INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ahed Tamimi, who was 16 at the time of her detention, faced 12 charges, including aggravated assault.Nabi Saleh, West Bank: A Palestinian
teenager released by Israel on Sunday after completing a prison term for kicking and slapping an Israeli soldier urged continued struggle
against Israeli occupation of the West Bank, a call echoed by the Palestinian president.Ahed Tamimi, 17, became a heroine to Palestinians
after the incident last December outside her home in Nabi Saleh, a village which has campaigned for years against land seizures by Israel,
leading to confrontations with the Israeli military and Jewish settlers.Israelis regarded the incident, which Tamimi's mother relayed live
on Facebook, as a staged provocation.Tamimi, who was 16 at the time of her detention, faced 12 charges, including aggravated assault
In March, she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge sheet that included assault and was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, dating back to
her arrest in December.Wearing her trademark black-and-white chequered Arab scarf, Tamimi greeted dozens of well-wishers in brief remarks
outside the home of a Nabi Saleh villager killed by Israeli forces."From this martyr's house, I say: resistance is continuing until the
occupation is removed," she told reporters
"All the female prisoners in jail are strong, and I thank everyone who stood by me while I was in prison."She scheduled a news conference
for 4 p.m.Palestinians want the West Bank for a future state, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip
Most countries consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal, something Israel disputes.US-sponsored negotiations on founding
a Palestinian state alongside Israel have been stalled since 2014.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a statement published by the
official news agency Wafa after he met Tamimi and her mother, described the teenager as "a model of peaceful civil resistance, proving to
the world that our Palestinian people will stand firm and constant on their land, no matter what the sacrifice".Tamimi's case drew global
attention and Amnesty International said after her conviction that her sentence was at odds with international law
Amnesty said that imprisonment of a minor must be used only as a last resort for the shortest appropriate period of time.© Thomson Reuters
