champions. Since the US Jerusalem announcement, there have been violent confrontations in Gaza, as well as across the occupied West Bank for the past three Fridays. Many Palestinians have been killed, hundreds injured, emboldened by the outcome of recent votes at the UN which rejected any changes to the status of Jerusalem.
As Israel’s occupation army tries to justify and rationalize its use of force against civilian demonstrators, it will continue its brutality against Palestinians. While Israel wants to minimize the damage of images of occupation forces killing in cold blood a disabled activist and dragging children from their homes in the middle of the night, it will continue its assault. But there are thousands of Thurayyas and Tamimis willing and ready to stand up to Israel. They are not being used, as Israel claims, by the Palestinians as propaganda tools. The Palestinians are in no need of spreading false information or furthering an agenda to harm Israel. The whole world knows what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. Abu Thurayya and Tamimi and tens of thousands like them are real people fighting a real war against a real enemy.
His disability did not make him immune to Israel’s lethal weapons. Her young age did not stop Israel from dehumanizing her. But in their own ways, Abu Thurayya and Tamimi have been victorious over Israel. He continued defying Israel until the end. She will probably continue the struggle.
With their positive attitude, they have provided an extraordinary example of Palestinian dignity and resistance.
