Saad Nader Kamel al-Khawaja, a Palestinian social media activist in her thirties and a mother of four, was arrested by IDF soldiers at her home in Ni’lin overnight between Sunday and Monday this week on allegations of incitement. Among other things, several days earlier she uploaded an antisemitic post calling for the massacre of Jews in the style of October 7 and the massacre carried out against Jews by Muhammad’s followers in the seventh century. She was released from administrative detention less than two months ago over the publication of inciting content, but has already returned to her previous conduct.
Who Is Saad al-Khawaja and What Is Her Connection to Jerusalem?
Al-Khawaja is a resident of Ni’lin, a Palestinian village located about two kilometers north of Modi’in. She previously studied communications and public relations at Birzeit University and Al-Quds University, which is located in Abu Dis on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem. She defines herself as a “journalist,” but most of her publications are posts uploaded to social media, mainly through her Facebook account.
Al-Khawaja writes and publishes opinion columns and posts analyzing the political and social situation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Her writing is characterized by a forceful and often polemical line that criticizes both the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
In November 2025, she was arrested by the Palestinian Authority security services following publications critical of the PA and was held for several weeks despite decisions by a Palestinian court ordering her release. In March this year, she was arrested by Israeli security forces and held under an administrative detention order for two months. She was released only at the beginning of May 2026.
Since her latest release, al-Khawaja has returned to posting inciting content online almost every day. She consistently calls for Palestinians in Gaza suspected of collaborating with Israel to be killed and describes them as the “mouthpieces” of the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Colonel Avichay Adraee. This constitutes a public and explicit call to kill those individuals and direct incitement to murder and serious violence. In one post, she writes: “The Gaza militias, Avichay’s mouthpieces, are conducting an incitement campaign against me, all because I said that every spy should be killed.”
In another publication, al-Khawaja portrays nonviolent or diplomatic struggle as hopeless, alongside a promise of an “explosion of rage,” a statement that encourages, prepares the ground for and legitimizes violent acts or attacks as the only alternative form of struggle.
The peak came several days ago, when she uploaded the statement “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews… October 7 will return” to her Facebook account. The call refers to the Battle of Khaybar in the seventh century, when Muslim forces led by Muhammad attacked and massacred Jewish communities living in the Khaybar oasis on the Arabian Peninsula. It also clearly alludes to the horrific massacre carried out by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.
