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a special photography project
Portraits of fascism
Since Oct. 7, Israeli police have arrested hundreds for opposing the Gaza war and published degrading photos of several detainees. Seven agreed to be photographed again — this time on their own terms.
Since October 2023, hundreds of Israeli citizens — the vast majority Palestinian — and at least 17 foreign activists have been arrested as part of a campaign to silence those speaking out against Israel’s war on Gaza. In certain cases, police photographed the detainees in front of an Israeli flag and distributed the images either through official police channels, or via National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and other unofficial channels. Many of the photos were posted on social media platforms and led to incitement and threats against the individuals pictured.
In distributing such images among themselves and with the general public, the police completely circumvented the proper legal procedures regarding the rights of detainees and suspects. Moreover, in many cases, the police did not obtain — or even request — authorization from the State Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the detainees for “incitement,” so instead, they detained them under the pretext of “behavior that could disturb the public peace.”
The goal of publicly sharing these photos was clear: to humiliate the detainees and to deter others from voicing any opposition to the Israeli offensive on Gaza. Indeed, in the early months of the war, many remained silent; even today, many choose not to speak out publicly for fear of the consequences.
I printed and framed the images that had been circulated by the police or by Ben Gvir, and then returned to the people depicted in them. In this way, the very images meant to degrade and create a chilling effect became symbols of defiance: the individuals were photographed anew, this time on their own terms. They also recounted to me their experiences of being arrested, as well as their reflections on the public dissemination of their images.
Many of those photographed only found out that their image had been circulated publicly after they were released from Israeli custody. They describe an ongoing struggle with the aftermath of the public shaming and of being branded “enemies of the state” by the police. None of those documented in the project were prosecuted; most of the cases were eventually closed without an indictment.

Intisar Hijazi
School therapist from Tamra
Hijazi was arrested on Oct. 7, 2024, after she re-shared a video of herself dancing that she had originally uploaded to TikTok a year earlier. Ben Gvir sent the video to the police before her arrest; a photo of her in a police vehicle was then published by the police spokesperson’s office. At the Nazareth police station, officers photographed her blindfolded in front of an Israeli flag, which Ben Gvir then shared on his social media.​
Hijazi recounted the ordeal: “On TikTok, you can...

Rasha Karim Harami
Owner of a beauty salon from Majd Al-Krum
Karim was arrested in May 2024 over posts expressing outrage after Israeli forces bombed a tent camp in Rafah. “What’s the difference between what Netanyahu is doing and what Hitler did? Bodies of children, young women and the elderly were burned,” she wrote in an Instagram story.
A video of her arrest — in which a policewoman handcuffs Karim...

Sari Hurriyah
Real estate lawyer from Shefa-‘Amr
Hurriyah was arrested in November 2023 for posts he published on Facebook in the days after on October 7. Police filmed his arrest at his law office and distributed the footage to various media outlets, and Ben Gvir also published the footage. He was held in Megiddo prison in northern Israel for ten days under harsh conditions, during which he was tortured and humiliated. The case against Hurriyah was eventually closed.
“I was in my office when three men entered, dressed in civilian clothes,”

Dr. Meir Baruchin
Philosophy and civics teacher from Jerusalem
Baruchin was arrested in November 2023 after he published two short posts on social media, condemning Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. The arrest followed a complaint by the Petah Tikva municipality, where Baruchin teaches at a high school, and he was held for four days as a security detainee in the solitary confinement wing of Jerusalem’s “Russian Compound.”
Upon being released, he fought a lengthy legal battle with...

Alison Russell
Belgian-British activist and English teacher from Scotland
Russell was arrested in November 2023 while documenting the demolition of a home in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. She had arrived in the West Bank before October 7 to provide protective presence to rural Palestinian communities at risk of settler violence.
After her arrest, she was interrogated by...

M. and L.
Student activists from Germany
M. and L. were arrested in October 2024 in At-Tuwani, in the Southern West Bank, while accompanying the Huraini family on their private land. Out of concern for their safety and fear of potential legal repercussions in Germany, the two activists requested to remain anonymous. After their arrest, they were interrogated by the same unit which dealt with Alison Russell. They spent several days in detention, were then forced to cross the border into Jordan.
Before being deported, police officers took their photo, which Ben Gvir...
We contacted the Israel Police and Ben Gvir’s office for comment. Responses will be published if and when received.
Baker Zoabi contributed to this project.
A version of this article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.