Maastricht University suspends Palestinian student over 7 October video

Maastricht University has suspended a Palestinian student over an Instagram video in which he says something about himself and the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

The video was filmed in a communal area of a student house. On a television, Palestinian militants can be seen in a broadcast by Al Jazeera. The student points at them and says: “7 October. This is me.” He posted the video on Instagram.

Did he mean to say that he himself could be seen there – and, if so, was that actually the case? Or did he mean: these are men like me? Or something else? That is unclear.

Suspended

The video has prompted many reactions, and Maastricht University has now suspended the student. The university says this was done out of ‘concern for the safety of the student himself, fellow students and staff’. It is not officially a disciplinary measure.

More than 40 Palestinians came to the Netherlands this summer to study or carry out research, although it was not easy to collect their visas. The university told the student newspaper Observant that this student is also part of that group.

The video has been removed from his Instagram account, but the pro-Israel documentation centre CIDI has posted it on X, obscuring the student’s identity. CIDI questions what the security screening was like before the Palestinian students were granted study visas.

Protests

Almost 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were abducted in the Hamas attack. This prompted Israel to invade Gaza with all its might. According to researchers at NIOD, this amounts to genocidal violence.

In recent years, activists have occupied buildings at various universities and universities of applied sciences, demanding that their institutions sever ties with Israeli research institutions. The KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) wants Israel to be excluded from the European Horizon research programme.