Maisa Abd Elhadi

Maisa Abd Elhadi (Arabic: ميساء عبد الهادي; born 15 November 1985) is a Palestinian-Israeli actress known for her roles in award-winning and critically acclaimed films including 3000 Nights (2015), Tel Aviv on Fire (2018), The Reports on Sarah and Saleem (2018) and Gaza Mon Amour (2020).^[1][2][3]

Maisa Abd Elhadi
ميساء عبد الهادي
Abd Elhadi in 2016
Born	(1985-11-15) 15 November 1985 (age 40) Nazareth, Israel
Education	Academy of Performing Arts, Tel Aviv
Occupation	Actress

Abd Elhadi has won multiple awards, including the Best Actress Awards at the Dubai Film Festival in 2011 and Durban International Film Festival in 2018.^[4][5] She was arrested or interrogated by Israeli police over social media posts between October 7, 2023, and March 27, 2024 supporting Palestinians in Gaza.^[6]

Biography

Maisa Abd Elhadi was born in Nazareth, Israel on 15 November 1985 to Palestinian Muslim parents.^[7]

At the age of twenty, she joined a group of amateur actors and began performing with them in Nazareth. At the same time, she completed a B.A. in hydrotherapy at the Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports. While working as a waitress, she met director Elia Suleiman, who offered her her first role. Following this meeting, she began auditioning and studying at the Academy of Performing Arts in Tel Aviv where she graduated with honors.^[7]

Career

Abd Elhadi's first credited film role was in Elia Suleiman's 2009 award-winning film The Time That Remains.^[8]

In the following years she appeared in films like Sameh Zoabi's "Man Without a Cell Phone" (2010) and Susan Youssef's "Habibi Rasak Kharban" (Darling, Something's Wrong with Your Head, 2011) and TV shows including Downtown Precinct (2011) and Sirens (2014).

In 2015 she appeared in Hany Abu-Assad's The Idol, which was partially filmed in Gaza, the first feature film to be shot there in decades.^[9] In the same year she appeared Mai Masri's critically acclaimed 3000 Nights, taking on the lead role of Layal, one of a group of Palestinian women prisoners from the Occupied West Bank held captive by Israel on false charges. The film centers on her pregnancy and giving birth to a son while imprisoned.^[10][11][2]

Making her debut on the London stage in 2016, Abd Elhadi acted in the play "Scenes From 68", appearing via Skype. Written by playwright Hannah Khalil, the play was performed in the Arcola Theatre and also featured veteran West End actor Peter Polycarpou.^[12]

In 2018 Abd Elhadi appeared in the award-winning and critically acclaimed films The Reports on Sarah and Saleem and Tel Aviv on Fire, the latter seeing her work again with director Sameh Zoabi.^{[5][13][14][15]}

In 2020 she had a lead role in the Channel 4 miniseries Baghdad Central, directed by Alice Troughton.^[16] She plays the character of Zahra, an Iraqi translator who starts working with American occupation forces shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq because she needs the money. However after seeing how the Americans behave, she soon realizes she has made a grave mistake, and joins the Iraqi resistance, using her access to the Americans and the Green Zone to their advantage.^[17]

Also in 2020 Abd Elhadi appeared in the romantic drama film Gaza Mon Amour, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and received critical praise and several awards.^[3][18]

Abd Elhadi again worked with director Hany Abu-Assad in 2021, appearing in the lead role in the film Huda's Salon.^[19] A political thriller set in the Israeli occupied West Bank, it follows the story of young mother Reem, portrayed by Abd Elhadi, who falls victim to a collaborator of the Israelis who drugs women in hair-salons and undresses and photographs them to blackmail them for information to pass along to the Israelis.^[19] The story is based on real events.^[20]

Awards

In 2011 Abd Elhadi won the Best Actress Award at the Dubai International Film Festival for her role in 2011's Habibi Rasak Kharban.^[21]

Abd Elhadi won the Best Actress Awards at the 2016 Annaba Mediterranean Film Festival and the Dhaka International Film Festival for her role in 3000 Nights.^[22][23]

In 2018 she won the Best Actress award at the Durban International Film Festival for her role in The Reports on Sarah and Saleem.^[5]

Activism and arrestation

Abd Elhadi was shot and injured in the leg by Israeli forces, while taking part in a civil protest in the city of Haifa, Israel, on 9 May 2021, protesting against forced expulsions of Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.^[24]

In a 2020 interview asking her what being part of the show Baghdad Central and portraying the character of Zahra means to her, Abd Elhadi said:

It’s very important for me – artists have a responsibility to tell the truth and fight propaganda. I’m Palestinian but I still have a responsibility to every nation who has gone through occupation. It’s important to tell the story from the Iraqi point of view, to see them as human beings. I have to be honest to my character, the script and to Iraq.^[17]

On 12 October 2023, Abd Elhadi was arrested in Nazareth on charges of "inciting terrorism and expressing solidarity with a terrorist organization."^[25] At the police station, she was repeatedly strip-searched and physically and verbally assaulted, including being dragged by her hair. Israeli police also photographed her handcuffed under an Israeli flag, an act criticized as deliberately humiliating by human rights organizations. Israeli media outlets also published her private details, including her home address, along with a nudity scene from her film Huda's Salon. Abd Elhadi described this as part of a coordinated smear campaign aimed at undermining her support among Palestinians. Additionally, Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel sought to revoke her Israeli citizenship and deport her.^[26][27]

On 29 October of the same year, Nazareth District Court Judge Arafat Taha placed her under house arrest. While acknowledging that her posts were "harsh" and could provoke anger, the judge expressed uncertainty about whether she had committed any illegal acts by sharing them.^[28]

After spending a year under house arrest, Abd Elhadi was released by a ruling from the Nazareth Magistrate Court, but she was still banned from social media use, with the exception of WhatsApp.^[25] She expressed continued fear for her life and safety a month after her release.^[27]

According to the Adalah Center (Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel), Abdulhadi is one of 127 Palestinian women who were arrested or interrogated by Israeli police over social media posts between October 7, 2023, and March 27, 2024. Their testimonies reveal a systematic use of degrading practices against individual Palestinian citizens as a means of collective deterrence. These practices include repeated strip searches, being photographed in humiliating positions in front of the Israeli flag, the publication of arrest photos, and the exposure of private information such as phone numbers and residential addresses.^[6][29]

Selected filmography

• The Time That Remains (2009)
• Eyes of a Thief (2014)
• 3000 Nights (2015)
• The Idol (2015)
• In Between (2016)
• The Worthy (2016)
• The Angel (2018)
• The Reports on Sarah and Saleem (2018)
• Tel Aviv on Fire (2018)
• Baghdad Central (2020)
• Gaza Mon Amour (2020)
• Huda's Salon (2021)