From Amy Abdullah Barry in Dublin

A keffiyeh scarf around her neck, she is a symbol,
with a voice.

‘I protest now and forever,’ she says. Words repeated whenever anyone looks on the huge mural of her face that crosses the divide,
between Palestine and Israel. One land ailing,
the other fattening.

Despite the machine guns and air strikes
that plunder the schools and homes around her, there is little bitterness
in a voice that has known
eight months of imprisonment for slapping a soldier, who shot her cousin in the face,

‘I want to see peace without borders,
without occupation.’
Others have said the ultimate evil
is knowing wrong, and looking away. These are words without a face,
words that somehow drift in our minds, that seemed always to exist,
ancient as cave paintings,
greed or hate.

‘I ask you now – what
are
you
going to do?’
Her face questions those who pass it, those who view it on a distant screen.

Ahed’s imprisonment in December 2017 sparked international condemnation, shined a spotlight on children prisoners in Israeli jails.

Recently in November 2023, Ahed at 22 years: old was arrested again. The Israeli army has reportedly denied her family’s request to disclose her whereabouts, though it is believed she might be held at Damun Prison.