Arab-Israeli actor arrested over Gaza post

Nazareth (AFP): A leading Arab Israeli actor, Maisa Abdel Hadi, has been detained on suspicion of ‘incitement to terrorism’ over a social media post about Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, police and her lawyer said Tuesday.

Maisa Abdel Hadi – who lives in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth – was arrested on Monday and placed in custody until Thursday, police said.

She is one of a growing number of Arab Israelis to be detained over social media posts discussing the devastating war.

Hadi allegedly posted a picture of a bulldozer breaching the fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel during the October 7 attack by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which Israel says killed more than 1,400 people.

The Hamas government in Gaza says more than 5,000 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes on the coastal territory.

“Let’s go Berlin-style,” she wrote in a caption in reference to the fall of the Berlin Wall that partitioned Germany until 1989.

“She is accused of supporting terrorism,” her attorney Jaafar Farah, who is also the director of the human rights association Mousawat, told AFP.

The 37-year-old actress has played in several series, films, and plays.

Arab Israeli singer Dalal Abu Amneh was also briefly detained this week over one of her social media posts.

According to rights campaigners and Israeli police, members of Israel’s Arab minority and Palestinians in east Jerusalem have been fired, expelled from colleges and arrested over comments expressing solidarity with Gaza residents since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli Arabs comprise a fifth of Israel’s population.