Police have arrested a leading Arab-Israeli actress for allegedly expressing support for Hamas’ attack on Israel. The arrest of Maisa Abdel Hadi, who has starred in several popular series and films, comes amid growing scrutiny of social media posts by Palestinians about the ongoing conflict with Israel. Her attorney says the actor has been questioned over a post on Facebook that was viewed as endorsing Palestinian resistance group Hamas’ breach of the Gaza Strip-Israel border during its surprise October 7 attack on Israel. Israeli police, without naming her, said she was arrested on suspicion of “expressions of praise [for terror] and hate speech.”
In the post, she shared images of 85-year-old hostage Yaffa Adar with laughing emojis, as well as one showing Hamas forces breaching Israel’s security barrier. In her caption, she wrote, “Let’s go Berlin-style,” referencing the fall of the Berlin Wall that separated Germany until 1989. The 37-year-old has played roles in multiple Israeli series and movies, including this year’s World War Z opposite Brad Pitt.
She is one of several Arab Israelis imprisoned because of social media remarks about the ongoing conflict, which has killed more than 5,000 people on both sides. Rights campaigners and Israeli police have reported cases of members of Israel’s Arab minority and Palestinians in East Jerusalem being fired, expelled from colleges, and even jailed for expressing solidarity with residents of the Gaza Strip on social media since the beginning of the deadly war.
Abdel Hadi, who is from Nazareth, has been taken into custody on suspicion of “incitement to terrorism” over the post, police and her lawyer said Tuesday. Her next hearing is scheduled for Thursday, her lawyer told Haaretz.
The incident marks a new low in a long-running dispute over how to deal with the violence between Israel and Palestinians. It highlights how the Israeli government uses its control over social media as a way to censor its citizens. Many Arab Israelis, whose population makes up about a fifth of the country’s total population, have expressed their outrage at the crackdown on free speech and what they see as a biased media portrayal of the conflict.
Israelis have become accustomed to seeing the violence on their television screens, but the public is also waking up to how brutal and inhumane the war is. Social media has been a powerful tool for Palestinians to document the horrors of Israel’s attacks while providing an alternative to the state-controlled media to which they are often subjected.
The Israeli military’s use of drone strikes, bombing, and other violent tactics has raised the number of civilian casualties. It has also drawn international condemnation and criticism from the international community and has led to accusations of war crimes and violations of humanitarian law. Despite this, the Israeli government has vowed to continue its attacks.
