An photo exhibition putting the spotlight on Ahed Tamimi and other Palestinian child prisoners will open tonight at the women’s jail in Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa. This exhibition features images I have taken over the years in Nabi Saleh.

For more information on the event: Campaign Launch: Celebrating Ahed Tamimi’s Life
The exhibition will remain open until mid March.
if any of this blog’s readers is in the area, you are welcome to attend. Below are a few of the images featured in this exhibition.

“I first met Ahed in 2011, when she was ten. I was captivated by a group of children playing with discarded tear gas canisters, fired shortly before by the soldiers during a demo. Ahed was among these children. A few weeks passed and I documented the slaying of Mostaffa Tamimi, Ahed’s cousin during one of these demos. This was a traumatic experience for me on a personal level, which led to symptoms of post trauma such as numbness, detachment and introversion. I can only imagine how this, and similar incidents involving life threatening situations and loss, may have affected Ahed and other children growing up in the village.

August of 2012, following a long period when residents of the village attempted to reach their water fountain, taken over settlers, as a symbolic gesture during protests, a group of women from the village, lead by Ahed, manages to reach it. I documented the look of a triumph on her face as she marches, a Palestinian flag in her hand, towards the fountain.

Minutes later, her mother, Nariman Tamimi, is violently arrested by soldiers before Ahed’s eyes. I documented soldiers holding Ahed back as she attempts to reach her mother.

2014. I document many incidents where women of the village attempt to block snipers’ trajectory using their bodies, in order to protect family members and friends. Ahed is among them.

12/19/17 Despite their continuous heavy repression which includes the killing of several people, among them Ahed’s uncle, Rushdi Tamimi, hundreds of injuries, and ongoing waves of arrests, protests refuse to die down in the small village.
Following the publication of a video, showing Ahed, her cousin Nur and her mother Nariman, pushing away soldiers who invaded their home, Ahed is arrested in the dead of night by Israeli soldiers.

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