A current act of Palestinian dissent -- Ahed Tamimi's slap of an Israeli soldier -- has captured the global media's attention. What is its significance?
Shapiro: I think the significance is not in Ahed's slap, but rather in Israel's use of this slap to exact extreme retaliation against Palestinian women and girls, whom it abuses daily in the context of a belligerent military occupation.
It is ridiculous to even focus on this incident, and not on Israel's ongoing military occupation and oppression of Palestinians. Israel's focus on this case -- or any other arrests of Palestinians, for that matter -- has to do with housekeeping of its massive Indigenous-population-control system. The myopia of colonialist bureaucracy entails arrest and trial of the offender, but is couched in a reality in which it is an offense to exist. Israel's response to Ahed is no different than any other high-profile Palestinian prisoner. It is Ahed's identity -- one of a teenage girl -- that highlights the dehumanizing view Israel has of Palestinians.