Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas met on Sunday with Palestinian Arab teenager Ahed Tamimi after she was released from an Israeli prison.
Tamimi finished serving a prison sentence for assaulting an officer and a soldier and a number of incitement offenses.
She was filmed slapping an Israeli soldier during a protest of leftists and Palestinian Arabs in her town of Nabi Saleh. She was subsequently sentenced to eight months' imprisonment in practice and fined 5,000 shekels as part of a plea bargain.
In a meeting at Abbas’ office in Ramallah, the PA chairman said that "the Palestinian young woman Ahed Tamimi is an example of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence and for the establishment of our independent Palestinian state."
According to PA media, Abbas further said that "the popular pattern of popular resistance adopted by Ahed Tamimi and the residents of Nabi Saleh and other Palestinian communities proves to the world that the Palestinian people adhere to their basic principles and protects them regardless of the size of the sacrifice."