A pro-Hamas influencer was arrested by the IDF Monday morning after calling for the murder of Jews in West Bank on Instagram, the Jerusalem Post reports.
In the now-deleted post, 22-year-old Ahed Tamimi allegedly wrote on her Instagram story last week: “Come on settlers, we will slaughter you. We are waiting for you in all the cities of the West Bank.
“What Hitler did to you was a joke," she said. "We will drink your blood and eat your skulls.”
The IDF stated to AFP that she was suspected of “inciting violence and terrorist activities.”
Tamimi has been a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel movement since around 2018 when she gained notoriety online from distributing videos of herself attacking IDF soldiers in her neighborhood of Nabi Saleh.
She was arrested in March 2018 for violently assaulting an officer along with her mother and other young women and was subsequently sentenced to 8 months in prison.
In May 2018, she became an honorary member of the Palestinian National Council. She has written a book called ’They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom," which was published in 2022.
After the post was screenshot and shared online, the account from which it came from, @ahed_taimi15, was quickly deleted. Many on social media were quick to claim the account was a fake account under Tamimi’s name.
Tamimi’s mother, Nariman, stated to AFP: "There are dozens of [online] pages in Ahed's name with her photo, with which she has no connection.”
However the account was presumably confirmed to be hers by X user @aradboaz who documented multiple instances of the account, which he showed had 93.6k followers, seeming legitimate.
He detailed cases of the @ahed_tamimi handle being used to tag Tamimi by other Instagram users including the official Jewish Voice For Peace account.
Following Tamimi’s arrest Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted to Facebook:
"Kudos to the IDF and the rest of the security forces who arrested the terrorist and 'human rights activist' Ehad Tamimi Manbi Saleh, who was previously convicted of attacking IDF soldiers and since the outbreak of the war has expressed sympathy and support for the Nazi human beings on social media … Zero tolerance with terrorists and supporters of terrorism! Just like that!"
He included a picture of Tamimi being detained in a bedroom:
International human rights lawyer Hillel Neuer called out Amnesty International on X after a post from them calling Tamimi “a powerful symbol of Palestinian resistance” from 2018 surfaced. They have not yet commented on the arrest or allegations.
