The video of Ahed, screened repeatedly on Israeli TV, has threatened to upturn Israel's self-image as David fighting an Arab Goliath. This explains the toxic outrage and indignation that has gripped Israel since the video aired.
Predictably, Israeli politicians were incensed. Naftali Bennett, the education minister, called for Ahed to "end her life in jail." Culture minister Miri Regev, a former army spokeswoman, said she felt personally "humiliated" and "crushed" by Ahed.
But more troubling is a media debate that has characterized the soldiers' failure to beat Ahed in response to her slaps as a "national shame."
The revered television host Yaron London expressed astonishment that the soldiers "refrained from using their weapons" against her, wondering whether they "hesitated out of cowardice."
But far more sinister were the threats from Ben Caspit, a leading Israeli analyst. In a column, he said Ahed's actions made "every Israeli's blood boil." He proposed subjecting her to retribution "in the dark, without witnesses and cameras," adding that his own form of revenge would lead to his certain detention.
That fantasy -- of cold-bloodedly violating an incarcerated child -- should have sickened every Israeli. And yet Mr Caspit is still safely ensconced in his job.
But aside from exposing the sickness of a society addicted to dehumanizing and oppressing Palestinians, including children, Ahed's case raises the troubling question of what kind of resistance Israelis think Palestinians are permitted.
International law, at least, is clear. The United Nations has stated that people under occupation are allowed to use "all available means," including armed struggle, to liberate themselves.
But Ahed, the villagers of Nabi Saleh and many Palestinians like them have preferred to adopt a different strategy -- a confrontational, militant civil disobedience. Their resistance defies the occupier's assumption that it is entitled to lord it over Palestinians.
Their approach contrasts strongly with the constant compromises and so-called "security cooperation" accepted by the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas.
According to Israeli commentator Gideon Levy, Ahed's case demonstrates that Israelis deny Palestinians the right not only to use rockets, guns, knives or stones, but even to what he mockingly terms an "uprising of slappings."
Ahed and Nabi Saleh have shown that popular unarmed resistance -- if it is to discomfort Israel and the world -- cannot afford to be passive or polite. It must be fearless, antagonistic and disruptive.
Most of all, it must hold up a mirror to the oppressor. Ahed has exposed the gun-wielding bully lurking in the soul of too many Israelis. That is a lesson worthy of Gandhi or Mandela.
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