Ramallah, September 10 (RHC)-- Bassem Tamimi, the father of recently released Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi, has confirmed that Israel has banned the Tamimi family from traveling abroad. According to Bassem, his family had planned to travel to Europe via Jordan but were unable to do so because of the travel ban.
"The Israeli occupation forces declared the Tamimi family is banned from traveling abroad. After we prepared ourselves to travel to Belgium, France, and Spain and set the flight date of the flight tomorrow morning, we were informed by civil affairs we are forbidden to travel abroad," Bassem posted on his Facebook page.
The family was scheduled to leave over the weekend to participate in a series of events to discuss Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation and talk about the experience of being detained in Israel.
Ahed was released from prison on July 29th after serving an 8-month sentence for slapping fully-armed Israeli soldiers as they attempted to expel them from her home. The video of Tamimi, then a 16-year old girl, was uploaded to social media by her mother Nariman and went viral.
Nariman was also arrested by Israeli forces and released together with her daughter. Most members of the Tamimi family have been either detained, beaten, or shot at by Israeli forces.
The Tamimi family lives in the town of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank, known for weekly protests against the expansion of a nearby Jewish-only settlement Halamish. Israel has continuously targeted the Tamimi family due to their active resistance against the illegal occupation.
Between December 2017 and August 2018, several members of the Tamimi family have been either injured, killed, or imprisoned by Israel. In December, 15-year-old cousin Mohammed Tamimi was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet. Mohammed required "intensive surgery, where part of his skull was removed, in order to dislodge the rubber bullet," Amnesty International reported. Months later, Israeli forces arrested the Palestinian teen.
In January, 16-year-old Musaab Tamimi was shot in the neck in the nearby village of Deir Nidham. He died as a result of his wound. In June, Israeli occupation forces killed another member of the Tamimi family, 21-year-old Ezz al-Din Tamimi, who was shot at close range during an early morning raid.
Most recently, Ahed’s older brother Waed Tamimi was sentenced to 14 months in prison for throwing stones at soldiers in 2016 and 2017.
