Israel releases Palestinian teacher detained, blindfolded and humiliated over TikTok video

A Palestinian teacher has been released from Israeli custody after being arrested and humiliated for sharing a TikTok video of on 7 October.

Entisar Hijazi, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, shared a TikTok memory from last year with the caption "On This Day 7/10/2023". The video shows Hijazi spinning in a dress while a song called "Good Times" was played.

She was accused of celebrating the 7 October attacks and was arrested for "incitement of violence & supporting terrorism".

The police said the officer decided to release Hijazi "under restrictive conditions", and the investigation was still ongoing.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted a photo of the teacher blindfolded in the back of a police car, saying he had forwarded the video to a law enforcement officers and there would be "zero tolerance for incitement and supporters of terrorism".

A harrowing photo showed the bound and blindfolded Hijazi forced to stand in front of an Israeli flag, which was widely circulated on social media, drawing backlash. Many said that her TikTok video was unrelated to the 7 October attacks.

The video was uploaded at 7:30am on 7 October 2023, before news of the Hamas-led attacks began to circulate.

The TikTok video in question was part of a dance trend that two Israeli ministers also danced to, according to the journalist.

Mirachi noted that Hijazi also published a post mourning a friend who had been killed in the attack.

Israeli journalist Yossi Mirachi flagged the issue with the police saying the Hebrew subtitles were added to incite terrorism, however the caption was a part of a regular TikTok feature.

At the court hearing, the police said that Hijazi was arrested on suspicion of behaviour that could disturb the public peace, according to Haaretz. The judge extended her detention by three days.