Translator: Suspended Palestinian student did not say ‘this is me’

It may have sounded like ‘this is me’, but the recently suspended Palestinian student was not speaking English in his video; he was speaking Arabic, says a translator. She accuses journalists and Maastricht University’s executive board of bias.

The Palestinian student came to Maastricht from Gaza, but has been suspended following the controversy surrounding a video on Instagram. It shows him watching a broadcast on Al Jazeera. He mentions 7 October and then says something.

‘Get me out of here’

But what does he say? According to pro-Israel organisation CIDI, he says ‘this is me’, and that is how it has been reported in virtually all the media. In newspaper NRC, translator Rahma Bavelaar now writes that she hears something else: ‘tasheshny‘.

It is a verb in the imperative, with -ny attached to it: me. According to the translator, it means ‘get me out of here’. Earlier, the student posted a photo of destroyed homes in Gaza with the same word and the addition in English: ‘From Gaza to Europe’, she says.

It remains unclear what the student meant in the video, but it points in a different direction from what CIDI suggests. The student himself is said to have told the university that it was a misunderstanding.

‘Unsafe once again’

Meanwhile, radical-right parties have already posed questions to the cabinet about the student, and the video led to a suspension. Bavelaar says: “A student who fled a genocide has once again been made unsafe and turned into a victim as a result.”

She wonders why no one looked into it properly before spreading the news, apart from local broadcaster L1. Her conclusion is that distrust of Palestinian men is widespread and that people only want to show empathy for morally ‘spotless’ victims.

The Public Prosecution Service saw no reason to open a criminal investigation into the student and also found no evidence that he was involved in the 7 October attack.