📖: They Called Me A Lioness by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri 

Thank you Penguin Random House Audio for a free copy of the audiobook to read. 

This memoir should be required reading. I have read some nonfiction history books about Palestine and the occupation of Palestinian people but this book brought a level of emotion to it that will sit with me for a very long time.

Ahed grew up in the West Bank and learned quickly what living under occupation was like. She watched family members experience violence. Witnessed neighbors lose their homes due to the land theft. And she also saw the resistance of Palestinian people in her community as they tried to hold on their homes, land and fight for the freedom of their people. She had many interactions with the IOF but at 16 when she slapped an IOF officer in the face and it was caught on camera and uploaded for the world to see, her family began to fear that Ahed would be arrested. 

She was arrested and convicted and placed in prison. She talks about the solidarity in the prisons but also the raw emotions of separation from her family. Ahed was one of the few girls in the prison allowed visits from her mother and she and her mom noticed quickly how their interactions would bring sadness and longing to the other girls. Ahed’s mother became a surrogate mother to them for affection and motherly love and Ahed’s interactions with her mother were tamed to not cause pain to her fellow friends. This part broke me and made me just cry. 

Ahed has had to grow up quickly to adjust and survive a brutal occupation that continues to rip apart her family, friends, neighbors and people. Since October 2023, Ahed was arrested again for “inciting violence” but it was proven that she did not do any such thing and was released after spending days under IOF custody. 

As always, keep calling for a permanent and lasting ceasefire and an end to the occupation. Free 🇵🇸