16-year-old Ahed, her 20-year-old cousin Nur, and her mother, Nariman, have been in prison for nearly a week. Activists in Tel Aviv say the vigil is meant to remind the Israeli public of the reality of the occupation.

Solidarity vigil outside the Ministry of Defense in protest of the arrest of the women of the Tamimi family. December 24, 2017. (Haim Schwarczenberg)

Activists from the Coalition of Women for Peace staged a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Defense on Sunday evening to protest the detention of Ahed, Nariman, and Nur Tamimi, of Nabi Saleh. Some of the demonstrators kneeled, their eyes blindfolded, while others held signs reading, “It’s not the slap, it’s the occupation,” and called for the three Palestinian women to be released from prison. After a few minutes, security guards removed the demonstrators from the area.

Last week, the Ofer Prison military court extended the detentions of the three Tamimi women. Ahed, 16, was arrested during a nighttime raid on the family home after a video surfaced showing her attempting to push Israeli soldiers off of the family’s patio by cursing and hitting them. The video was filmed around an hour after a 15-year-old Tamimi relative was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet by a soldier from the same unit. Several hours later, Nariman, Ahed’s mother, who videoed the incident and streamed it on Facebook, was arrested. The next night, Ahed’s cousin Nur, 20, who also appears in the video, was arrested as well. Today, Monday, they will face a hearing regarding the extension of their detention.

Tanya Rubinstein, co-coordinator for the Coalition of Women for Peace, told Local Call:

Last week, we saw how the media and the Israeli discourse distort the reality beyond all proportion. And the reality is this: a 16-year-old girl and two other women have been imprisoned for days after the army raided their home in the middle of the night; after years of nighttime raids and arrests and attacks on protesters in their village, whose land has been stolen by the surrounding settlements with the support of the state and the army. Just as we stood in the streets of Tel Aviv tonight to remind the public of the reality in which the Tamimi family lives, we will continue to remind the Israeli public that the reality of the occupation cannot be hidden behind walls, checkpoints, or settlements.

Solidarity vigil outside the Ministry of Defense to protest the arrest of the women of the Tamimi family. December 24, 2017. (Haim Schwarczenberg)

This post first appeared in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.