Palestinian protest icon Ahed Tamimi revealed on Monday that she was looking to pursue a law degree and possibly seek a life in politics to expose Israeli’s violations to the world.
The 17-year-old teenager vowed to keep demonstrating against Israeli occupation, she told The Associate Press a day after she was released rom Israeli prison after an eight-month sentence for slapping two Israeli soldiers.
The incident was caught on film, making her a hero among Palestinians and their supporters worldwide.
She told AFP that she understood she had become a "symbol" of the Palestinian cause.
"Of course, my life has been changed a lot. I changed a lot in prison," said Tamimi. "I became more focused, more aware also. Prison ages a person. In one day you age 100 years.”
Asked if she would have done the same thing if she had known it would land her behind bars for months, she said yes.
"I would like to be lawyer to convey the voice of my country and the message of my people," Tamimi told The Associated Press. "I expect to have a political future.”
She also said she will "always be in the field," referring to the protests regularly held against Israeli settlement-building and other actions in the West Bank.
Tamimi struck the soldiers outside her West Bank home in frustration after learning that troops wounded a cousin in nearby clashes.
"I didn't do anything wrong that I should regret," she told AFP. "If I had known I would be in jail eight months, of course I would have done it because it was a natural reaction to a soldier being in my house shooting at people, people from my village.”
"Any person in this situation -- I hit him, maybe there are people that would have killed him."
She said there had been daily protests and clashes with Israeli soldiers in December after US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a move that upended decades of US foreign policy and an international consensus that the city's status should be settled in negotiations.
"Soldiers used to deliberately come through the area of my house, and shoot from the entrance of the house," Tamimi told the AP. She said the soldier she confronted was the same one who had shot her cousin "only five minutes" earlier. She said that soldiers had shot tear gas at her house even though there was an elderly couple inside.
Tamimi has since become a hero to the Palestinians and an international symbol of resistance to Israel's occupation.
Israeli authorities treated her actions as a criminal offense, indicting her on charges of assault and incitement.
Tamimi has long been active in protests in her village of Nebi Saleh, which have been held on a weekly basis since 2009 to protest the expansion of a nearby Jewish settlement.
