Israeli police arrest Palestinian woman over Gaza Tent Massacre social media post

A Palestinian citizen of Israel has been detained in the Israeli town of Majd Al Krum for showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s continuing assault on the devastated territory. 

Beauty salon owner Rasha Harami was seen being taken into custody by Israeli police in video footage posted online on Wednesday. 

Harami had shared a post expressing her sadness over the killings of Palestinian civilians in a Rafah displacement camp by an Israeli air strike on Sunday.  

She also called for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and compared the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza to the Holocaust. 

In the video shared on Wednesday, the mother of two was shown being handcuffed and zip-tied and taken into custody for questioning. 

According to various news outlets, the 40-year-old salon owner was later released. The video has prompted widespread backlash, with activists and journalists calling for Harami’s rights to be upheld. 

This is Rasha. A Palestinian citizen of Israel. She’s a beauty shop owner in very north of Israel who couldn’t be further from Gaza in Majd al-Krum.

Her crime? A social media post expressing sadness and solidarity with Palestinians in Rafah after the tent massacre.

Via… pic.twitter.com/2D0U08bm95

— Rafael Shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) May 29, 2024

Alon Lee, co-director of human rights organisation Standing Together, denounced the beautician’s arrest over her social media post. 

"This is the current state of our country- arresting civilians simply because they emphasise the pain of the Palestinians and expressing sympathy and suffering of their own people- the Palestinians," he said in a video post on Wednesday. 

"The war is devastating for our society and is destroying Israelis as well. If anyone thinks that that this is the kind of society we want to become, then they are wrong." 

He continued: "Our children will grow up in a fascist society without freedom of speech and the ability to express themselves. This is dangerous for all of us."

Rights groups have warned that Palestinian citizens of Israel have faced continuous repression.

According to legal centre and human rights organisation Adalah, hundreds of Palestinians - as well as some Jewish Israelis -  have been persecuted by Israeli authorities and law enforcement over social media use. 

Adalah reported that the "severe" crackdown on freedom of speech against Palestinian minorities increased significantly after October 7. 

"The crackdown is the result of a widespread and coordinated effort among government offices, official Israeli institutions, and extremist right-wing groups, and has targeted Palestinian citizens and others who voice dissent against Israel’s actions in Gaza or express any support for the Palestinian people in Gaza," the report wrote. 

"The assault on the free speech rights of Palestinian citizens is not a new phenomenon; since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Palestinians have been subjected to political persecution and campaigns of delegitimization, rooted in the state's view of all Palestinians as enemies."

Since the current war on Gaza, thousands of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship have increasingly encountered job terminations, expulsion from universities, arrests and other forms of surveillance and harassment by Israeli authorities.