Palestinian girls filmed slapping soldiers in apparent provocation
Servicemen don’t react to what look like attempts to get them act violently on camera
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
Palestinian teenage girls slapped and harassed IDF soldiers in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on Friday, in an apparent attempt to get the servicemen to act violently so the encounter could be filmed and distributed online, according to video footage that surfaced Monday.
In the video, which was spread widely on social media, a group of three Palestinian girls and an older woman could be seen approaching two Israeli soldiers who were standing guard in the village.
The teenage girls can be seen hitting the soldiers, yelling at them and — at one point — slapping one of them across the face.
Throughout the encounter, the girls film the soldiers with cellphones, which seems to indicate that they were trying to instigate a violent response from the soldiers.
The servicemen, however, do not oblige them. Throughout the encounter, the soldiers refrain from retaliating, though they do defend themselves from the harder blows.
Nabi Saleh has been the frequent staging ground for provoked clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians, specifically members of the Tamimi clan, which has a history of getting involved in highly publicized interactions with the IDF.
For instance, in August 2015, an IDF soldier was caught on film trying to arrest 12-year-old Muhammad Tamimi, who had been throwing rocks during a violent protest.
In the footage, the soldier appears to forcefully restrain the boy, whose arm is in a cast. On several occasions, he grabs the child around the neck, and presses his head against a boulder to keep him still.
A group of women and children, including Muhammad’s sister A’hd, then begin fighting with the soldier, punching him repeatedly while he holds down the boy. At one point, A’hd bites his hand.
The video of the scuffle went viral online, drawing millions of views.
As a 13-year-old, A’hd gained fame among Palestinian activists for a November 2012 incident in which she led a group of children, including her brother Muhammad, in arguing with Israeli soldiers.
In a video of the incident, she can be seen repeatedly raising her balled fist at a soldier, poised to hit him, but never actually doing so.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised her and gave her a “Courage Award” in Istanbul. A’hd, in turn, encouraged Erdogan to support boycotts of Israel.
The Times of Israel Community.