A strange post made the rounds on Saudi Arabian social media in recent weeks. It claimed that the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvah,” included a line lauding Jews for coming to the Land of Israel to intimidate the Canaanites, Babylonians, and Egyptians and chop their heads off.
“Many people turned to me as a Hebrew expert to ask whether the translation was right or wrong,” said Dr. Mohammad Alghbban, a professor at King Saud University in the capital, Riyadh, and one of the kingdom's few Hebrew speakers. “The translation was completely corrupt and untrue.”
The Saudi professor took the opportunity not only to debunk the myth, but also to provide an accurate translation of the anthem and mention its author, Naftali Herz Imber, and the background of its publication in 1886.
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