Maastricht University in the Netherlands has suspended a Palestinian student who posted a video claiming involvement in the October 7 attacks, the university's Observant Online outlet reported on Sunday.
In the video, which went viral on social media last week, the student watches Al Jazeera airing footage from the massacre, before pointing at the screen, giving a thumbs-up and shouting: "7 October. This is me."
Maastricht University decided to ban the student from entering university buildings, as well as bar him from attending classes or sitting for exams, Observant Online reported.
A university spokesperson told the outlet it acted out of "concern for the safety of the student himself, fellow students and staff" and said the measure should not be construed as punishing the student.
The university is not investigating the post or the student's claim, but will talk with him, spokesman Koen Augustijn said.
The student is one of more than 40 Palestinians from Gaza who were invited by the Dutch government to come to the Netherlands this summer to study or work.
Der Telegraaf also reported that he had posted to his 30,000 Instagram followers about “the martyrdom of my third brother Ahmed in Jabalia,” saying: “I ask Allah to seal my life with the same end as yours, brother.”
Dutch lawmaker Diederik Boomsma of the right-wing JA21 party on Sunday called for the student to be deported and handed over to Israel to stand trial.
“This kid claims involvement in October 7. Was he even screened?” Boomsma wrote on X.
Boomsma, his party's spokesman on asylum and migration, said some schools had even applied for asylum on their behalf, calling it “next-level malicious stupidity,” and urged the government to stop issuing provisional residence visas.
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