A prominent Palestinian actor, Maisa Abdel Hadi, has been detained on suspicion of “incitement to terrorism” due to a social media post related to Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, as confirmed by both the police and her lawyer on Tuesday.
Hadi, who resides in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth and holds Israeli citizenship, was arrested on Monday and is currently in custody until Thursday, according to the police.
She is among several Palestinian Israelis who have been detained for their social media posts discussing the ongoing conflict.
Hadi’s post allegedly featured an image of a bulldozer breaching the fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel during the October 7 attack by Hamas, an incident in which Israel reported over 1,400 casualties. The Hamas government in Gaza claims that more than 5,000 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes on the coastal territory.
In her caption, she wrote, “Let’s go Berlin-style,” making a reference to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which separated East and West Germany.
Her attorney, Jaafar Farah, who is also the director of the human rights association Mousawat, stated that she is accused of supporting terrorism. Maisa Abdel Hadi, a 37-year-old actor, has appeared in various series, films, and plays.
This incident is part of a broader trend where members of Israel’s Arab minority and Palestinians in East Jerusalem have faced consequences such as job terminations, college expulsions, and arrests for expressing solidarity with Gaza residents on social media since the recent escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas.
