Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi Drops the Mask; Declares Battle Against Jews, Not Zionism

By: Fern Sidman

Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi, once lionized by sections of the international press as the youthful face of Palestinian “resistance,” has once again ignited controversy with a series of incendiary remarks that blur the line between political activism and outright antisemitism.

Speaking on The Enlightenment Podcast on YouTube on August 8, Tamimi declared that Palestinians are “fighting the Jews, not Zionism,” and went so far as to say she now “wishes for a World War III.” The comments, flagged and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), have sparked alarm and reignited debates about the ways Tamimi has been portrayed in Western discourse.

As The Algemeiner reported on Thursday, Tamimi’s rhetoric has long oscillated between radical incitement and attempts to frame herself as a human rights activist. Her most recent statements, however, mark one of the starkest and most troubling shifts yet—casting the conflict not as a political or territorial dispute, but as a cosmic battle against Jews themselves.

Tamimi, now 24, told the podcast’s hosts that she was “raised [to believe] that Judaism means occupation,” adding, “Today, tomorrow, and a million years from now, I will continue to say that Judaism [should] be presented to the children of Palestine … as occupation, and that we are fighting the Jews, not Zionism.”

The phrasing drew particular scrutiny, because it explicitly collapses Judaism—a religion practiced by millions worldwide—into the political dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. As The Algemeiner emphasized in its coverage, such framing strips the conflict of its geopolitical context and casts it as an essential religious and ethnic struggle, aligning with antisemitic narratives rather than legitimate political discourse.

In another striking declaration, Tamimi insisted, “The whole world needs to shut up, when a Palestinian is talking. We are superior to the entire world, because we are the only ones in the world fighting injustice, at the expense of our lives, and the expense of our humanity.”

Tamimi’s comments took an even darker turn as she expressed a desire for global destruction. “I have reached a point where I wish for a World War III. Whoever dies, dies, and whoever lives, lives. The important thing is that we will be over with this,” she said.

“Let the whole world be destroyed, I don’t care,” she continued. “Let them drop nuclear bombs, and destroy the whole world, so it won’t be just the Palestinians.”

Analysts cited by The Algemeiner noted that these statements reflect not only the despair embedded in parts of Palestinian society but also a nihilistic worldview that eschews solutions in favor of catastrophic collapse. Such rhetoric, they argue, undermines claims that Tamimi is a mere symbol of youthful resistance and instead positions her as a voice of radical extremism.

These latest remarks are not without precedent. As The Algemeiner report indicated, Tamimi has a history of incendiary public statements. In November 2023, she posted to Instagram: “Come on settlers, we are waiting for you in all the West Bank cities from Hebron to Jenin – we will slaughter you and you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke.” In the same post, she added: “We will drink your blood and eat your skull. Come on, we are waiting for you.”

The grotesque imagery shocked many observers, yet it did not entirely dislodge her reputation in some Western outlets as a Palestinian activist standing for human rights. The discrepancy between her rhetoric and her international reception has been a recurring theme in commentary from The Algemeiner, which has consistently cautioned against romanticizing Tamimi without confronting the substance of her statements.

Tamimi first rose to prominence in 2017 when, at age 16, she was filmed slapping and kicking Israeli soldiers in her village of Nabi Saleh. The video went viral, quickly becoming a rallying image for Palestinians and their supporters, while also sparking intense debate about Israel’s handling of the occupation and the ethics of child involvement in confrontations with the military.

As The Algemeiner has reported, Israeli soldiers did not retaliate in the moment but later arrested Tamimi. She was convicted on four counts—including assaulting an IDF officer and soldier, incitement, and interfering with military operations—and sentenced to eight months in prison with an additional eight months’ probation.

Her release in July 2018 was treated by many Palestinian factions as a victory, and international media outlets—from European newspapers to major U.S. publishers—embraced her story. Penguin Random House even secured her for a book deal. Yet, as critics cited by The Algemeiner have pointed out, this acclaim often glossed over the deeper radicalization evident in her rhetoric.

One of the most striking aspects of Tamimi’s trajectory, highlighted in The Algemeiner report, is the contrast between her rhetoric and the way she is received in Western cultural and political spaces. While international organizations and publishers have often described her as a “human rights defender,” her repeated invocations of genocidal imagery and antisemitic tropes paint a different picture.

The danger, analysts argue, lies in normalizing such rhetoric under the banner of resistance. “When someone with Tamimi’s profile says, ‘We will slaughter you,’ or openly longs for World War III, it delegitimizes the Palestinian cause in the eyes of global observers,” one expert told The Algemeiner.

By equating Judaism itself with occupation, Tamimi effectively collapses the distinction between Israeli policies and Jewish identity. As The Algemeiner report said, this erasure feeds into broader antisemitic currents, portraying Jews everywhere as enemies of Palestinian liberation.

Such rhetoric has real-world consequences. It risks justifying violence not only against Israeli civilians but against Jews globally, reinforcing the dangerous conflation of political opposition to Israel with hatred of Jews.

Defenders of Tamimi often stress her youth, suggesting her rhetoric reflects the anger of a generation raised amid violence and occupation. Yet at 24, Tamimi is no longer the teenager who became famous for slapping soldiers. Her comments are increasingly deliberate, formed, and radical.

As The Algemeiner report observed, her evolution highlights the international media’s failure to reassess figures once canonized as symbols. Instead of re-examining the substance of her worldview, many outlets have continued to present her as an emblem of youthful defiance, despite mounting evidence of her extremist convictions.

Ahed Tamimi’s recent declarations on The Enlightenment Podcast—that she fights Jews, not Zionism, and wishes for World War III—mark a troubling new chapter in her career as a Palestinian activist. While once portrayed by sympathetic Western media as a courageous young voice for human rights, Tamimi now openly embraces rhetoric steeped in the most egregious forms of antisemitism, incitement, and nihilism.

Her remarks cannot be dismissed as rhetorical excess. They represent a worldview in which the eradication of Jews is normalized, mass destruction is welcomed, and the conflict is stripped of political nuance in favor of apocalyptic confrontation.

For Palestinians, Israelis, and the broader international community, the implications are sobering. Figures such as Tamimi, amplified by global media and publishing platforms, play a significant role in shaping perceptions of the conflict. Whether the world chooses to take her words seriously—or to continue romanticizing her as a symbol—remains a pressing question.

What is clear is that Ahed Tamimi’s rhetoric now sits firmly in the realm of incitement, and that her continued platforming without scrutiny risks normalizing a message that is neither about justice nor peace, but about hatred and destruction.