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February 20, 2018 10:54 am
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Dear Sarah Silverman: Amnesty Is Lying About the Tamimis

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avatar by Petra Marquardt-Bigman

Opinion

Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi enters a military courtroom escorted by Israeli security personnel at Ofer Prison, near Ramallah, Jan. 15, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Ammar Awad.

Dear Sarah Silverman — it seems that you have been taken in by Amnesty International’s cynical campaign for Ahed Tamimi. A few days ago, you linked to Amnesty’s “urgent” demand to “release Palestinian teen activist Ahed Tamimi,” and told your more than 12 million followers on Twitter: “Jews have to stand up EVEN when — especially when — the wrongdoing is BY Jews/the Israeli government.”

To make matters worse, you then re-tweeted a reply that invoked the Holocaust: “Amen! My grandparents did not survive the atrocities of the holocaust for me to be silent about injustice.”

Perhaps you don’t know much about the Tamimis, and believe Amnesty’s mendacious claim that Ahed Tamimi is just a “17-year-old Palestinian activist” who deserves to be called the “Rosa Parks of Palestine” — because “she and her family have bravely stood up against the Israeli occupation” for years.

Well, Amnesty is lying about the Tamimis. As Amnesty knows full well, Ahed’s family has emphasized in media interviews for years, that they hope to instigate a “third intifada” that would end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. And for years, Ahed’s family has demonstrated their support for terrorism, and their ardent Jew-hatred.

While I have documented all this in great detail, it’s worthwhile adding a few updates that illustrate just how brazen the Tamimis are in their open support for terrorism — even when they know full well that the media spotlight is on them.

On February 6, Ahed’s father Bassem Tamimi responded to the news that Israeli security forces had killed the Hamas terrorist responsible for the murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevach four weeks earlier, by posting a tribute to the terrorist on Facebook: “Glory, mercy, and peace on your soul in Heaven.”

Praising murderous terrorists is presumably what qualifies as ‘bravely standing up to the Israeli occupation’ for Amnesty International.

And the tribute Ahed’s father paid to the murderer of Rabbi Raziel Shevach is just the latest example of the Tamimis’ unwavering support for terrorism.

Last September, Ahed attended an event at the European Parliament in Brussels that prompted the endorsement of a proposal “to systematically deny access to all persons, groups, or entities involved in terrorist acts.”

Among Ahed Tamimi’s co-panelists at this event was the notorious Palestinian airline hijacker Leila Khaled, who reportedly denounced Israel as the Nazi Germany of our time, and urged the audience to demand that their governments “cease all cooperation with the Zionist state.” Ahed used the occasion to faithfully echo her family’s rejection of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state by declaring: “The occupation is not only the theft of land. We oppose racism, Zionism, the entire system of occupation and not only the settlements.”

Together with her father, Bassem Tamimi, Ahed also campaigned during this event for the release of Georges Abdallah, a Lebanese terrorist who has been serving a life sentence in France since 1987, when he was found guilty of the murder of a US official and an Israeli diplomat — as well as involvement in another attempt to assassinate an American diplomat.

The fact of the matter is that Ahed has grown up being taught that terrorists don’t deserve to be imprisoned for their crimes, but that they should be admired as heroes devoted to the Palestinian cause. After all, her own family includes several murderous terrorists.

Ahed’s uncle Nizar Tamimi and another Tamimi family member were involved in the stabbing and burning of an Israeli back in 1993 — a murder that was seen as an attempt to derail the Oslo peace process. Nizar Tamimi is married to Ahlam Tamimi, the proud mastermind and facilitator of a suicide bombing that caused carnage at a crowded Jerusalem Sbarro restaurant in August 2001.

Among Ahlam Tamimi’s most ardent admirers is Ahed’s mother Nariman Tamimi. Her support for the Sbarro massacre mastermind is clearly reflected in numerous posts on her Facebook page. One of the recent examples is from last spring.

When the FBI announced that Ahlam Tamimi was on the agency’s list of Most Wanted Terrorists, Nariman Tamimi shared a poster showing the Sbarro massacre mastermind flashing a victory sign; the text on the poster praised Ahlam Tamimi’s “sacrifices” and emphasized “her right to wage resistance against the plundering occupier.”

The “US demand to hand her over” was rejected with the slogan “#All of us are_Ahlam_Tamimi” — a cynical repurposing of a familiar expression of solidarity with victims of terrorism, which Nariman Tamimi reaffirmed to show her support: “#All of us are_Ahlam_Tamimi.”

Declaring solidarity with the Sbarro massacre mastermind is apparently — as far as Amnesty is concerned — ‘bravely standing up against the Israeli occupation.’

Let me ask you, Sarah Silverman: how would you feel if you had lost a loved one in a Palestinian terror attack, and now see a powerful organization like Amnesty energetically campaigning for the family of the perpetrator — even though this family keeps declaring their admiration and support for the murderous terrorist?

I have said repeatedly that it would obviously be unfair to hold Ahed Tamimi responsible for how she was brought up; yet, it is also inevitable that she will suffer for making her parents proud by fully embracing their fanaticism.

While Amnesty wants you to see Ahed Tamimi as an admirable “17-year-old Palestinian activist” who deserves to be called the “Rosa Parks of Palestine,” a few months ago this “Rosa Parks” posted a picture on her Facebook page that shows gunmen masked with Palestinian keffiyeh scarves with the text: “Tell the fighters all over the world that they are my friends.”

And, of course, when her mother asked her for a “message to the world” after she had attacked the Israeli soldiers, Amnesty’s “Rosa Parks of Palestine” almost casually listed stabbings and suicide bombings among the things that people should do to show their solidarity with Palestine.

And why wouldn’t Ahed Tamimi call for deadly stabbings and suicide bombings? After all, it’s just what her relatives have done. As a result, they are now greatly admired by the rest of the family as heroes.

So this is the family that according to Amnesty has “bravely stood up against the Israeli occupation” for years.

Last — but not least — consider this: Amnesty isn’t just whitewashing the Tamimis’ longstanding support for terrorism; the organization is also hiding some shocking and tragic statistics when they present Ahed Tamimi as just another Palestinian teen unjustly imprisoned by Israel.

Sadly, it would be more appropriate to see Ahed Tamimi as one of the countless Palestinian teenagers who have been taught that terrorism is something admirable: the list of young Palestinians involved in terror attacks — including suicide bombings — is depressingly long, and during the so-called “stabbing intifada” that started in the Fall of 2015, dozens of Palestinian teens did exactly what Ahed Tamimi advocated in her recent “message to the world.”

Let’s look at one of these stabbings, which starkly illustrates how vile it is when Amnesty now claims that the Tamimi family has “bravely stood up against the Israeli occupation” for years.

In June 2016, a teenage Palestinian terrorist killed 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel after breaking into her home. Responding to the news about this murder, Ahed’s mother Nariman Tamimi shared a Facebook post from another Tamimi family member that hailed the murder of Hallel Yaffa as an act that helped “to return to the homeland its awe/reverence.”

Whether it’s murdering and maiming families having lunch at a Jerusalem pizzeria, or butchering a sleeping 13-year-old girl in her bedroom, or the deadly drive-by shooting of a rabbi, the Tamimis will always freely express their admiration and support for the terrorist perpetrators and their horrendous acts — while Amnesty will cynically claim that the Tamimi family has “bravely stood up against the Israeli occupation” for years.

Dear Sarah Silverman — are you really willing to support this cynical whitewashing of a family that glorifies terrorism and educates their kids to do the same?

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